Hourly to Salary Calculator
Convert your hourly wage to an annual salary, monthly income, biweekly pay, and daily earnings. Useful for comparing job offers and budgeting.
An hourly-to-salary calculator translates a wage quoted by the hour into what that same job actually pays across a year, month, biweekly pay period, and day. The core formula is simple: hourly rate multiplied by hours per week multiplied by weeks per year. For the classic American full-time assumption of 40 hours a week across all 52 weeks, the shortcut is hourly rate × 2,080. A $25/hr job becomes $52,000/yr; a $40/hr job becomes $83,200. That $2,080 constant is worth memorizing because it is the backbone of nearly every compensation comparison you will ever run.
The reason the conversion is not purely mechanical is that hourly and salaried jobs differ in subtle ways that do not show up in the headline number. Two weeks of paid vacation is effectively baked into a salaried offer — you keep earning while you are off — while an hourly worker with unpaid time off actually collects 50 weeks of wages, not 52, trimming gross earnings by roughly 3.8%. Overtime rules also diverge. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt hourly employees must receive 1.5x their regular rate for every hour worked beyond 40 in a single workweek, which can push a nominally $25/hr role well past a $52,000/yr salaried equivalent when overtime is plentiful.
Taxes and benefits complete the picture. A W-2 employee pays 7.65% in FICA (Social Security and Medicare), and the employer matches it; a self-employed contractor on a 1099 pays the full 15.3% self-employment tax themselves, which is why hourly contract rates typically need to be 15–25% higher than the equivalent W-2 rate just to break even. Employer-provided benefits — health insurance, 401(k) match, paid leave, disability — typically add another 25–35% on top of base pay in total compensation value. Use this free calculator for ballpark comparisons and budgeting; for tax, benefits, or contracting decisions, consult a licensed professional.
Quick answer: At $25/hour working 40 hours/week for 52 weeks, annual gross salary is $52,000 — about $4,333/month, $2,000 biweekly, or $200/day. This hourly-to-salary calculator converts any wage to annual, monthly, biweekly, and daily figures for quick offer comparisons.
Inputs
Quick presetsGross wage before tax and deductions.
US full-time baseline is 40; adjust for part-time or overtime schedules.
Use 52 if PTO is paid; subtract unpaid weeks off.
Results
How to use this calculator
Three inputs drive this calculator. **Hourly rate** is your gross wage before tax, tips, or deductions — enter the number printed on the offer letter or your pay stub. **Hours per week** defaults to 40 (the standard US full-time baseline used by the Bureau of Labor Statistics), but adjust it if your schedule is 32, 36, or 45+. **Weeks per year** defaults to 52 (the calendar year). If you are paid hourly and take unpaid time off, subtract those weeks — two unpaid weeks means enter 50. If your time off is paid, leave it at 52 because your paycheck keeps arriving.
The calculator returns four views of the same wage: annual salary, monthly salary (annual ÷ 12), biweekly pay (26 checks per year in the standard US payroll cycle), and daily pay (assumes a five-day workweek). Use these outputs to budget, compare competing offers on an apples-to-apples basis, or normalize a consulting rate against a full-time salary. If you are comparing a 1099 contract rate to a W-2 salary, gross up the 1099 number by roughly 15% to absorb self-employment tax and another 20–30% for the benefits a salaried job usually bundles in.
Worked examples
Maya, registered nurse comparing two offers
Maya is deciding between a hospital staff-nurse job at $48/hr, 36 hours a week, 52 weeks with three weeks paid PTO, and a travel-nurse contract at $62/hr, 40 hours a week, but only 46 weeks a year with no benefits. Plugging in $48 × 36 × 52 returns $89,856 for the staff role. The travel contract at $62 × 40 × 46 returns $114,080. The headline gap is $24,000 — but once she subtracts 15% for self-employment tax exposure and another $15,000 for health insurance she now has to buy on the ACA marketplace, the effective gap narrows to under $5,000, which is no longer a slam dunk given the unpaid weeks.
