Salary to Hourly Converter

What is a salary worth per hour — once vacation, holidays, and sick days are counted? Enter your salary and your real working time to find out.

Convert your salary to an hourly rate

Enter your numbers and press Convert. Your hourly rate will appear here.

The 2,080-hour trap

The quick way to convert a salary to an hourly rate is to divide by 2,080 — 40 hours a week times 52 weeks. It is quick, and it is wrong for almost everyone. Nobody works all 52 weeks. Two weeks of vacation, a week of holidays, and a few sick days take you down to about 50 working weeks, or 2,000 hours. Divide the same salary by 2,000 instead of 2,080 and the hourly rate rises by 4 percent. That difference matters when you compare a salary offer with freelance work, or when you decide whether an extra hour of overtime is worth your time.

The trap gets worse when the hours themselves are wrong. A job described as 40 hours a week may really be 45 or 50 once lunch, commuting, and after-hours email are counted — but only the hours you are paid for belong in this calculation. If you are paid for 40 hours and regularly work 50, your real hourly rate is lower than the job posting suggests. Run the calculation twice: once with your contracted hours, and once with the hours you actually work. The gap between the two numbers is unpaid time, and it is worth knowing before you accept an offer or turn one down.

Paid time off is the other half of the story. An employee is paid for vacation days; a freelancer is not. That is why the same dollar amount means something different in each case, and why this calculator asks for your time off separately. Ten paid days off is two working weeks you are paid for without working. They raise your effective hourly rate, because the salary is spread over fewer working hours. An offer with a slightly lower salary but generous paid time off can be worth more per working hour than a higher salary with almost no time off.

Worked example

Suppose your salary is $75,000 a year, you work 40 hours a week, there are 52 weeks in the year, and you take 10 days of paid time off — two weeks.

Working weeks: 52 − (10 ÷ 5) = 50 weeks.
Working hours per year: 40 × 50 = 2,000 hours.
Hourly rate: $75,000 ÷ 2,000 = $37.50 per hour.
Daily rate: $37.50 × 8 = $300 per day.
Weekly rate: $37.50 × 40 = $1,500 per week.
Monthly equivalent: $75,000 ÷ 12 = $6,250 per month.

If you had divided by 2,080 instead, you would have gotten $36.06 an hour — about $1.44 less per hour, or nearly $2,880 less over 2,000 working hours. The salary did not change. Only the math did.

Salary vs. freelance: why the same number is not the same pay

An employee earning $37.50 an hour and a freelancer charging $37.50 an hour are not earning the same amount. The employee also gets paid time off, health insurance, retirement contributions, and an employer who pays half of Social Security and Medicare taxes. The freelancer pays for all of that out of the hourly rate — plus business expenses, plus the hours spent finding clients and doing admin that nobody bills for. That is why the freelance rate calculator usually produces a higher number than this converter for the same target income: it adds expenses, non-billable hours, and a profit margin on top of the salary.

Use this converter when you are comparing job offers, negotiating a raise, or deciding whether to take a salaried job or freelance instead. If a client offers you $40 an hour as a freelancer and your old salary worked out to $37.50 an hour as an employee, the freelance offer is probably a pay cut once benefits and unpaid time are counted. If the freelance offer is $60 an hour, it may be a genuine raise. The converter gives you the employee side of that comparison; the freelance rate calculator gives you the other side. Read the full guide, Salary to Hourly: The Complete Conversion Guide, for how to value benefits and compare offers fairly.

How to use your result

Use the hourly rate to compare offers on equal terms. Two jobs with the same salary are not equal if one expects 45 hours a week and the other expects 40, or if one offers 20 days off and the other offers 10. Convert both to an hourly rate, and the better offer usually becomes obvious. And remember that this is a gross rate, before taxes and deductions. Your take-home hourly pay is lower, and the take-home pay calculator shows what an invoice leaves after tax.

Frequently asked questions

Why not just divide by 2,080?

Because 2,080 assumes you work 40 hours a week for all 52 weeks, with no vacation, holidays, or sick days. Almost nobody does that. Dividing by your real working hours — usually around 2,000 — gives the rate you actually earn for each hour you work.

Should I include overtime in my hours per week?

Only if the overtime is paid at your normal rate and is part of your regular schedule. If overtime is unpaid, or paid at a higher rate, keep it out of this calculation and judge it separately. Including unpaid hours lowers your real hourly rate, which is useful to know — but it changes what the number means.

Does this include benefits like health insurance?

No. This converter turns a salary into an hourly rate. It does not add the value of health insurance, retirement contributions, or paid time off on top of the salary — paid time off is counted by reducing the hours, not by adding money. To compare a salary with freelance work, add the value of your benefits to the salary first, then convert.

How do I convert an hourly rate back to a salary?

Multiply the hourly rate by your hours per week, then by your working weeks per year. At $37.50 an hour, 40 hours a week, and 50 working weeks, that is $37.50 × 40 × 50 = $75,000 a year.

Disclaimer: This calculator provides an estimate for planning purposes only. It is not financial, tax, or legal advice. Your actual pay depends on your employment terms, hours, benefits, and tax situation. Consult a qualified professional before making financial decisions.