Salary Calculator
Convert annual salary to hourly, monthly, and weekly rates.
How to use Salary Calculator
Enter Your Annual Salary
Locate the 'Annual Salary' input field at the top of the calculator. Type your gross annual income in dollars (e.g., 75000). The field accepts whole numbers and decimals up to two places.
Set Your Work Hours Per Week
In the 'Hours Per Week' field, enter the number of hours you work weekly. Default is 40 hours. Adjust to match your actual schedule (e.g., 35 for part-time, 50 for overtime).
Select Working Days Per Year
Choose your annual working days using the dropdown menu (default: 260 days, accounting for weekends and 10 holidays). Adjust if you have different vacation days or custom schedules.
View Your Converted Rates
Click the 'Calculate' button. Results display instantly in four boxes: hourly rate, daily rate, weekly rate, and monthly rate. All calculations update automatically if you modify any input.
Copy or Share Results
Use the 'Copy All Results' button to copy formatted rates to your clipboard. Click 'Share' to generate a shareable link with your calculation parameters included.
Related Tools
Salary calculator: convert hourly to annual salary and back
Salary calculator: convert hourly to annual salary and back
Need to know what $28/hour looks like as an annual salary? Or what a $65,000 salary works out to per hour? Use ToolHQ's free salary calculator to convert between all pay periods instantly.
ToolHQ's salary calculator is a free browser-based tool that converts between hourly, daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, and annual salary figures based on the hours per week you work.
Whether you're comparing a job offer with a different pay structure, calculating a freelance rate, or just making sense of a salary number on paper, this tool handles every conversion in one step.
Key Takeaways
- Standard full-time hours (40/week, 52 weeks) produce an annual salary of approximately $2,080 per hour multiplied by your hourly rate
- A $50,000 annual salary works out to roughly $24.04/hour at 40 hours per week
- The calculator accounts for your actual hours per week, not just the standard 40
- Biweekly and semimonthly are not the same: biweekly is every two weeks (26 pay periods), semimonthly is twice a month (24 pay periods)
- No login required -- enter your pay and get conversions across all periods instantly
How salary conversion works
Salary conversion is a chain of simple math operations, but the number of pay periods in a year is where most people get confused.
The standard conversion reference points for a 40-hour week, 52-week year:
- Hours per year: 40 x 52 = 2,080
- Hourly to annual: hourly rate x 2,080
- Annual to hourly: annual salary / 2,080
- Annual to monthly: annual / 12
- Annual to biweekly: annual / 26
- Annual to weekly: annual / 52
- Annual to daily: annual / 260 (52 weeks x 5 days)
If you work more or fewer than 40 hours per week, all of these change. A part-time worker at 25 hours per week has 1,300 working hours per year (25 x 52), which produces a very different hourly-to-annual conversion than someone working full-time.
According to the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median weekly earnings for full-time workers in the US is tracked quarterly, providing a benchmark for comparing wages across industries and regions. The Wikipedia article on salary notes that compensation structures vary significantly by country -- in the US and UK, annual figures are standard for professional roles, while hourly rates are more common in trade and retail.
When you need a salary calculator
Salary comparisons come up constantly during job searches, contract negotiations, and performance reviews.
Mini-story: Leila is a 31-year-old project manager comparing two job offers. Company A offers $72,000 per year. Company B offers $36.50/hour but requires 45-hour weeks. She opened the salary calculator, entered $36.50/hour at 45 hours per week, and got an annual equivalent of $85,410. Company B paid $13,410 more per year despite having a lower-sounding hourly rate. She accepted Company B after also accounting for the extra five hours per week in her total compensation analysis.
Common situations where the salary calculator is useful:
- Evaluating a job offer stated in a different pay period than your current role
- Setting a freelance hourly rate based on an equivalent full-time salary
- Converting a contractor day rate to an annual equivalent for comparison
- Checking whether a salary offer meets your minimum acceptable hourly rate
- Explaining a salary to a family member in more familiar monthly terms
How to use the salary calculator
- Enter your pay amount -- this can be your hourly rate, weekly salary, monthly salary, or annual salary.
- Select the pay period that matches the amount you entered (hourly, weekly, biweekly, monthly, or annual).
- Enter your hours per week -- default is 40, but adjust if you work more or fewer hours.
- Read your conversions. The tool shows your equivalent pay across all other periods simultaneously.
Common salary calculation mistakes
Confusing biweekly and semimonthly: Biweekly means every two weeks (26 pay periods per year). Semimonthly means twice a month (24 pay periods per year). On the same annual salary, a biweekly paycheck is smaller than a semimonthly one because there are two more checks per year. This catches many new employees off guard on their first paycheck.
Ignoring unpaid time off: If you take two weeks of unpaid leave, your effective annual earnings from a standard hourly role are based on 50 weeks, not 52. The calculator assumes 52 working weeks by default -- adjust manually if unpaid leave is expected.
Not accounting for overtime rules: Under the US Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), non-exempt workers earn 1.5x their hourly rate for hours over 40 per week. If your role has regular overtime, your effective hourly rate is higher than the base rate. Enter your blended average hourly earnings for a more accurate picture.
