Salary to Hourly Calculator
Convert your annual salary into an equivalent hourly wage by accounting for your actual hours worked and paid vacation days. Useful when comparing a salaried offer to an hourly job or freelance rate.
About this calculator
Converting a salary to an hourly rate requires knowing how many hours you actually work per year, which is fewer than the calendar maximum once vacation is accounted for. The formula is: Hourly Rate = annualSalary / ((weeksPerYear × hoursPerWeek) − (vacationDays / 5 × hoursPerWeek)). First, the vacation adjustment converts days off into weeks (vacationDays / 5) then into hours (× hoursPerWeek), and subtracts them from your total working hours. A standard full-time schedule uses 52 weeks and 40 hours per week, giving 2,080 gross hours. With 10 vacation days, working hours drop to 2,000, raising the effective hourly rate. This matters when comparing job offers: a $70,000 salary with generous PTO may be worth more per hour than an $80,000 salary at a firm with no paid leave.
How to use
Say your annual salary is $60,000, you work 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year, and have 10 vacation days. Step 1: Vacation hours = (10 / 5) × 40 = 80 hours. Step 2: Total working hours = (52 × 40) − 80 = 2,080 − 80 = 2,000 hours. Step 3: Hourly rate = $60,000 / 2,000 = $30.00/hr. Without accounting for vacation, the rate would appear to be $28.85/hr — a meaningful difference when benchmarking against hourly or freelance rates.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert a salary to an hourly rate for freelance pricing?
Start by determining your actual working hours per year using your target schedule minus time off. Divide your desired annual income by those hours to get a baseline rate. Freelancers should then add a markup of 20–40% to cover self-employment taxes (15.3% FICA), unpaid administrative time, and lack of employer benefits like health insurance. For example, a $60,000 equivalent salary might require a freelance rate of $40–$45/hr to truly match the total compensation of a salaried role.
What is a standard number of working hours in a year for a full-time employee?
The most commonly cited figure is 2,080 hours, derived from 52 weeks × 40 hours per week. However, the actual number of productive working hours is lower once you subtract paid holidays (typically 6–11 days in the US) and paid vacation (10–15 days for entry-level employees). This calculator lets you input your specific vacation days to get a personalized figure. Adjusting for real working hours gives a more honest picture of your effective hourly compensation.
Why does my effective hourly rate matter when comparing job offers?
Two jobs with different salaries, hours, and vacation policies can look very similar on paper but differ significantly in effective hourly pay. A $75,000 job requiring 50 hours per week yields roughly $28.85/hr, while a $65,000 job at 40 hours per week yields $31.25/hr — making the lower-salary role actually better compensated on an hourly basis. Benefits like PTO, remote work, and bonuses compound the difference further. Converting everything to an hourly rate creates a common unit for apples-to-apples comparison.