Hourly to Annual Salary
40 for full time, 20–30 for part time
52 with paid leave, 50 with two unpaid weeks
$25.00 an hour is
$52,000 /year
$25.00 × 40 hr × 52 weeks = 2,080 paid hours
Monthly
$4,333
Biweekly
$2,000
Weekly
$1,000
Hours per Year
2,080
The Formula: Rate × Hours × Weeks
An hourly wage becomes a yearly one in two multiplications: annual = hourly rate × hours per week × weeks paid. Full-time convention fills in 40 and 52, which is where the number 2,080 hours comes from. At $25 an hour, that is $52,000 a year.
Both of those numbers are assumptions, and both are wrong for a lot of people. Work 30 hours instead of 40 and the same rate pays $39,000. Take two weeks off unpaid and you are paid for 50 weeks, not 52, which costs you about 4% of the year. The 2,080-hour figure quietly assumes you are paid for every week, holidays and vacation included — true of salaried staff and of hourly staff with paid leave, and false for most everyone else.
The result is gross pay, the figure before tax and deductions. That is the number a lender asks for and a job listing quotes, and it is not the number that lands in your account.
Hourly Rates as Annual Salaries: Full Time and Part Time
Gross pay for 52 paid weeks at three common schedules. Follow a rate to see its full daily, weekly, and monthly breakdown:
| Hourly Rate | Part Time (20 hrs) | Reduced (30 hrs) | Full Time (40 hrs) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $15/hr | $15,600 | $23,400 | $31,200 |
| $18/hr | $18,720 | $28,080 | $37,440 |
| $20/hr | $20,800 | $31,200 | $41,600 |
| $22/hr | $22,880 | $34,320 | $45,760 |
| $25/hr | $26,000 | $39,000 | $52,000 |
| $30/hr | $31,200 | $46,800 | $62,400 |
| $35/hr | $36,400 | $54,600 | $72,800 |
| $40/hr | $41,600 | $62,400 | $83,200 |
| $45/hr | $46,800 | $70,200 | $93,600 |
| $50/hr | $52,000 | $78,000 | $104,000 |
Halving the hours halves the salary, but it does not halve the job. Part-time roles frequently carry no employer health insurance, no retirement match, and no paid leave, so a $25 part-time job is worth less than half of a $25full-time one. Overtime pulls the other way: past 40 hours in a week, non-exempt employees earn at least 1.5× their rate under the Fair Labor Standards Act, so a steady 50-hour week is paid like 55 hours.
What Tax Takes Out
Federal income tax and FICA on a full-time year at each rate, for a single filer in a state with no income tax. Federal tax applies only to income above the standard deduction, which is why the effective rate sits well below the headline bracket — and why it climbs as the rate does:
| Rate | Gross | Federal Tax | FICA | Take-Home | Effective Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $20/hr | $41,600 | $2,812 | $3,182 | $35,606 | 14.4% |
| $25/hr | $52,000 | $4,060 | $3,978 | $43,962 | 15.5% |
| $30/hr | $62,400 | $5,308 | $4,774 | $52,318 | 16.2% |
| $40/hr | $83,200 | $9,474 | $6,365 | $67,361 | 19.0% |
| $50/hr | $104,000 | $14,050 | $7,956 | $81,994 | 21.2% |
Two things this leaves out. State income tax, which runs from nothing to over 10% depending on where you live — the paycheck calculator models all 50 states and every filing status. And pre-tax deductions such as a 401(k) or a health premium, which lower income tax but not FICA. Both move what you actually see; neither changes the gross figure you put on an application.
The Benefits Add-On: What the Wage Leaves Out
An hourly rate describes what you are paid for an hour. It does not describe what the hour costs your employer, and the difference is where two jobs at the same rate stop being the same job.
- The employer’s half of FICA — 6.2% for Social Security plus 1.45% for Medicare, paid on top of your wages, never shown on your paystub. On $52,000 that is $3,978. It is exactly 7.65% until your wages pass the Social Security wage base of $184,500.
