How to Convert Your Hourly Wage to an Annual Salary
To turn an hourly wage into an annual salary, multiply it by your weekly hours and by 52; for a 40-hour week that's the hourly rate × 2,080. The adjustments that matter are unpaid time off and the difference between gross and take-home pay. The arithmetic is shown below; the salary to hourly calculator runs it in reverse, including unpaid days off.
The Basic Formula
Converting an hourly wage to an annual salary relies on one straightforward equation:
Annual Salary = Hourly Wage × Hours Worked per Week × 52
Hourly rate × weekly hours gives weekly earnings; × 52 weeks gives the year. Full-time usually means 40 hours, but use your actual hours (35, 30, 50) if they differ. For a single pay period, including overtime at time-and-a-half, the hourly paycheck calculator gives the gross amount.
This is a gross, every-week-paid estimate; taxes and unpaid time off move it, as shown below.
A Worked Example
Suppose you've been offered $28 per hour for a standard 40-hour week.
First, calculate weekly earnings: $28 × 40 = $1,120 per week.
Next, project across the year: $1,120 × 52 = $58,240 per year.
So an hourly wage of $28 translates to an annual salary of $58,240, assuming you work full-time every week of the year. You can verify this against a quick mental shortcut: for a standard 40-hour week, multiply your hourly rate by 2,080 (the total number of work hours in a year). $28 × 2,080 also equals $58,240.
That 2,080-hour figure (40 hours × 52 weeks) is worth memorizing: $20/hour is $41,600 a year and $50/hour is $104,000.
Gross vs. Net: Where Taxes Come In
The figure you just calculated—$58,240—is your gross salary, meaning your total earnings before any deductions. It's not the amount that lands in your bank account.
Your net salary, or take-home pay, is what remains after taxes and other withholdings. These typically include federal income tax, state and local taxes (where applicable), Social Security and Medicare contributions, and deductions for health insurance or retirement plans like a 401(k).
The exact amount depends on filing status, location, and benefit elections. As an example, a single filer earning $58,240 with the 2026 standard deduction ($16,100) has $42,140 of taxable income, owes about $4,810 in federal income tax, and pays $4,455 in Social Security and Medicare (7.65%). That leaves about $48,980, or 84% of gross, before state income tax and benefit deductions, which can take several percentage points more.
When you compare a salaried offer to your current hourly pay, always compare like with like. Both numbers should be gross unless you've deliberately calculated net for each. Mixing a gross figure with a net one is one of the easiest ways to misjudge an offer.
Accounting for Unpaid Time Off and Part-Time Work
The basic formula assumes you're paid for all 52 weeks. In practice, that's often not the case—especially for hourly workers.
If your job doesn't offer paid vacation or paid holidays, every week you take off is a week without income. Say you plan to take two weeks of unpaid leave per year. Your effective working weeks drop from 52 to 50, and your realistic annual earnings become $28 × 40 × 50 = $56,000, not $58,240. That $2,240 gap matters.
Part-time schedules change the math too. If you work 25 hours a week at $28/hour, your annual figure falls to $28 × 25 × 52 = $36,400. The hourly rate is identical, but the annual outcome is dramatically different because of the hours.
That's why hourly and salaried roles are tricky to compare: a salary usually includes paid time off, while an hourly role may not. Subtracting unpaid weeks gives a realistic annual figure.
Converting a Salary Back to an Hourly Rate
The conversion works in both directions. If a job posting lists only an annual salary and you want to know the equivalent hourly rate, you simply reverse the formula:
Hourly Wage = Annual Salary ÷ (Hours per Week × 52)
For a $58,240 salary at 40 hours per week: $58,240 ÷ 2,080 = $28 per hour.
The reverse calculation is especially useful for freelancers and contractors. If you've decided you need to earn $70,000 a year to match a salaried role—while also covering self-employment taxes, unpaid sick days, and gaps between clients—you can work out the hourly or project rate you must charge. The salary to hourly calculator does the division and also lets you subtract vacation days and holidays from the paid hours, which raises the true hourly figure. Freelancers should aim higher still: they pay both halves of Social Security and Medicare (self-employment tax), have no paid leave, and bill fewer than 2,080 hours, so a one-to-one conversion leaves them underpaid.
Why This Matters When Comparing Offers
Consider two offers: one at $30 per hour with no paid time off, and a salaried role at $60,000 a year with three weeks of paid vacation.
On the surface, the hourly job looks better: $30 × 2,080 = $62,400. But the salaried role pays you during those three vacation weeks, and the hourly job does not. Adjusting the hourly figure for three unpaid weeks gives $30 × 40 × 49 = $58,800, so the salaried offer comes out ahead before even counting benefits.
Convert every offer to the same annual, gross, time-off-adjusted basis before comparing. The tax figures above are a simplified federal example for one filing status; they are not tax advice, and your withholding will differ.