How salary converts to hourly pay

Converting salary to hourly pay sounds simple — divide by hours — but there are a few hidden choices. The “best” hourly rate depends on what you’re trying to understand: paid hourly (your compensation per paid hour) or effective hourly (your compensation per hour actually worked).

This calculator accepts annual, monthly, weekly, or daily salary and converts it into a yearly amount:

• Yearly: annual = salary
• Monthly: annual = salary × 12
• Weekly: annual = salary × weeks per year
• Daily: annual = salary × workdays per week × weeks per year

If you work hours per week for weeks per year, your paid hours are: paidHours = hoursPerWeek × weeksPerYear. This is what many quick “salary to hourly” tools assume.

But in real life, you might not work all paid weeks. Paid time off (PTO) and paid holidays mean you’re still paid, but you work fewer hours. To estimate your effective hourly pay, we estimate the number of weeks you actually work:

• paidDaysOff = PTO days + holiday days
• workWeeksOff = paidDaysOff ÷ workdays per week
• workedWeeks = weeks per year − workWeeksOff

Finally, if you have unpaid time off, your paycheck usually drops. We apply a simple prorated reduction: effectiveAnnualPay = annual × (1 − unpaidDays ÷ (workdaysPerWeek × weeksPerYear)). It’s not perfect for every payroll policy, but it matches how many people reason about unpaid leave.

• Base hourly (paid): annual ÷ paidHours
• Effective hourly (worked): annual ÷ (hoursPerWeek × workedWeeks)
• Workload hourly (with overtime): annual ÷ ((hoursPerWeek + overtimeHours) × workedWeeks)

• Base hourly is best for comparing offers quickly.
• Effective hourly is best for “what am I really earning per hour I show up?”.
• Workload hourly is best for “what happens if my weekly hours creep up?”

Salary to hourly examples

Suppose you earn $75,000/year and you work 40 hours/week for 52 weeks/year. Paid hours are 40 × 52 = 2,080. Base hourly pay = 75,000 ÷ 2,080 ≈ $36.06/hr.

With 20 paid days off and a 5-day workweek, that’s 20 ÷ 5 = 4 weeks off. Worked weeks ≈ 52 − 4 = 48. Effective hourly = 75,000 ÷ (40 × 48) = 75,000 ÷ 1,920 ≈ $39.06/hr. Notice how your effective hourly goes up when you work fewer hours but keep the same pay.

Keep the same salary, but add 10 overtime hours per week. Workload hourly becomes 75,000 ÷ (50 × 48) = 75,000 ÷ 2,400 = $31.25/hr. Same paycheck, but your “real hourly” dropped because your hours increased.

If you earn $5,000/month, your annual pay estimate is 5,000 × 12 = $60,000/year. Using 40 hours/week and 52 weeks/year: 60,000 ÷ 2,080 ≈ $28.85/hr.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is salary to hourly conversion the same everywhere?

  The core math is universal (pay ÷ hours), but the inputs vary by country, contract type, and employer policy. Some salaries assume 37.5-hour weeks, some assume 40. Some roles are exempt from overtime. Use this tool for planning, then confirm with your offer letter or payroll rules.

• Should I include bonuses, equity, or commission?

  If you’re comparing total compensation, you can add expected bonuses/commission to salary before converting. For a “safe” baseline, convert base salary only (then compare bonus separately).

• What if I work part-time or variable hours?

  Enter your best average weekly hours. For variable schedules, try two runs: one using your “typical” week and one using your “busy season” week to see a range.

• How do PTO and holidays change my hourly rate?

  They change your effective hourly rate because you’re paid while working fewer hours. If your company also reduces workload expectations when you’re off, your take-home doesn’t change, but your “earnings per hour worked” increases.

• Why does my “workload hourly” look lower than my base hourly?

  Because more hours are dividing the same pay. If you’re consistently working extra hours, this is the number that best reflects your lived reality — and it can be useful for negotiations.

• Can I use this as a reverse hourly-to-salary calculator?

  This page is built for salary → hourly. If you want hourly → salary, you can still do it: set pay period to “Weekly”, enter hourly × hours/week as the weekly “salary”, then compare yearly equivalents. (A dedicated Hourly to Salary tool is even cleaner — add it to your roadmap!)