Salary to Hourly Calculator

A salary to hourly calculator turns an annual salary into an hourly rate, and the other way round, so you can compare job offers, set freelance rates or check a payslip. Our free tool converts between hourly, daily, weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly and annual pay in one go. You set the hours and days you work each week and the paid weeks in the year, and you can add paid holidays to see what you really earn for each hour you work. Pick any currency symbol you like. Everything is gross pay before tax, and the maths runs in your browser.

How to use the Salary to hourly

1. 1 Choose how you are paidPick the period your pay is quoted in: hourly, daily, weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly or annual.
2. 2 Enter the amount and currencyType your gross pay for that period and choose a currency symbol. The symbol is only for display; no exchange rates are used.
3. 3 Set your work scheduleEnter your hours per week, days per week and paid weeks per year, or tap a preset such as 40 hours or 37.5 hours.
4. 4 Add paid days off (optional)Enter your paid holidays and public holidays to see your pay per hour actually worked, as well as your paid hourly rate.
5. 5 Read and copy the resultsSee your pay in every period side by side, then copy the full breakdown to paste into a spreadsheet, email or negotiation notes.

How to convert a salary to an hourly rate

The basic formula is simple: divide the annual salary by the number of paid hours in a year. Paid hours are your hours per week multiplied by the paid weeks per year. On a standard full-time schedule of 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, that is 2,080 hours, so a salary of 50,000 works out at about 24.04 an hour. On 37.5 hours a week it is 1,950 hours and about 25.64 an hour.

Going the other way, multiply the hourly rate by the paid hours. An hourly rate of 25 on a 40-hour week is 25 × 40 × 52 = 52,000 a year. A quick rule of thumb for a 40-hour week is to double the hourly rate and add three zeros: 25 an hour is roughly 50,000 a year, a little under the exact figure.

The calculator does this for every period at once, using your own schedule, so you can see how a change in hours affects your rate. Cutting from 40 to 35 hours on the same salary raises the hourly rate by about 14%, which is worth knowing when you compare a job with shorter hours.

Weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly and monthly pay

Pay periods are easy to mix up, and they do not divide the year in the same way. Weekly pay has 52 periods in a year, assuming 52 paid weeks. Bi-weekly pay, every two weeks, has 26. Semi-monthly pay, twice a month, usually on the 15th and the last day, has 24. Monthly pay has 12.

This is why a bi-weekly paycheque and a semi-monthly one are not the same size for the same salary. On 52,000 a year, bi-weekly pay is 2,000 per period while semi-monthly pay is about 2,166.67. Over a year the totals match, but on bi-weekly pay there are two months with three paydays. The table shows how many of each period make up your year, so you can check where a figure comes from.

• Hourly: annual pay divided by hours per week times paid weeks.
• Daily: annual pay divided by days per week times paid weeks.
• Weekly: annual pay divided by paid weeks per year.
• Bi-weekly: annual pay divided by half the paid weeks, usually 26.
• Semi-monthly: annual pay divided by 24.
• Monthly: annual pay divided by 12.

Paid holidays and your real hourly rate

A salaried employee is usually paid for 52 weeks a year, including paid holidays and public holidays, so the standard hourly figure spreads the salary over every paid hour, worked or not. That is the right number for comparing with an hourly job that also includes paid leave, and it is how most employers quote an equivalent hourly rate.

If you want to know what you earn for each hour you actually work, enter your paid days off. A full-time worker with 25 days of paid leave and 8 public holidays, for example, works about 227 days a year instead of 260. On a salary of 50,000 and 8-hour days, that is roughly 27.53 per hour worked, against 24.04 per paid hour. The calculator shows both figures so you can see the value of your paid time off.

If some of your time off is unpaid, for example a seasonal contract or an agreed unpaid break, reduce the paid weeks per year instead. An hourly worker who works 48 weeks and is not paid for the other four should enter 48, not 52, to get an accurate annual figure.

Comparing employment with freelance or contract rates

A common mistake when going freelance is to divide your old salary by 2,080 hours and charge that as your hourly rate. An employee's salary sits on top of things a freelancer has to pay for: paid holidays, sick pay, employer pension or retirement contributions, social security paid by the employer in many countries, equipment, software, insurance and the time spent on admin and finding work.

Freelancers rarely bill every working hour. If you can bill 25 hours in a 40-hour week and want to take six weeks off a year, you have about 1,150 billable hours, not 2,080. To match a 50,000 salary before any extra costs, you would need to charge about 43.50 an hour. Use this calculator to find the salary equivalent, then add your costs and divide by your realistic billable hours.

The same thinking works in reverse when an employer offers you a permanent role after contracting. A lower salary can be worth as much as a higher day rate once paid leave, benefits and steady work are taken into account.

Hours, weeks and days around the world

Standard working weeks vary by country, industry and contract. Many full-time jobs are 40 hours, while 35 to 39 hours is common in parts of Europe and the UK, and six-day weeks are normal in some countries and sectors. Part-time work can be anything from a few hours to 30 or more. Always use the hours in your own contract rather than a national average.

Paid leave also varies widely. Some countries guarantee four or more weeks of paid holiday by law plus public holidays, while others leave it to the employer. That is why the calculator asks for your own figures instead of assuming a national standard. The currency selector only changes the symbol shown next to each amount, so you can use the tool in any country without converting anything.

Gross pay, not take-home pay

Every figure here is gross pay, before income tax, social security or national insurance, pension contributions, health insurance or any other deductions. Your take-home pay will be lower, and how much lower depends on the country, your tax code or filing status, your benefits and your total income.

Gross figures are still the most useful starting point, because they are what job adverts, contracts and salary surveys quote. Two jobs in the same country with the same gross pay will usually give similar take-home pay, while benefits such as a company pension, health cover, a car allowance or a bonus can make a real difference to the overall package and are worth adding up separately.

Use the gross figures to compare offers on a like-for-like basis and to check that an advertised hourly rate matches a salary. To work out what you will actually receive each month, use a take-home pay calculator for your country or check with your employer's payroll team. If you are near a minimum wage threshold, compare your paid hourly rate with the legal minimum where you work, as the rules on what counts towards it vary.

Examples you can copy

50,000 a year, 40 h x 52 weeks = 2,080 h  ->  24.04 an hour
50,000 a year, 37.5 h x 52    = 1,950 h  ->  25.64 an hour
50,000 a year, 35 h x 52      = 1,820 h  ->  27.47 an hour
50,000 a year, 40 h, 33 days off          ->  27.53 per hour worked

Daily         200.00
Weekly        1,000.00
Bi-weekly     2,000.00
Semi-monthly  2,166.67
Monthly       4,333.33
Annual        52,000.00

Common mistakes to avoid

Frequently asked questions