Derek, warehouse worker with overtime
Derek earns $22/hr on a non-exempt schedule and routinely picks up 10 hours of overtime a week. His base calculation is $22 × 40 × 52 = $45,760. His overtime adds 10 hours at $33/hr (1.5x under FLSA) across 50 working weeks, or $16,500 on top, bringing his real annual gross to about $62,260. When he later applies for a mortgage, the lender averages two years of W-2s to count the overtime as qualifying income, so modeling the base and overtime separately helps him see which number matters for which purpose.
Priya, freelance designer pricing a 1099 contract
Priya is leaving a $78,000/yr W-2 designer role and wants to know what hourly rate keeps her whole as a 1099 contractor. Her current package includes roughly $9,000 of health insurance, a 4% 401(k) match ($3,120), and three weeks PTO. To stay even she needs to replace $78,000 + $12,120 in benefits and also cover the employer half of FICA (7.65%), so target gross is about $97,000. Dividing by a realistic 1,800 billable hours (she loses ~280 hours to admin, sales, and unpaid weeks) gives roughly $54/hr as her floor. She quotes $65/hr to build in a margin and sets the calculator to $65 × 36 × 46 — her honest schedule — landing at $107,640 and confirming the move pencils out.
Frequently asked questions
What is the 2,080 rule?
2,080 is the product of 40 hours a week × 52 weeks, the canonical US full-time year. Multiplying any hourly rate by 2,080 gives a quick annual salary. $15/hr = $31,200; $30/hr = $62,400; $50/hr = $104,000. Most federal salary schedules, including GS pay tables, use 2,080 as the conversion divisor when going the other direction.
How does overtime pay factor in?
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees must be paid at least 1.5x their regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a single workweek. Some states go further — California requires 1.5x after 8 hours in a day and 2x after 12 hours. Salaried exempt employees (usually those earning above $43,888 in 2026 and performing exempt duties) do not receive overtime regardless of hours worked.
Should unpaid time off reduce weeks per year?
Yes. If you take two weeks off and are not paid during that time, you only worked 50 weeks, so the honest annual number uses 50. If the time off is paid — whether vacation, sick, or holiday pay — keep 52 because you are still earning. Mixing the two leads to either overstated or understated salary expectations.
How is biweekly pay calculated?
Biweekly means a paycheck every two weeks, or 26 checks per year. Divide annual salary by 26, or simply multiply hourly rate × hours × 2. Note that biweekly is not the same as semi-monthly — semi-monthly is twice a month for 24 checks, slightly larger per check but fewer of them.
What about FICA and income tax?
This calculator returns gross wages. W-2 employees owe 7.65% FICA (6.2% Social Security up to the annual wage base, 1.45% Medicare with no cap) plus federal income tax at marginal rates from 10% to 37%, plus state income tax where applicable. A rough rule of thumb for a middle-income worker is that take-home is 70–78% of gross.
1099 contractor vs. W-2 employee — how should I adjust?
1099 contractors pay the full 15.3% self-employment tax (both halves of FICA) on top of income tax and receive no employer-provided benefits. To match the economic value of a $60,000 W-2 job with typical benefits, a 1099 contractor generally needs roughly $78,000–$85,000 in gross billings, depending on how much they spend on their own health insurance and retirement contributions.
How do benefits change the real comparison?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks employer compensation costs and reports that benefits typically add 30–40% on top of wages for civilian workers. Health insurance alone is often worth $7,000–$25,000 a year depending on family size. A $50,000 salary with strong benefits can beat a $60,000 salary with none in total compensation.
Does this work for part-time, gig, or variable schedules?
Yes, but the assumption behind weeks per year becomes important. A seasonal worker who only works 30 weeks should enter 30. A gig worker with inconsistent hours should average their weekly hours over a representative stretch. For highly variable income, the calculator provides a midpoint estimate, not a floor or ceiling.