The basic conversion
The core formula is simple: hourly rate = annual salary ÷ (hours per week × paid weeks per year). A $50,000 salary at 40 hours/week for a full 52-week year is $50,000 ÷ 2,080 hours = $24.04/hour. The calculator above runs that same math both directions — enter a salary to get the hourly rate, or enter an hourly rate to see what it adds up to over a year — and lets you adjust hours per week and unpaid time off so the number matches your actual schedule instead of a generic default.
Why "paid weeks" matters more than people think
Most salary-to-hourly calculators quietly assume all 52 weeks are paid, which is true for most salaried employees (salary is typically a fixed amount regardless of holidays or PTO). But it breaks down for two common cases: hourly workers estimating an effective annual number who take unpaid time off, and anyone comparing a salaried offer against an hourly contract role with unpaid gaps between assignments. Enter those unpaid weeks above and every downstream number — hourly, daily, weekly, monthly — adjusts to reflect real paid time, not a flat calendar year.
Gross vs. take-home pay
Every number this calculator produces is gross pay — before federal, state, and payroll tax withholding, and before deductions like health insurance or 401(k) contributions. Actual take-home pay is typically 70-85% of gross depending on your tax bracket, state, and elections, which varies too much by jurisdiction for a single formula to get right. Treat the numbers here as the true, comparable baseline — the number on an offer letter — and use your pay stub or employer's payroll estimator for the after-tax figure.
Using this to compare job offers
The most common real use for this conversion is comparing a salaried offer to an hourly or contract one. A $65,000 salary and a $32/hour contract role (at 40 hrs/week, 52 weeks) look close on paper, but run the numbers: $32/hour full-time is $66,560/year with no unpaid weeks — nearly identical. The gap usually shows up elsewhere: contract roles often have unpaid gaps between projects (add those as unpaid weeks above to see the real effective rate) and typically don't include employer-paid benefits, which a salaried role's total compensation should be weighed against separately.
Once you know your real number, the next question is what to do with it. Our 50/30/20 budget calculator turns take-home pay into a needs/wants/savings split, and the SheetWell Monthly Budget Tracker tracks every paycheck against that plan month after month.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I convert a salary to an hourly rate?
- Divide the annual salary by total hours worked per year: hours per week × paid weeks per year. At a standard 40 hours/week and all 52 weeks paid, that's 2,080 hours — so a $50,000 salary is about $24.04/hour.
- Should I count paid vacation as unpaid weeks off?
- No. Paid time off (PTO), paid holidays, and paid sick leave are still paid — leave the unpaid-weeks field at 0 for a standard salaried job where PTO doesn't reduce your paycheck. Only count weeks where you genuinely receive no pay, such as unpaid leave or gaps between contract assignments.
- Does this include taxes?
- No — every figure here is gross pay, before tax withholding and deductions. Take-home pay depends on your filing status, state, and elected deductions, so use your pay stub or your employer's payroll calculator for the exact after-tax number.
- What if I work more than 40 hours a week?
- Enter your actual average hours per week — the calculator uses whatever number you provide. Note that this doesn't apply overtime premiums (time-and-a-half); it treats every hour at the same flat rate, which matches how salaried pay works but understates true hourly value for non-exempt workers who are paid overtime.