Salary to Hourly Calculator

How the Salary to Hourly Calculator Works

The salary to hourly calculator uses your yearly salary and derives the hourly wage from it by breaking it down to monthly, biweekly, weekly, daily, and then hourly wages. It assumes you work a 40-hour week and work 52 weeks a year.

Calculating an Annual Salary from an Hourly Wage

Sometimes it helps to see what your hourly wage equates to as an annual salary. This is great for budgeting and planning emergency and retirement savings. Calculating your hourly wage into an annual salary is simple:

Multiply your hourly wage by 40 hours. This is your weekly wages.

Next, take your weekly wages and multiply it by 52 weeks. This is your annual salary from hourly wages.

When you know this number, you can calculate how much you should save each year. Let’s say you save 5 percent of your salary every year, that means by the end of the year you should have $2,750 saved if you make $55,000 per year.

You can figure out the exact amount you should save each week or month based on achieving this number.

Calculating an Hourly Wage from an Annual Salary

Knowing how much your annual salary comes out to per hour helps you see your worth. Whether you have a specific dollar amount in your head or compare it to other industry wages, it’s a helpful tool.

Calculating your hourly wage from an annual salary is simple:

First, figure out how many hours you work per year. If you work full-time, you work 2,080 hours (52 weeks x 40 hours).

Next, divide your annual salary by 2,080 hours to get your hourly-rate wages.

How Many Hours in a Work Year?

The average work year has 2,080 work hours in it if you work an average 40-hour workweek. There are 52 weeks in a year, and at 40 hours a week, that’s 2,080 hours a year.

If you take vacation time, the average is two weeks, which brings your work hours down to 2,000 total hours, but most salaries include the 2-week vacation.

Benefits of Using a Salary to Hourly Calculator

It may seem like a waste of time to figure out your hourly wages when you earn a salary, but there are many benefits.

Understand How Much Your Time is Worth

There’s something to be said about knowing how much your time is worth. It helps you gauge many other areas of your life, such as how much you pay a service provider per hour or even how much you pay for your kids’ activities per hour.

Looking at it from the perspective of how many hours you’d have to work to pay for the service, activity, or any other charge puts things into perspective. You’ll likely find yourself making more frugal decisions, choosing to save rather than spend knowing how many hours of work it would take to make up for it. It’s a great way to stop overspending on shopping sprees!

Remember that the Fair Labor Standards Act states that all hourly workers are nonexempt and have to be paid overtime compensation. For those whose hours worked exceeds 40, then all hours worked beyond your normal pay period, means extra compensation and you can expect time-and-a-half. For anyone making the federal minimum wage, this exemption makes you entitled to receive your overtime rate of pay.

Evaluate Overtime, Bonuses, and Other Incentives

It’s easy to work overtime and not think twice about it when you’re paid a salary if you don’t convert your salary to hourly wages. But once you know your hourly wages, and realize they decrease every hour of overtime you work, you may manage your time better and/or talk to your boss about the overtime requirements.

For example, if you make $55,000 per year and work 40 hours a week, you earn $26.44 per hour. But, if you work 50 hours per week regularly, that quickly decreases your hourly wages to $21.15 per hour. Just by working 10 hours of overtime each week, you’d lose $5.29 per hour. You could use this information during your review or when asking for a pay increase.

Knowing your equivalent hourly wages also helps put any bonuses or incentives you receive into perspective. If you worked out your hourly wages to $26.44 and your company pays you a $500 bonus, that works out to around 19 hours of work ($500/$26.44). You may appreciate the bonus more when you realize you earned half a week of pay on top of your regular salary without having to work for it.

Plan Your Career Goals

Your career goals should include income goals too. What do you see yourself doing in 5 and 10 years? What are your salary goals? How much would you like to get compensated? How much time-off would you like? Putting it into hourly wage vs salary terms helps you see the big picture.

Let’s say, for example, you make $30,000 a year now, and you have a goal to make $40,000 a year in the next two years. Is that a large enough goal? $10,000 doesn’t sound like much, especially when you break it down to a monthly wage of $833 per month more.

If you break it down to an hourly basis, though, a $30,000 salary is $14.42 per hour, and a $40,000 salary is $19.23 per hour. It sounds like a much bigger jump when you make over $5 an hour more, right?

Assist in Negotiating a Pay Increase

Negotiating a pay increase can be overwhelming. Everyone throws out numbers that sound great, but are they really?

When you turn your salary to an hourly wage, though, you get a better idea of the offer on the table. Let’s say you make $50,000 per year, and your boss offers you a 3 percent raise. You can quickly figure out that’s an additional $1,500 per year. That might sound like a lot – $1,500 a year, great!

