WorkGuide5 parts · 1 min
How to turn an hourly rate into a salary
Multiply the hourly rate by weekly hours and paid weeks, then divide that year by 12 for a month.
The answer
Annual pay is hourly rate times hours per week times paid weeks. A 40-hour week for 52 paid weeks is 2,080 hours. Divide the year by 12 when you need a month.
Write the schedule before the rate
The rate does nothing until you know the week. A $25 rate at 40 hours is $1,000 a week. At 32 hours it is $800. Multiply by the weeks that are actually paid. Fifty-two is every week. A job with two unpaid weeks is 50, and the year is smaller even though the hourly rate did not change.
The monthly figure is the year divided by 12. It is not the weekly pay times four. Four weeks is 28 days, and a calendar month is longer, so that shortcut lowballs the month.
What the salary still leaves out
The product is gross pay. Tax, insurance, and a retirement contribution come off later. Overtime is not inside the base hours. If the offer expects extra hours at 1.5, calculate those on the overtime page after the base year is written down. To go the other direction, from a salary back to an hour, use the salary-to-hourly calculator and the same hours and weeks.
Examples
$25, 40 hours, 52 weeks
2,080 hours. $52,000 a year. About $4,333.33 a month.
Common mistakes
- Multiplying by 2,000 and calling it 40 times 52.
- Treating the gross year as the amount that will reach the bank.
Questions
Where do I run it?
Use the hourly rate to annual salary calculator and set the hours and weeks from the offer, not from a default you did not check.