Comparing an hourly job against a salaried offer is one of the most common money questions there is — and one of the easiest to get wrong. Here’s the clean way to convert between the two, plus the traps that make naive conversions misleading.
The Basic Formula
The standard conversion assumes full-time work: 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, which is 2,080 hours.
Annual salary = hourly rate × 2,080
So $20/hour is $41,600 a year, and $35/hour is $72,800 a year. Going the other way, divide a salary by 2,080: a $60,000 salary works out to about $28.85/hour.
Where the Simple Math Misleads You
1. Unpaid time off
The 2,080-hour figure assumes you’re paid for all 52 weeks. Hourly workers who take two unpaid weeks off are really working 2,000 hours — that same $20/hour is then $40,000, not $41,600. Salaried roles with paid vacation don’t take this haircut.
2. Overtime cuts the other way
Hourly workers typically earn time-and-a-half past 40 hours; most salaried workers get nothing extra. If a job realistically involves regular overtime, an hourly rate can quietly beat a higher-looking salary.
3. Benefits are part of the number
Employer-paid health insurance, 401(k) matching, and paid leave can be worth thousands of dollars a year. Two offers with identical gross pay can differ substantially once benefits are counted.
4. Gross is not take-home
Whichever way you convert, you’re still looking at pre-tax numbers. What matters for your budget is what survives taxes and deductions.
Do the Conversion Properly
The free Hourly to Salary Calculator on Calc365 handles the details the napkin math skips — your actual hours per week and weeks per year — and shows the math step by step. There’s a matching Salary to Hourly Calculator for the reverse direction, and an Overtime Pay Calculator if extra hours are part of your reality.
Once you have the annual figure, run it through the Take-Home Pay Calculator to see what it means per paycheck after federal and state taxes in 2026. Everything runs free, without sign-up, and in your own browser.
The Bottom Line
Convert with real hours, compare after-tax numbers, and price in the benefits. That’s the difference between comparing two offers and actually comparing them.
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