Salary to hourly converter
Enter either an hourly wage or an annual salary and see every pay period at once — hourly, daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly and annual — with overtime and unpaid time off factored in.
How do you convert between salary and hourly pay?
Annual salary = hourly wage × hours per week × weeks per year. At full-time hours that's 2,080 hours a year, so $25/hour equals $52,000 and $60,000 equals $28.85/hour. This converter runs the math in both directions and adjusts for overtime at 1.5× and any unpaid weeks off, so the number you see reflects what you'd actually earn — not just the textbook case.
One wage, every paycheck.
| Period | Base pay | With overtime |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | $25.00 | $25.00 |
| Daily | $200.00 | $200.00 |
| Weekly | $1,000 | $1,000 |
| Biweekly | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Monthly | $4,333 | $4,333 |
| Annual | $52,000 | $52,000 |
Biweekly is two weeks of pay (26 checks a year at 52 working weeks). Monthly is the annual total divided by 12, which is why it doesn't exactly match two biweekly checks — two months a year contain three paydays.
The one formula behind every pay conversion.
Every salary-to-hourly conversion is the same multiplication read in different directions. A full-time year is 40 hours × 52 weeks = 2,080 hours, so an hourly rate becomes a salary by multiplying through, and a salary becomes an hourly rate by dividing by hours worked. The classic mental shortcut — double the hourly rate and add three zeros — assumes 2,000 hours, which is why it undershoots the exact figure by about 4%.
The textbook case breaks as soon as real schedules enter the picture. Overtime pays 1.5× for hours past 40, unpaid weeks remove entire weeks of income, and part-time or compressed schedules change the hours term. A nurse at $38/hour working three 12-hour shifts (36 hours) earns $71,136 over 52 weeks — while a contractor billing $50/hour who takes 6 unpaid weeks between projects grosses $92,000, not the $104,000 the naive math promises.
That gap is the whole point of converting carefully: when you compare a salaried offer against an hourly one, use the hours you will actually work and the weeks you will actually be paid, then compare effective hourly rates. It's the only apples-to-apples number.
- h
- Hourly wage — your base rate per hour before taxes
- H
- Hours per week — regular hours — 40 for standard full-time
- W
- Paid weeks per year — 52 minus any unpaid weeks off
- OT
- Overtime hours — weekly hours past 40, paid at 1.5× your rate
Six ways to actually use these numbers.
Memorize the 2,080 number.
Full-time = 2,080 hours/year. Salary ÷ 2,080 = hourly; hourly × 2,080 = salary. Every other conversion is a variation on this.
Compare offers in effective hourly.
A $70K salary at real 50-hour weeks is $26.92/hour — less than a $28/hour job at 40 hours. Always divide by the hours you'll actually work.
Price benefits into the rate.
Employer health insurance, 401(k) match, and paid time off are typically worth 20-30% of base pay. An hourly gig without them needs a much higher rate to break even.
Contractors: bill for unpaid weeks.
Six unpaid weeks a year (vacation, gaps, sick days) means 46 billable weeks. To match a $52K job, you need roughly $28/hour, not $25.
Overtime compounds fast.
Just 5 OT hours weekly at $25/hour adds $9,750/year — a 19% raise. Model it before turning down (or chasing) extra shifts.
Budget on take-home, not gross.
These figures are pre-tax. Take-home is typically 70-80% of gross in the US. Set your rent and savings targets from the net number.