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Hourly wage to annual salary

Annual pay is hourly wage times hours a week times weeks a year. At $15 an hour for 40 hours a week across 52 weeks, that is $31,200 a year, or $600 a week, before tax.

Annual pay, before tax

$31,200.00

$600.00 a week. $2,600.00 a month if the year is split into twelve.

Weekly
$600.00
Monthly (annual / 12)
$2,600.00
Annual
$31,200.00
$

Paid hours, not the hours a job asks you to be around.

52 is every week paid. 50 is two weeks unpaid. Monthly pay is annual divided by 12, not four weeks.

The formula

A=h×w×nA = h \times w \times n

hh is the hourly wage, ww paid hours in a week, and nn paid weeks in a year. Weekly pay is h×wh \times w. Monthly pay on this page is A/12A / 12, not four weeks of pay.

Three numbers, not two

A job posting that says $15 an hour has not told you the year. Forty hours a week for 52 weeks is $31,200. The same wage at 25 hours is a different living. Weeks a year is the third input because unpaid time off, a seasonal layoff, or a school calendar all cut nn without touching the hourly rate.

Weekly pay on the first sheet is $600. Split the $31,200 year into twelve and the monthly figure is $2,600. That monthly number is not four times weekly pay. Four times $600 is $2,400, which is the 4-week month people reach for and which understates a 52-week year.

This page stops at gross pay. FICA and withholding sit on the paycheck calculator.

Part-time is not a smaller hourly number

Hold the wage at $18 an hour and cut the week to 25 hours, 52 weeks. Weekly pay is $450. Annual pay is $23,400. Monthly, on the twelve-way split, is $1,950.

The hourly rate did not fall. The hours did. Comparing two jobs on the hourly figure alone hides that. A $18 part-time week can pay less over a year than a $15 full-time week, which is the first-sheet $31,200 against this $23,400.

Overtime, shift premia and tips are not on this page. Type the blended hourly figure you actually want to annualise, or run the week you care about as ww.

Unpaid weeks cut the year, not the week

Keep $15 and 40 hours, but pay only 50 weeks. Weekly pay is still $600. Annual pay falls to $30,000. Monthly, split twelve ways, is $2,500.

Two unpaid weeks took two weekly pays off the year, which is the gap between $31,200 and $30,000. A salary quoted as the hourly wage times 2,080 hours assumes 52 weeks of 40 hours. If the job does not pay those 2,080 hours, that quote is not this job.

2,080 is 40×5240 \times 52. It is a convention, not a law. Put the hours and weeks the job actually pays.

What this page is not doing

It is not tax, not FICA, not overtime law, and not a salary-to-hourly conversion used by a payroll department to fill a stub. Gross annual pay is the input a budget needs before those other layers. Take-home is a different object, on the paycheck page.

The figures are what the three-factor product produces. This is educational material, not financial advice, and not an offer of employment.

Worked examples

\$15 an hour, 40 hours, 52 weeks

A job pays $15 an hour for 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year. What is weekly, monthly and annual gross pay?

  1. Weekly: 15×40=60015 \times 40 = 600, so $600.
  2. Annual: 600×52=31200600 \times 52 = 31200, so $31,200.
  3. Monthly as annual divided by 12: 31200/12=260031200 / 12 = 2600, so $2,600.
  4. Four times weekly is 4×600=24004 \times 600 = 2400, so $2,400, which is not a month of a 52-week year.

Weekly pay is $600. Annual pay is $31,200. Monthly, split twelve ways, is $2,600.

\$18 an hour, 25 hours, 52 weeks

The same year of 52 paid weeks, but the job is 25 hours at $18 an hour. What is annual pay?

  1. Weekly: 18×25=45018 \times 25 = 450, so $450.
  2. Annual: 450×52=23400450 \times 52 = 23400, so $23,400.
  3. Monthly: 23400/12=195023400 / 12 = 1950, so $1,950.

Annual pay is $23,400. The higher hourly wage did not beat the first sheet's $31,200, because the hours fell.

\$15 an hour, 40 hours, 50 weeks

Keep $15 and 40 hours, but only 50 weeks are paid. What is annual pay?

  1. Weekly pay is unchanged: 15×40=60015 \times 40 = 600, so $600.
  2. Annual: 600×50=30000600 \times 50 = 30000, so $30,000.
  3. Monthly on the twelve-way split is 30000/12=250030000 / 12 = 2500, so $2,500. Weekly pay did not change.

Annual pay is $30,000. Weekly pay is still $600. Monthly, split twelve ways, is $2,500.

The mistake that costs the most

Taking four weeks as a month, or taking 2,080 hours as the job when the job does not pay 2,080 hours.

Four times the $600 week is $2,400. The twelve-way split of the $31,200 year is $2,600. Using $2,400 as 'monthly pay' understates the year by $2,400, which is four extra weeks that a 52-week year actually contains.

2,080 hours is 40×5240 \times 52. Fifty paid weeks of 40 hours is 2,000 hours and $30,000 at $15, not $31,200.

Common questions

Is this take-home pay?

No. This is gross pay before FICA and income-tax withholding. The paycheck calculator is the next page if you want those slices taken off.

Why is monthly pay not four times weekly pay?

Because a year is 52 weeks and 12 months, not 48 weeks. Annual divided by 12 is the monthly figure that adds back up to the year. Four-week months add up to 48 weeks and leave four weeks uncounted.

What about overtime?

Not modelled. If overtime is regular, fold it into the hourly figure or into hours a week as a blended input. A week of 40 at one rate and 10 at another is two lines added, not one slider.

Keep reading

This page is educational material, not financial advice. The figures come from the formula shown and assume the inputs you enter hold for the whole term. Your own rate, fees, taxes and timing will differ, so treat the output as arithmetic to check a decision against, not as a recommendation.