- Paid leave — the gap between the hours you work and the hours you are paid for. Two weeks of paid holiday and vacation is 80 hours, worth $2,000 at $25 an hour. It is also what raises your effective rate: $52,000 over 2,000 hours actually worked is $26.00 an hour, not $25.00.
- Health insurance and a retirement match — the two that vary most between employers, and the two worth looking up rather than guessing. Both are printed on your benefits summary as a dollar figure or a percentage of pay. A match quoted as a percentage converts the same way everything else on this page does: multiply it by your gross.
Add only the part that is knowable without your paperwork and $25 an hour is already $55,978of employer cost — a floor, before a dollar of health premium or retirement match. That is the number to hold in mind when a contract role offers a higher rate.
A contractor billing $25an hour receives no employer FICA, no paid leave, and no benefits, and owes both halves of FICA as 15.3% self-employment tax. Matching an employee’s total compensation therefore takes a materially higher rate, which the contractor vs. employee calculator prices out in full.
Converting the Other Direction
If your pay arrives on a schedule rather than by the hour, start there instead: the weekly to annual calculator handles a weekly wage, and the monthly to annual calculator a monthly one. To go backwards from a salary you already know, see what $52,000 a year works out to per hour, or browse every conversion on the site.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you convert an hourly wage to an annual salary?
Multiply your hourly rate by the hours you work in a week, then by the weeks you are paid in a year: annual = rate × hours × weeks. Full-time work is conventionally 40 hours over 52 weeks, or 2,080 hours, so $25 an hour is $25 × 2,080 = $52,000 a year before tax. Change either number and the answer moves with it.
$20 an hour is how much a year?
$20 an hour is $41,600 a year before taxes, working 40 hours a week for all 52 weeks. After federal income tax and FICA, a single filer keeps roughly $35,606 of it, or about $2,967 a month. Part time at 20 hours a week, the same rate comes to $20,800.
$25 an hour is how much a year?
$25 an hour is $52,000 a year before taxes — the rate that lands on a round number, which is why it turns up so often in salary talk. Federal tax and FICA take about $8,038 of it, leaving roughly $43,962 before any state income tax.
What are $30, $40, and $50 an hour as annual salaries?
At 2,080 hours a year, $30 an hour is $62,400, $40 an hour is $83,200, and $50 an hour is $104,000. Each step of $10 an hour adds $20,800 to the yearly figure, because the arithmetic is linear — the tax on it is not.
How do I convert an hourly rate if I work part time?
Replace 40 with the hours you actually work. At 20 hours a week, $25 an hour is $26,000 a year rather than $52,000; at 30 hours it is $39,000. Part-time roles also tend to come without employer health insurance, a retirement match, or paid leave, so the gap in total compensation is wider than the gap in hours.
Why is 2,080 hours the standard for a full-time year?
It is 40 hours a week times 52 weeks. The number assumes you are paid for every week of the year, holidays and vacation included, which is true of salaried employees and of hourly employees with paid leave. If your time off is unpaid, you are paid for fewer weeks — 50 weeks at 40 hours is 2,000 hours, about 4% less.
Does overtime change my annual salary?
Yes, and by more than the extra hours suggest. Non-exempt employees earn at least 1.5× their regular rate for hours past 40 in a week under the Fair Labor Standards Act, so ten overtime hours are paid like fifteen regular ones. To estimate a year with regular overtime, enter your overtime hours multiplied by 1.5 on top of 40 — a steady 50-hour week becomes 55 paid hours.
Do employer benefits count toward my hourly wage?
Not in the salary figure, but they are real money. On top of $25 an hour ($52,000) an employer also pays 7.65% of your wages as its half of FICA — $3,978 — before adding anything for health insurance, a retirement match, or paid leave. A contractor billing the same rate pays both halves of FICA as 15.3% self-employment tax and buys the rest themselves.