Mini-story: David, a 38-year-old nurse, worked a base rate of $42/hour with frequent overtime at 1.5x rate. He entered his straight $42/hour into the salary calculator to check his annual base salary ($87,360). Then he separately calculated his weekly overtime pay to add on top. Knowing both numbers helped him negotiate his next contract with clear data rather than guessing.
Related tools: use the percentage calculator to figure out what a pay raise percentage means in dollar terms. If you're calculating loan payments based on a monthly salary, try the loan calculator. Find all financial and math tools at the ToolHQ calculator category.
How pay periods work and why they matter
The pay period structure affects your cash flow more than the annual salary number alone. Here is what the main differences mean in practice.
Bi-weekly vs semi-monthly. These sound similar but are not the same. Bi-weekly pay means you receive a paycheck every two weeks -- that is 26 paychecks per year (52 weeks / 2). Semi-monthly pay means twice per month -- that is 24 paychecks per year (12 months x 2). The difference matters because on a bi-weekly schedule, two months each year have three pay dates instead of two. Many people budget around these "three-paycheck months" by directing the extra check toward savings or debt repayment. On the same $60,000 annual salary:
- Bi-weekly check: $60,000 / 26 = $2,307.69 per check
- Semi-monthly check: $60,000 / 24 = $2,500.00 per check
The semi-monthly check is larger, but you receive two fewer checks per year. Over a full year, the total is the same.
Hourly to annual: the 2,080-hour baseline. For a standard 40-hour week over 52 weeks, the total working hours are 2,080. This is the denominator used in most salary-to-hourly conversions. A $50,000 annual salary works out to $50,000 / 2,080 = $24.04 per hour. If you work 45 hours per week, the denominator changes to 45 x 52 = 2,340 hours, making the hourly equivalent $50,000 / 2,340 = $21.37 per hour -- a meaningfully different number.
The gross-to-net gap. All salary conversion tools, including this one, show gross pay -- your earnings before deductions. The gap between gross and net (take-home) pay is often 20-35% in the US depending on your tax bracket, state taxes, 401(k) contributions, and health insurance premiums. A $70,000 gross annual salary might produce $51,000-56,000 in actual take-home pay. Plan your budget around net, not gross, figures.
Total compensation goes beyond base salary. When comparing two job offers, the base salary is only part of the picture. Employer-provided health insurance can be worth $5,000-$20,000 per year for a family plan. A 401(k) match of 4-6% of salary adds thousands more annually. Paid time off (PTO) has monetary value: two additional weeks of PTO is roughly 4% of annual salary. Remote work eliminates commute costs. Before concluding that an offer with a higher salary is better, add up the benefits on both sides -- sometimes the "lower" offer has better total compensation.
For contractors and freelancers: add 30-50% over an equivalent employee rate. Self-employed contractors pay both the employer and employee portions of Social Security and Medicare taxes (~15.3% self-employment tax), and they fund their own health insurance, retirement contributions, and unpaid time off. A freelancer charging $50/hour to match a $50/hour W-2 employee effectively earns much less after these costs. As a starting point, your hourly rate as a contractor should be 30-50% higher than your equivalent employee rate to break even on total compensation.
Worked example. An offer of $34/hour at 40 hours per week:
- Annual (gross): $34 x 2,080 = $70,720
- Monthly (gross): $70,720 / 12 = $5,893
- Bi-weekly (gross): $70,720 / 26 = $2,720
- Semi-monthly (gross): $70,720 / 24 = $2,947
Knowing these breakdowns lets you compare offers with different pay period structures on equal footing.
Frequently asked questions
How much is $20 per hour annually?
At 40 hours per week for 52 weeks, $20/hour equals $41,600 per year, $3,467 per month, $1,600 per biweekly period, or $800 per week.
What is the difference between gross and net salary?
The salary calculator shows gross salary -- your earnings before taxes and deductions. Net salary (take-home pay) varies by tax bracket, filing status, and benefits deductions.
How do I convert a salary to an hourly rate?
Divide the annual salary by 2,080 (the number of working hours in a standard 40-hour, 52-week year). A $60,000 annual salary equals $28.85/hour. The calculator handles this instantly for any hours-per-week value.
What if I work part-time at 20 hours per week?
Enter 20 in the hours-per-week field. The calculator adjusts all conversions accordingly. A $20/hour part-time rate at 20 hours per week equals $20,800 per year, not $41,600.
Does this calculate taxes?
No. The salary calculator shows gross pay conversions only. Use a separate tax calculator or your payroll software to estimate net take-home pay after taxes.
The short version
When comparing job offers, setting freelance rates, or just making sense of a salary number, ToolHQ's salary calculator converts between every pay period instantly. Enter your pay in any format and see hourly, daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly, and annual equivalents all at once.
Adjust the hours-per-week input to make the conversion accurate for part-time roles, contract work, or schedules heavier than the standard 40 hours.
Related tools: percentage calculator for pay raise math, loan calculator for monthly payment planning. All tools at the ToolHQ calculator category.