Salary to hourly calculator.

How to convert a salary to an hourly rate

Comparing a salaried job offer to freelance or contract work, or just curious what your yearly pay works out to per hour? The conversion is simple once you fix two assumptions — how many hours you work per week and how many weeks per year:

Hourly = annual salary ÷ (hours per week × weeks per year).

The standard full-time assumption is 40 hours × 52 weeks = 2,080 hours a year. A $60,000 salary divided by 2,080 is about $28.85 an hour. From there the other periods fall out: weekly is the annual ÷ 52, monthly is the annual ÷ 12, and daily is the weekly ÷ 5 working days.

Going the other way: hourly to salary

To turn an hourly rate into an annual figure, multiply back up:

Annual salary = hourly rate × hours per week × weeks per year.

At $30/hour, 40 hours, 52 weeks, that's $62,400 a year. The reverse calculator above does this instantly — useful for sizing up a contract rate against a salaried role, or for telling a recruiter the salary that matches your hourly expectation.

The assumptions that change the answer

• Hours per week. 40 is the default, but if you regularly work 45 or 50, your effective hourly rate is lower than the headline conversion — you're doing more hours for the same salary. Enter your real hours to see it.
• Weeks per year. A salaried employee is usually paid for all 52 weeks including paid holiday. A contractor who takes unpaid time off should drop this number — four unpaid weeks means 48, which raises the hourly rate needed to match the same annual total.
• Paid vs unpaid leave. This is the hidden value of a salary: paid time off, sick days and holidays are baked into those 52 weeks. A contractor charging the "equivalent" hourly rate is actually worse off, because they only earn when they work.

Salary vs contract: compare like with like

The headline hourly conversion understates the true cost of replacing a salaried job with contract work, because a salary quietly includes benefits a contractor must self-fund: paid leave, employer pension/social contributions, health cover in some countries, and job security. A common rule of thumb is that a contractor should charge 1.3–1.5× the naïve hourly conversion of a salary to come out even. If you're pricing freelance or contract work, start here, then use the freelance rate calculator, which factors in expenses, tax and unbillable time.

Gross, not net

Every figure here is gross — before income tax, social contributions and other deductions. Your actual take-home is lower, and by how much depends entirely on your country, region and personal situation. To estimate what lands in your account, run the annual figure through the gross-to-net calculator.

Common mistakes

Using 2,080 hours when you actually work 50-hour weeks flatters your hourly rate. Forgetting that a salary includes paid leave makes contract rates look higher than they are. And comparing a gross salary to a net hourly take-home (or vice versa) mixes two different numbers — always compare gross to gross, or net to net.

FAQ

How do you convert salary to hourly?

Hourly = annual ÷ (hours per week × weeks per year). $60,000 ÷ 2,080 ≈ $28.85/hour.

How many work hours are in a year?

The standard is 2,080 (40 × 52). Lower the hours or weeks for part-time or unpaid leave.

How do you convert hourly to annual?

Annual = hourly × hours per week × weeks per year. $30 × 40 × 52 = $62,400. Use the reverse mode above.

Is this gross or net?

Gross (before tax). For take-home, use the gross-to-net calculator.