Salary LeftSalary to Hourly Calculator: How to Convert Pay Either Way
By Hassan Kazmi · · 6 min read
To convert a salary to an hourly rate, divide it by 2,080, the hours in a standard 40-hour work year. A $60,000 salary works out to about $28.85 an hour. To go the other way, multiply an hourly rate by 2,080: $20 an hour comes to about $41,600 a year. Both are gross figures, before any tax comes out.
This guide covers both directions, a conversion table for common amounts, and the two things that trip people up: which hours figure to use, and the difference between gross and take-home pay.
Disclosure: we make Salary Left, the free expense tracker linked below, and the salary calculator this guide points to for the after-tax version of these numbers.
The formula, both ways
Salary to hourly: hourly rate = annual salary ÷ (hours per week × weeks per year)
Hourly to salary: annual salary = hourly rate × hours per week × weeks per year
For a standard full-time job, that's 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, 2,080 hours a year. Both formulas use the same three numbers, just rearranged, so once you know your weekly hours and weeks worked, converting either direction is the same calculation.
Salary to hourly: a conversion table
At 40 hours a week, 2,080 hours a year:
| Annual salary | Hourly rate |
|---|---|
| $40,000 | $19.23 |
| $50,000 | $24.04 |
| $60,000 | $28.85 |
| $75,000 | $36.06 |
| $100,000 | $48.08 |
| $150,000 | $72.12 |
Hourly to salary: a conversion table
Same assumption, 40 hours a week, 2,080 hours a year:
| Hourly rate | Annual salary |
|---|---|
| $15.00 | $31,200 |
| $18.00 | $37,440 |
| $20.00 | $41,600 |
| $25.00 | $52,000 |
| $30.00 | $62,400 |
| $50.00 | $104,000 |
Which "hours in a year" should you use?
This is where most of the confusion comes from. Two numbers are both common, and a calculator or employer rarely says which one it's using:
- 2,080 hours: 40 hours a week × 52 weeks. This treats paid vacation and holidays as part of the year, which is how most salaried jobs are actually structured, so it's the default this guide uses.
- 2,000 hours: 40 hours a week × 50 weeks, assuming two unpaid weeks off. Some contractor and freelance-rate calculators use this instead, since it reflects weeks you're actually being paid for.
The difference isn't small: at a $60,000 salary, it's $28.85 an hour at 2,080 hours versus $30.00 an hour at 2,000 hours, about 4% apart. If you're comparing your own number against a calculator or a job posting and the hourly figure looks slightly off, this is usually why.
If you work part-time or a non-standard week, replace 40 with your actual weekly hours. Someone working 30 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, is working 1,560 hours, not 2,080.
This is gross pay, not take-home pay
Every number above is before tax, the same way a salary offer or a job posting's hourly rate is quoted before tax. It tells you how your pay is expressed, not how much of it you keep.
For the after-tax version, our salary calculator runs the same federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare and state tax math as the rest of this site, and it already breaks the result down per hour alongside per year, month and paycheck. A $60,000 salary that's $28.85 an hour before tax comes to about $24.23 an hour after tax for a single filer in a state with no income tax, and less in a state with one.
Overtime isn't just hourly rate × extra hours
This conversion assumes every hour is paid the same. Real overtime usually isn't. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees are paid 1.5 times their regular rate for hours worked beyond 40 in a week, not their flat hourly rate. So someone converted to $28.85 an hour who works 45 hours in a week isn't earning 45 × $28.85; the last 5 hours are closer to $43.28 each. Salaried, exempt employees generally don't get overtime at all, regardless of hours worked. If overtime is a regular part of your pay, treat the conversions above as a starting point, not the final number.
Turning an hourly number into a budget
Once you know your gross annual number, our budget calculator can split it 50/30/20, and the salary calculator shows what actually lands in your bank account after tax, by the year, month or paycheck. From there, our guide on how to track expenses covers ways to keep your spending inside that number, whichever way your pay is quoted.
Sources and limits
- Overtime pay rate: the US Department of Labor's Fair Labor Standards Act overtime rules.
- Take-home pay figures: the same federal, payroll and state tax data used throughout this site, detailed in our salary calculator and self-employment tax guide.
This conversion is arithmetic, not tax or legal advice: it doesn't account for overtime rules beyond the basic 1.5x rate, unpaid leave, part-year work, or how your specific employer counts paid weeks. For your exact pay, check your offer letter, employment contract or pay stub.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate my annual salary into an hourly wage?
Divide your annual salary by the number of hours you work in a year. For a standard 40-hour week with paid time off, that's 2,080 hours, so a $60,000 salary works out to about $28.85 an hour. If you only count the weeks you're actually paid for, such as 50 weeks with two unpaid weeks off, divide by 2,000 instead.
How do you calculate hourly rate from annual salary?
The formula is annual salary ÷ (hours per week × weeks per year). The standard assumption is 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, 2,080 hours, but you can swap in your own weekly hours if you work part-time or a non-standard schedule, for example 30 hours a week for 1,560 hours a year.
How do you calculate yearly salary from hourly rate?
Multiply your hourly rate by the hours you work in a week, then by 52. At a standard 40-hour week that's hourly rate × 2,080. $20 an hour comes to about $41,600 a year before tax, and $25 an hour comes to $52,000.
How many hours are in a work year?
2,080, for a standard 40-hour week over 52 paid weeks a year, including any paid vacation. Some calculators use 2,000 hours instead, assuming 50 working weeks with two unpaid weeks off, which changes the hourly-rate math by about 4%. Check which one a calculator or employer is using before comparing numbers.
Is this my gross or net hourly rate?
Gross, before tax. This conversion only changes how your pay is expressed, from yearly to hourly or back, not how much tax comes out of it. For your actual take-home hourly rate after federal, state, Social Security and Medicare tax, use our salary calculator, which has an hourly result built in.
Does this account for overtime or part-time hours?
No. It assumes every hour is paid at the same rate. If you work part-time, use your real weekly hours instead of 40 in the formula above. If you work overtime, hours beyond 40 in a week are usually paid at 1.5 times your normal rate under federal law, which this simple conversion doesn't add in.