How to Convert Hourly Wage to Salary

Hourly pay is easy to understand one shift at a time, but most big money decisions — renting an apartment, applying for a loan, comparing a salaried job offer — are framed in yearly terms. Converting your hourly wage to an annual salary gives you a number you can compare side by side. This guide walks through the math, shows several worked examples and explains the adjustments that make your estimate realistic.

The basic formula

The core calculation has just two multiplications:

Annual salary = hourly rate × hours per week × 52 weeks

There are 52 weeks in a year, so a full-time employee working 40 hours a week works 2,080 hours a year. That's why you'll often hear the shortcut "multiply your hourly rate by 2,080." It works for standard full-time schedules, but if your hours are different, use your actual weekly hours instead.

Step-by-step conversion

Step 1: Find your hourly rate

Use your base hourly pay before any taxes or deductions. You can find it on your offer letter or pay stub.

Step 2: Determine your typical weekly hours

If your schedule varies, average your hours over the last few months. Someone who works 32 hours one week and 38 the next averages 35 hours a week.

Step 3: Multiply to get weekly pay

Hourly rate × weekly hours = weekly gross pay. At $22 an hour for 35 hours, that's $770 per week.

Step 4: Multiply by 52

Weekly pay × 52 = annual gross pay. Continuing the example, $770 × 52 = $40,040 per year.

Step 5: Adjust for unpaid time off

If you take unpaid days off, subtract them. Each unpaid week (five workdays) removes one week of pay. Two unpaid weeks means you're paid for 50 weeks: $770 × 50 = $38,500.

Worked examples

Full-time at $25 an hour

$25 × 40 × 52 = $52,000 per year, or about $4,333 per month and $2,000 every two weeks.

Part-time at $18 an hour

$18 × 24 hours × 52 = $22,464 per year, or about $1,872 per month.

Full-time with overtime

At $20 an hour, 40 regular hours plus 5 overtime hours a week: regular pay is $20 × 40 × 52 = $41,600. Overtime is paid at 1.5 times your rate, so $30 × 5 × 52 = $7,800. Total: $49,400 per year. Learn more in our guide to what overtime pay is and how it works.

Breaking annual pay into other periods

Once you have an annual figure, you can divide it to see pay for other time frames:

• Monthly: annual ÷ 12
• Bi-weekly: annual ÷ 26
• Semi-monthly: annual ÷ 24
• Weekly: annual ÷ 52
• Daily: annual ÷ 260 workdays

Bi-weekly and semi-monthly paychecks look similar but aren't the same — see bi-weekly vs. semi-monthly pay for the difference.

Remember: this is gross pay

Every number above is gross pay — what you earn before income tax, Social Security, Medicare, insurance premiums and retirement contributions. Your take-home pay will be lower. Our explainer on gross pay vs. net pay covers what comes out of a paycheck and why.

Skip the math

If you'd rather not work through the formula by hand, the free Hourly to Salary Calculator does it instantly, including overtime and unpaid days off, and shows your annual, monthly, bi-weekly, weekly and daily pay together. You can find more tools on the ToolsHub360 homepage.