Hourly to Annual Salary: The Conversion That Matters
Convert hourly pay to annual salary (and back) with the 2,080-hour rule, a quick-reference table, and the adjustments for real take-home comparisons.
Comparing a $28/hour offer against a $55,000 salary shouldn't require guesswork. The conversion runs on one assumption — a standard work year — and once you know it, you can translate any pay figure into any other timeframe in your head.
The 2,080-hour rule
A full-time year is conventionally counted as:
40 hours/week × 52 weeks = 2,080 hours
So the two core conversions are:
- Annual = hourly × 2,080
- Hourly = annual ÷ 2,080
*Example:* $28/hour × 2,080 = $58,240/year — so the $28 hourly offer edges out the $55,000 salary on gross pay, before benefits enter the picture.
The handy mental shortcut: hourly × 2 ≈ annual in thousands. $28/hr ≈ $56k, $35/hr ≈ $70k. It's exact at 2,000 hours and within 4% of the 2,080 figure — good enough for conversations.
Quick-reference table
| Hourly | Weekly (40h) | Monthly | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| $15 | $600 | $2,600 | $31,200 |
| $20 | $800 | $3,467 | $41,600 |
| $25 | $1,000 | $4,333 | $52,000 |
| $30 | $1,200 | $5,200 | $62,400 |
| $40 | $1,600 | $6,933 | $83,200 |
| $50 | $2,000 | $8,667 | $104,000 |
Note that monthly ≠ 4 weeks of pay. A year has 52 weeks across 12 months, so a month averages 4.33 weeks — using ×4 understates monthly income by about 8%. The Salary Calculator converts cleanly between all four timeframes.
Adjusting for reality
The 2,080 figure assumes you're paid for every week. Refine it when comparing offers:
- Unpaid time off: hourly workers without paid vacation should count actual paid weeks. Two unpaid weeks → 2,000 hours; $28/hr becomes $56,000, not $58,240.
- Overtime: salaried-exempt roles absorb extra hours for free; hourly roles typically pay 1.5× beyond 40. If a job reliably runs 45 hours, the hourly offer's effective annual jumps meaningfully — 5 overtime hours at $42 adds ~$10,900/year.
- Part-time: swap in your real weekly hours. 25 h/week × 52 = 1,300 hours/year.
Benefits change the ranking
Gross pay is only the visible half of compensation. Employer health premium contributions (often several hundred dollars a month), retirement matching (commonly 3–6% of salary), and paid leave can add 20–30% of salary in value. A clean comparison method: convert both offers to annual gross, then add the dollar value of each benefits package, then compare. A percentage calculation makes the retirement match concrete — a 5% match on $60,000 is $3,000/year of additional compensation.
Gross vs. take-home
Everything above is pre-tax. Actual take-home depends on your jurisdiction's income tax, payroll/social contributions, and pre-tax deductions — commonly landing between 70% and 85% of gross for middle incomes, but this varies too much by country and personal situation for any universal rule. For decisions, compare offers on gross plus benefits, then check take-home with your local tax rules or a paystub projection from the employer.
FAQ
How much is $25 an hour annually? $52,000 gross at full time (25 × 2,080). If you take two weeks unpaid, $50,000.
Why does my paycheck differ from salary ÷ 26? Biweekly pay produces 26 paychecks of salary ÷ 26 — but two months a year contain three paydays, so monthly budgeting off "two paychecks" quietly understates income. Semi-monthly (24 checks) avoids the drift with slightly larger checks.
Is $70,000 a year good? It depends heavily on local cost of living and household size — the same salary lands very differently across cities. Convert it to $33.65/hour and compare against typical wages for your role and region.
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*Convert between hourly, weekly, monthly, and annual pay instantly with the free Salary Calculator.*
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