Salary Calculator
Convert pay between hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and annual — accounting for holiday, so the hourly figure reflects what you actually work.
How to use this calculator
- 1Enter your pay and select the period it covers.
- 2Set your actual working hours and days per week.
- 3If you are salaried, enter your paid holiday allowance including public holidays — this is what makes the hourly figure honest.
How the calculation works
Annual = Hourly × Hours per week × Weeks worked Hourly = Annual / (Hours per week × Weeks worked)- Weeks worked
- 52 minus unpaid weeks minus paid holiday weeks
- Weeks paid
- 52 minus unpaid weeks
The distinction between weeks paid and weeks worked is what makes salaried and hourly pay non-equivalent. A salaried worker with four weeks of paid leave earns their annual salary over 48 working weeks, so their true hourly rate is about 8% higher than the naive 52-week calculation suggests.
Bi-weekly (26 periods) and semi-monthly (24 periods) are different. Bi-weekly pay produces two "three-paycheque months" a year.
Worked example
$65,000 a year, 40 hours a week, 4 weeks paid holiday
- 1.You are paid for 52 weeks but work 52 − 4 = 48.
- 2.Hours actually worked = 40 × 48 = 1,920 a year.
- 3.Hourly = 65,000 ÷ 1,920 = $33.85.
- 4.Without accounting for holiday you would get 65,000 ÷ 2,080 = $31.25 — an understatement of about 8%.
Result: $33.85 an hour, $5,416.67 a month
What “salary” actually means
A salary is a fixed amount of pay for a defined period — typically a year — regardless of the exact number of hours worked in any given week. That distinguishes it from an hourly wage, where pay scales directly with time clocked. In practice the line blurs: many salaried roles still track hours for overtime eligibility, and many hourly workers earn a fairly predictable weekly income because their schedule rarely changes.
The term also carries a legal dimension in some countries. In the United States, for example, being paid a salary is one factor — not the only one — in deciding whether an employee is exempt from overtime law. Job duties and pay level matter too, so the label on a pay stub alone doesn’t settle the question.
The pay periods behind the number
A single salary figure can be sliced up in several standard ways, and mixing them up is the most common cause of a paycheck estimate coming out wrong.
- Weekly — 52 payments a year, common for hourly and unionized roles.
- Bi-weekly — every two weeks, 26 payments a year. Two months a year end up with three paychecks instead of two.
- Semi-monthly — twice a month on fixed dates, such as the 1st and 15th, giving 24 payments a year. Easily confused with bi-weekly, but the amounts and the calendar behave differently.
- Monthly — 12 payments a year, common outside the United States.
- Annual — the headline number used to compare jobs, and rarely what actually lands in an account in one go.
Why the hourly-equivalent figure isn’t obvious
Converting a salary to an hourly rate sounds like simple division, but the answer depends heavily on how many weeks a person is actually paid to work. A salaried employee with several weeks of paid holiday and public holidays is being paid for 52 weeks while only showing up for something closer to 46 or 48 of them — so their real hourly rate is higher than the naive “annual divided by 2,080 hours” shortcut suggests.
The same logic runs in reverse for hourly and contract workers who take unpaid time off: fewer paid weeks mean the same headline day rate produces a smaller annual income than a like-for-like salaried comparison implies.
Comparing two offers fairly
A higher headline number doesn’t always mean more money in practice. A short, consistent process avoids comparing apples to oranges.
- 1Normalise the period — convert both offers to the same period — annual is usually easiest — using actual hours and actual paid weeks, not assumed defaults.
- 2Add employer-paid benefits — retirement contributions, health insurance and paid leave can be worth a substantial share of salary on top of the quoted number.
- 3Adjust for cost of living — a bigger number in an expensive city or country can be worth less in practice than a smaller one somewhere cheaper.
- 4Weight variable pay separately — bonus targets and commission aren’t guaranteed the way base salary is, so treat them as a separate, less certain figure.
Gross pay is the start of the conversation, not the end
Every figure produced by a salary calculator is gross — the amount before tax, social contributions and any benefit deductions are taken out. What actually reaches a bank account, take-home or “net” pay, is usually meaningfully lower and depends on where a person lives, their filing status, and elections like retirement contributions.
Because tax systems are jurisdiction-specific and change over time, a general salary calculator deliberately stops at the gross figure. For an accurate net number, a dedicated payroll or tax calculator for the relevant country or region is the right next step.
What this assumes, and where it stops
Assumptions
- A year contains exactly 52 weeks. In practice it is 52.18, which shifts weekly figures by roughly 0.3%.
- Hours are evenly distributed across the working weeks.
- All figures are gross — before tax and any deductions.
Limitations
- Income tax, social security, pension contributions and benefits are excluded. Take-home pay is substantially lower and highly jurisdiction-specific.
- Bonuses, commission, equity and overtime are not included unless you add them to the pay amount.
- Employer pension contributions, health insurance and other benefits can be worth 20–30% of salary and are not counted here.
Common questions
How do I convert an hourly rate to an annual salary?
Multiply by hours per week and then by the number of weeks you actually work. The common shortcut of "hourly × 2,080" assumes 40 hours for all 52 weeks with no unpaid time off — reasonable for a salaried role, but it overstates annual income for an hourly worker who takes unpaid leave.
Why is bi-weekly not the same as twice a month?
Bi-weekly means every 14 days, giving 26 pay periods a year. Semi-monthly means twice each month, giving 24. The bi-weekly paycheque is smaller, but you receive two extra of them, and two months each year contain three paydays.
Does this show my take-home pay?
No — these are gross figures before any deductions. Tax rates, thresholds, social contributions and pension rules differ by country and often by region, and depend on personal circumstances such as filing status and allowances. Use your national tax authority’s calculator for net pay.
Sources
- Wages and hours worked — US Department of Labor
Formula and content last reviewed on .
Results are estimates for information only, not professional advice.
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