How to Convert Salary to Hourly (and Back)

Published October 11, 2026

Free tool: Salary to Hourly Calculator→

Job offers come in different forms: an annual salary, an hourly wage, a monthly figure. To compare them, or to see what a salary means per paycheck, you need to convert between them. The math is simple once you know how many hours and paychecks a year you're working with. This guide shows the formulas, the common shortcuts and the adjustments for time off and overtime, and you can check any number with the free Salary to Hourly Calculator.

Salary to hourly

Divide the annual salary by the hours you work in a year:

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

A full-time year is usually counted as 40 hours × 52 weeks = 2,080 hours. So a $60,000 salary works out to:

$60,000 ÷ 2,080 = $28.85 an hour

Here are some common salaries converted the same way:

Hourly to salary

Multiply instead:

Annual pay = hourly rate × hours per week × weeks per year

At $25 an hour, 40 hours a week for 52 weeks: $25 × 40 × 52 = $52,000 a year.

For a quick estimate in your head, use 2,000 hours instead of 2,080: multiply an hourly rate by 2,000 to get a rough annual figure ($25 an hour ≈ $50,000), or divide a salary by 2,000 to get a rough hourly rate ($60,000 ≈ $30 an hour). The round number also happens to equal 50 weeks of 40 hours, which makes a sensible allowance for unpaid time off.

Pay per paycheck

How much lands in each paycheck depends on how often you're paid. For a $60,000 salary:

Biweekly and semimonthly sound alike but aren't the same: with biweekly pay you get 26 smaller paychecks, so two months of the year have three paydays; with semimonthly pay you get 24 slightly larger ones, always on the same dates.

Adjusting for your real hours

The standard 2,080 hours assumes exactly 40 hours a week, every week. Adjust it when that isn't true:

• Longer weeks lower your real hourly rate. A $60,000 salary for 45 hours a week is $60,000 ÷ (45 × 52) = $25.64 an hour, not $28.85.
• Unpaid time off lowers hourly workers' annual pay. At $25 an hour, working 50 weeks instead of 52 gives $50,000 instead of $52,000.
• Paid time off raises the effective rate for salaried staff. If you get four weeks of paid vacation and holidays and work 48 weeks, $60,000 ÷ (40 × 48) = $31.25 for each hour actually worked. That's the fairer number when you compare a salaried job with contract or freelance work, where time off is unpaid. The Freelance Rate Calculator works out what a contractor needs to charge.

Adding overtime

In the US, employees who are eligible for overtime (non-exempt) must be paid at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek; many salaried (exempt) employees aren't eligible. For someone earning $25 an hour who works 5 hours of overtime a week:

• Overtime rate: $25 × 1.5 = $37.50 an hour
• Extra pay: $37.50 × 5 hours × 52 weeks = $9,750 a year
• Total: $52,000 + $9,750 = $61,750 a year

Averaged over all 45 hours a week, that's about $26.39 an hour.

How to use the Salary to Hourly Calculator

1. Open the Salary to Hourly Calculator.
2. Enter your pay in Pay Amount and choose how it's quoted in Paid: hourly, daily, weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, monthly or annual.
3. Enter your schedule: hours per week, days per week and the weeks you work per year. Lower the weeks for unpaid time off.
4. Add overtime, if any: the overtime hours per week and the rate (1.5× time and a half, 2× double time, or 1× with no premium).
5. Read the results: your hourly, weekly, monthly and yearly pay, plus a table of the gross pay for every pay period with the number of paychecks per year. A chart shows how your yearly pay grows with the hours you work, including the overtime premium.

All the figures are gross pay, before taxes and deductions, so your take-home pay will be lower.

Frequently asked questions

How many working hours are in a year?

A full-time year is usually counted as 2,080 hours: 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. After vacation and public holidays, most people actually work somewhere around 1,800 to 1,900 hours.

How much is $60,000 a year per hour?

About $28.85 an hour, assuming 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. If you work longer hours, the true hourly figure is lower.

How do I compare a salary with an hourly job?

Convert both to the same basis using your real hours and paid time off, and then compare benefits such as health insurance, retirement matching and paid leave, which can be worth thousands of dollars a year. When you get a raise, the Pay Raise Calculator shows what it means per paycheck.