💼 Hourly to Salary Converter
An hourly to salary calculator with FLSA overtime, paid versus unpaid leave side by side, and what FICA takes before you see any of it.
Because the leave is unpaid, those weeks cost you $2,600 a year. The same rate with paid leave would be $67,600 — which is the figure a salaried offer is quoting.
What Hourly to Salary Converter Does
Converting an hourly rate to an annual salary looks like one multiplication and is really a question about your contract. The arithmetic — rate × hours × weeks — is trivial. What decides the answer is whether you are paid for the weeks you do not work, and that single fact separates two numbers that can differ by thousands.
A salaried employee taking two weeks off receives the same annual figure. An hourly worker taking two weeks of unpaid leave simply is not paid for them: the same rate produces about 3.8% less over the year. That is the gap people fall into when comparing an hourly offer against a salaried one, and it is exactly what the headline "×2080" shortcut hides.
So the paid-or-unpaid question is a control here rather than an assumption, and both figures are shown side by side — because when you are comparing an hourly job to a salaried one, the difference between them is the comparison.
The 2,080-hour convention that produces the familiar "double it and add three zeros" trick comes from 40 hours × 52 weeks. It is a fine first approximation and it silently assumes every week is paid.
How to Use Hourly to Salary Converter
- Enter your hourly rate or select a benchmark preset
- Input weekly working hours and weeks worked per year
- Set weeks of time off and say whether they are paid
- Leave the overtime box ticked if you are non-exempt and paid time and a half above 40 hours
- View gross earnings across weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly and per-weekday schedules, plus what FICA takes
Formula Used by Hourly to Salary Converter
Hourly rate to annual pay
paid leave: annual = rate × hours × weeks unpaid leave: annual = rate × hours × (weeks − leave)
- weeks
- weeks in the year, normally 52
- leave
- weeks not worked — holiday, shutdown, or gaps between contracts
Worked example
$32.50 an hour, 40 hours a week, two weeks off.
- Paid leave: 32.50 × 40 × 52 = $67,600
- Unpaid leave: 32.50 × 40 × 50 = $65,000
- Difference: $2,600, or 3.8% of the headline figure
Result: $67,600 or $65,000 — and only your contract says which. A salaried offer quoting $67,600 is not equivalent to $32.50/hour with unpaid leave.
Hourly to annual at 40 hours a week
The left column assumes every week is paid. The right subtracts two unpaid weeks, which is the more common hourly arrangement.
| Hourly | 52 paid weeks | 50 worked weeks | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $15 | $31,200 | $30,000 | $1,200 |
| $20 | $41,600 | $40,000 | $1,600 |
| $25 | $52,000 | $50,000 | $2,000 |
| $30 | $62,400 | $60,000 | $2,400 |
| $50 | $104,000 | $100,000 | $4,000 |
| $75 | $156,000 | $150,000 | $6,000 |
What Overtime Is Worth — $32.50 an Hour, 50 Worked Weeks
Federal minimum under the FLSA: time and a half above 40 hours in a workweek. Multiplying rate by hours, which is what a straight conversion does, understates every row below the first.
| Hours a week | Weekly pay with overtime | Straight rate × hours | Understated by | Annual difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 40 | $1,300.00 | $1,300.00 | $0 | $0 |
| 45 | $1,543.75 | $1,462.50 | $81.25 | $4,063 |
| 50 | $1,787.50 | $1,625.00 | $162.50 | $8,125 |
| 60 | $2,275.00 | $1,950.00 | $325.00 | $16,250 |
Bi-Weekly Is Not Semi-Monthly
The two words are used interchangeably and describe different paychecks. On a $65,000 salary the semi-monthly check is $208.33 larger — and bi-weekly makes it up with two extra checks a year. Same annual pay, different cash flow.
| Schedule | Checks a year | Amount on a $65,000 salary | How it lands |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 52 | $1,250.00 | Every week, same day |
| Bi-weekly | 26 | $2,500.00 | Every two weeks — two months a year contain three checks |
| Semi-monthly | 24 | $2,708.33 | Twice a month, usually the 15th and the last day — never a whole number of weeks |
| Monthly | 12 | $5,416.67 | Once a month |
How to Read Your Result
The shortcut is the paid-leave figure
Doubling the hourly rate and adding three zeros — $25 becoming $50,000 — is 40 hours × 50 weeks, near enough. It is a reasonable mental estimate and it quietly assumes the arrangement most hourly workers do not have.
Gross is not take-home
Every headline figure here is before tax. FICA is the part that is certain — 6.2% for Social Security up to the annual wage base and 1.45% for Medicare with no cap, so 7.65% of a $65,000 conversion is $4,972 before a cent of income tax. Federal and state income tax sit on top and depend on filing status, deductions and where you live. Also missing: the benefits that often decide between an hourly and a salaried offer — employer retirement contributions, health cover, sick pay and paid holiday — none of which appear in an hourly rate.
Overtime is measured one week at a time
This is the rule people lose money to. The FLSA requires at least time and a half above 40 hours in a workweek, and the Department of Labor states plainly that "averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted". So a 50-hour week followed by a 30-hour week is not two 40-hour weeks: it owes 10 hours of overtime, even though the fortnight totals 80. At $32.50 an hour that is $162.50 the averaged version would have swallowed. Note this is the federal floor — several states add daily thresholds or double time.
Overtime cuts both ways when comparing offers
A non-exempt hourly job paid at a premium beyond 40 hours earns more than its base rate suggests: 50 hours a week at $32.50 is $89,375 a year, not the $81,250 a straight multiplication gives. A salaried job usually has no such mechanism, so extra hours are free to the employer. Compare the hours you will actually work, not the contracted ones — that is where the two structures genuinely differ.
Limitations & Accuracy Notes
- FICA is calculated, federal and state income tax is not. Income tax depends on filing status, deductions, credits and your state, so the after-FICA figure shown here is still above your real take-home.
- Benefits are not valued, and they are frequently the largest real difference between an hourly and a salaried offer.
- Overtime is applied to a constant weekly schedule. Real hours vary, and because the FLSA measures each workweek separately, an uneven pattern earns more overtime than the same total spread evenly — this assumes the even case.
- The overtime rule here is the federal minimum. Several states are more generous: daily overtime thresholds and double-time rules exist and are not modeled. Check your state before relying on the figure.
- Whether you are exempt from overtime is a legal test about duties and salary level, not a preference. The checkbox takes your word for it.
- Public holidays are not handled separately — fold them into the weeks-off figure if they are unpaid.
- Bi-weekly figures use 26 pay periods, which is the standard convention but produces two months a year with three paychecks.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you convert hourly wage to annual salary?
What is $30 an hour annually?
How many working hours are in a year?
Does this account for unpaid time off?
Is a contract rate comparable to a salary?
Is this gross or net?
How does overtime affect the conversion?
What is my hourly rate as a salary after taxes?
What is the difference between bi-weekly and semi-monthly pay?
Can my employer average my hours across two weeks to avoid overtime?
Is my pay information stored?
References & Further Reading
- US Department of Labor — Overtime Pay (FLSA) — Time and one-half above 40 hours in a workweek, the workweek as the unit, and that "averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted"
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics — how the CPS measures earnings — Background on how hourly and salaried earnings are defined and compared in official statistics