Before you jump the gun, let’s look at the hourly wage increase. At $50,000 per year, you make $24.04 per hour. If your employer bumps you up to $51,500 per year, your hourly wage increases to $24.75 per hour. You didn’t even get a $1 an hour raise, and that’s if you work exactly 40 hours per week. If you work any extra hours, your wages decrease even further.

Knowing this will help you negotiate your pay increase, especially if you know the average hourly wage for your same job at competitors in the industry.

Salary vs Hourly: Which Is Better?

If you have the choice between wage vs salary, think of the pros and cons. Consider what you know about the job too. Are there a lot of extra hours involved? If so, working on an hourly wage benefits you more. You’ll receive compensation for every hour you work, including overtime pay. Some employers even pay double for overtime hours.

On the other hand, if the job has fewer than 40 hours some weeks and more than 40 hours in other weeks, you may be better off with a salary. You’ll earn predictable wages every month, which makes it easier to budget. If you know you’ll work an average of 40 hours throughout the year overall, salary is the way to go.

Salary Definition

A salary is a fixed payment that you receive typically on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. However, it’s quoted to you on an annual basis.

For example, if an employer offers you $55,000 per year, that’s your annual salary.

When it’s paid every month, you earn $4,583 per month.

If they pay you bi-weekly rather than a monthly basis, it’s $2,115 every two weeks or $1,058 per week.

Salary Comparison

Other things to keep in mind for salaried employees:

• What is your wage rate/hourly pay rate if you convert salary to hourly?
• What are you actually being paid on an hourly basis?
• Will you be paid for overtime, or are you exempt?

Other things to keep in mind for hourly employees:

• What is the normal number of hours worked by others?
• Will you be tipped in this position?
• Do they follow overtime laws?

Things both should consider:

• How much sick-leave do you get per year?
• How frequently is payroll? Regardless of salary or hourly, weekly/biweekly/monthly pay can make a big difference.
• What will your gross pay be?
• What types of job duties are you responsible for?
• What will your work schedule look like?
• What will your income tax rate be?

Ways To Increase Your Annual Salary To Hourly Wages

It’s a good idea to know both your annual salary and your hourly wages. Increasing your annual salary doesn’t increase your hourly wages if you don’t change how you work. For example, if you make more money and then work more hours, you decrease your hourly wages, so keep that in mind as you find ways to increase your annual salary, such as:

• You don’t have to wait for your annual review to ask for a pay increase; ask when you feel it’s warranted
• Go back to school to get the degree you never got or to get a higher degree
• Get proper training to earn a certificate or license in your profession
• Apply for a job at different companies that pay higher salaries
• Learn high-income skills that make you a more valuable employee

How To Ask For A Raise

Asking for a pay increase seems intimidating at first, but here are a few ways to make it less scary:

• Do your research and find out what other companies in the area pay for the same position or look up salary trends, so your request is within reason
• Know when it’s the right time to ask for a meeting to talk about it (don’t ask yet just set the meeting)
• Have the discussion privately (behind closed doors or on a private video call)
• Write out notes so you know what to say in the meeting, even if your nerves get the best of you
• Discuss your accomplishments and reasons you think you deserve more money for your work
• You may also want to bring real examples of ways you’ve helped the company improve – use statistics if you can
• Prepare yourself for questions and/or negotiations.

How To Negotiate Salary

Negotiating your salary before you take a job is essential. If you start the job and realize it’s worth more than they’re paying you, it’s too late. You’re likely stuck with that salary until your review and possibly longer.

Before you accept a salary, know the average salary for the industry’s position and compare it to your worth. What do you bring to the table that could warrant a higher number? Just because the industry’s average salary is lower, if you have higher qualifications or bring more experience to the table, you are worth more, but you must prove it.

When you negotiate a salary, consider a range rather than a fixed number. Employers are likely to come back with a lower amount than you suggest, so start high and know that you’ll likely have to back down.

When someone presents you with an offer, stop and think about it. Even ask for 24 – 48 hours to consider it and never accept the first offer. You don’t know the employer’s full allowance if you take the first offer at face value. You may leave money on the table if you do this. If you can’t negotiate the salary itself, consider negotiating the benefits. Figure out their hourly worth and figure that into your salary when finalizing your negotiations.

Using Our Salary Calculator: Other Things to Consider

Our salary calculator uses certain assumptions to make the calculations easier. First, it uses a 52-week year or 365-day year. It doesn’t take into consideration your tax liabilities or vacation time. It strictly uses your annual salary amount at face value, such as $55,000 per year.

Knowing your salary to hourly conversion helps you to understand your real compensation in terms of time spent. It helps you understand your worth, negotiate a pay increase, and evaluate bonuses or incentives your company provides. Comparing salary to hourly wages also helps when you’re looking for another job or planning for the future. If you have a goal to make more in the next few years or you have a specific career goal, having a dollar figure in mind helps motivate you to reach those goals.