Hourly to Salary Calculator (2026)
Convert an hourly wage to an annual salary. Enter your pay rate and weekly hours — see yearly, monthly, biweekly and daily equivalents, plus how unpaid time off changes the picture.
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The formula: hourly × hours × weeks
Converting an hourly wage to a salary is one multiplication:
Annual salary = hourly wage × hours per week × 52 weeks
That is the whole formula. Everything else on this page — monthly, biweekly, daily figures — is just that annual number divided into smaller pieces (÷ 12, ÷ 26, ÷ 5-day weeks). The only thing that makes it tricky is the 2,080-hour baseline sitting underneath it.
Where 2,080 comes from
The 2,080 figure is not a law of nature. It is 40 hours per week × 52 weeks, and it became the default because the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) set 40 hours as the standard full-time workweek in the US, and employers needed one number to quote salaries against hourly wages. Payroll systems, job boards, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics all use it as the full-time convention.
Know its limits:
- It assumes you work all 52 weeks. Paid vacation doesn't break the math (you're paid for those weeks), but unpaid weeks do — two unpaid weeks turn 2,080 paid hours into 2,000.
- It assumes a 40-hour week. Many salaried roles are built on 37.5-hour weeks (1,950 hours/year). Converting a $25/hour wage at 37.5 hours gives $48,750, not $52,000 — a $3,250 difference from using the wrong baseline.
- It is straight time only. Overtime, bonuses, and commissions sit outside it.
Worked example: $25/hour, 40 hours/week, no unpaid time
| Step | Math | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Annual gross | $25 × 40 × 52 | $52,000 |
| Monthly | $52,000 ÷ 12 | $4,333.33 |
| Biweekly paycheck | $52,000 ÷ 26 | $2,000 |
| Weekly | $52,000 ÷ 52 | $1,000 |
| Daily (5-day week) | $25 × 8 | $200 |
| Paid hours per year | 40 × 52 | 2,080 h |
Now change one input: take 2 weeks unpaid. Annual gross drops to $25 × 40 × 50 = $50,000, and your wage annualizes to $25 × 50/52 ≈ $24.04/hour across the calendar year — because unpaid weeks still have to be lived through. That "annualized rate" is the number that matters when you're comparing offers with different time-off packages.
Gross pay is not take-home pay
This calculator answers "what is my wage worth per year?" — before taxes. A $52,000 salary does not mean $52,000 in your pocket: federal income tax, FICA payroll tax, and state tax come out first. To see the after-tax number, run the result through our take-home pay calculator — for a single filer in Texas in 2026, $52,000 gross becomes roughly $43,000 take-home.
Also remember that hourly workers and salaried workers are often compensated differently beyond the wage itself. Salaried roles more often come with paid time off, health insurance, and retirement matches. When you compare a $30/hour contract offer against a $62,400 salary offer, the salary's benefits package can easily be worth another $15,000–$25,000 a year. Convert the numbers with this calculator, then compare the total packages — our methodology page explains how we think about these comparisons.
Data sources and assumptions
- 2,080-hour baseline: industry convention (40 h/week × 52 weeks); the 40-hour standard workweek comes from the Fair Labor Standards Act.
- Benefits valuation (25–40% of wages): Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, 2025 releases — benefits averaged roughly 30% of total compensation for private-industry workers.
- Assumptions: straight-time pay, no overtime, no bonuses; unpaid weeks reduce paid hours one-for-one; daily figure assumes a 5-day workweek. All figures are gross (pre-tax) estimates, not financial advice.
Frequently asked questions
How many work hours are in a year?
The standard full-time figure is 2,080 hours: 40 hours per week × 52 weeks. It is a convention used by employers, payroll systems, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics — not a law. If you work a 37.5-hour week, your 'full-time year' is 1,950 hours instead.
Does the 2,080-hour baseline include holidays and vacation?
It depends on whether the time off is paid. Two weeks of paid vacation still counts as 2,080 paid hours because you are paid for those weeks. Two weeks of unpaid time off means you are only paid for 2,000 hours — this calculator's 'unpaid weeks' field adjusts for exactly that.
Why does my offer letter show a different annual salary than this calculator?
Common reasons: your employer uses a different baseline (some use 1,950 or 2,000 hours for salaried roles), the offer includes shift differentials or guaranteed overtime, or it quotes salary before unpaid furlough weeks. Ask HR which hours-per-year figure they used — 2,080 is standard but not universal.
How do I compare an hourly offer with a salary offer?
Convert the hourly offer with this calculator, then convert the salary offer with our salary-to-hourly calculator to see the real hourly rate. Then look beyond gross pay: benefits (health insurance, 401(k) match, paid time off) are worth roughly 25–40% on top of wages for a typical US employer, per Bureau of Labor Statistics Employer Costs for Employee Compensation data (2025).
Is overtime included in the 2,080-hour baseline?
No. The 2,080 figure is straight-time hours only. Overtime is paid on top, typically at 1.5× your regular rate under the Fair Labor Standards Act. If you regularly work overtime, add those earnings separately rather than inflating your weekly hours here.
Estimates only, not tax or financial advice. Figures reflect the 2026 tax year. Verify important decisions with the IRS or a qualified tax professional.