Salary Calculator: How to Calculate Annual Salary from Hourly Wage (and Vice Versa)

Whether you are negotiating a job offer, comparing freelance rates to a salaried position, or just curious what your hourly rate works out to annually, knowing how to convert between hourly wages and annual salary is a fundamental personal finance skill. The math is simple, but the details — work hours per week, paid weeks per year, overtime — change the answer meaningfully.

Skip the manual math and use the salary calculator to convert either direction instantly.

Hourly to Annual: The Basic Formula

Annual salary = hourly rate × hours per week × weeks per year. The standard assumption is 40 hours per week and 52 weeks per year, giving the widely used multiplier of 2,080 hours. But most people do not work all 52 weeks — unpaid vacation, sick days, and holidays reduce the total.

Hourly Rate	40h × 52 weeks	40h × 50 weeks	40h × 48 weeks
$15	$31,200	$30,000	$28,800
$20	$41,600	$40,000	$38,400
$25	$52,000	$50,000	$48,000
$30	$62,400	$60,000	$57,600
$40	$83,200	$80,000	$76,800
$50	$104,000	$100,000	$96,000

Annual to Hourly: The Reverse Conversion

To go the other way, divide the annual salary by your actual working hours. A $60,000 salary at 2,080 hours is about $28.85/hour. At 1,900 hours (a job with more time off) it is about $31.58/hour — a meaningful difference when comparing two offers. The hourly wage calculator does this for you, including support for different work weeks.

Don’t Forget Overtime and Benefits

• Overtime — time-and-a-half (1.5x) beyond 40 hours adds up fast; an $18/hour job with 10 hours of weekly overtime pays like a $23/hour job
• Paid time off — salaried roles usually include PTO; hourly freelancers do not — factor in unpaid days
• Benefits — health insurance, 401(k) match, and bonuses can add 20–35% to total compensation; compare total packages, not just base pay
• Self-employment tax — freelancers pay both halves of payroll taxes, so a $35/hour freelance rate may net less than a $30/hour W-2 job

Freelancers: Use a Realistic Hours Figure

If you freelance, the 2,080-hour multiplier is misleading. You spend time on proposals, admin, and unpaid gaps between clients. A more honest estimate is 1,400–1,700 billable hours per year. To hit $80,000 net, you need roughly $47–$57 per billable hour — check your target rate with the salary calculator before quoting clients.

Job Offer Comparison Checklist

• Convert both offers to the same unit (annual, hourly, or monthly)
• Use the same hours-per-week and weeks-per-year assumptions for both
• Add the value of benefits to each side
• Account for commute time, which is unpaid work
• Re-run the numbers if hours or time off differ between offers

Whatever direction you are converting, the salary calculator gives you an accurate answer in seconds, and the hourly calculator handles the reverse — so you can compare any offer on equal terms.