Convert any pay — hourly, weekly, biweekly, semi-monthly, or monthly — into its annual salary equivalent, with a full breakdown by pay period.
Job postings quote pay in whatever frequency flatters the number: hourly roles advertise the rate, salaried roles advertise the year, gig work advertises the job. Annual salary cuts through all of it. Once every offer is converted to a yearly figure, comparison becomes honest — a $52,000 salary and $25/hour at full-time are the same money, and now you can see it.
This matters most when you are choosing between different kinds of work. An hourly job at $28/hour sounds modest next to a $60,000 salary until you annualize it: $28 × 2,080 = $58,240. The hourly job pays more, assuming the hours are real. Without converting, you are comparing the packaging instead of the pay.
Annual salary is also the number every other financial calculation wants. Mortgage lenders, car loan applications, and tax brackets all think in annual terms. Knowing your annualized pay — and being able to prove it from any pay frequency — is a basic adult financial skill, and it takes about ten seconds with this calculator.
Weekly pay (52 paychecks) is common for hourly and manual work. Biweekly pay (26 paychecks) is the most common schedule for salaried US workers — and the one people mess up most, multiplying by 24 instead of 26 and shortchanging themselves by two weeks of pay in their head. Semi-monthly pay (24 paychecks, twice a calendar month) looks similar but is a different animal: the amounts differ because 26 does not equal 24.
Monthly pay (12 paychecks) is simplest to annualize but rarest in the US. Hourly pay needs one extra input — your weekly hours — because the annual figure swings wildly with the schedule. $20/hour is $41,600 at 40 hours but only $31,200 at 30 hours. Never accept an annualized figure from an employer without asking which hours they assumed; the assumption is where the games are played.
One more trap: overtime. Annualizing a base hourly rate ignores overtime premiums, bonuses, and shift differentials, which can add 10–20% for hourly workers who regularly work extra. The annualized base is the floor of your earnings, not the ceiling.
Every figure on this page is gross — before taxes, before 401(k), before health insurance. Your gross annual salary is the number on the offer letter; your net is the number that pays your rent. For a $60,000 salary, the gap between the two is typically $12,000–$18,000 depending on state and filing status. That is not a rounding error; it is a different financial life.
This is why you should always run the gross through a take-home estimate before making decisions. A $70,000 offer in Texas (no state income tax) can beat a $75,000 offer in California once state taxes are subtracted. Our Paycheck Calculator does exactly this with 2026 federal and state figures — convert here, then take-home there, in under a minute total.
And remember what gross includes: nothing is deducted yet, but nothing is added either. Employer 401(k) matches, health insurance subsidies, and paid time off all have real dollar value that the gross salary hides. Two identical $65,000 offers can differ by $10,000+ in total compensation once benefits are counted.
Here is a practical routine for any offer. First, annualize everything to gross using this calculator — including the hourly side gig and the salaried offer, so both speak the same language. Second, subtract the obvious costs of each job: commuting, parking, work clothes, childcare differences. A $5,000 higher salary that costs $4,000 in commuting is a $1,000 raise with extra traffic.
Third, price the benefits. A 401(k) match of 4% on $65,000 is $2,600 a year of free money; twelve extra PTO days at $250/day is another $3,000. Ask HR for the benefits summary and do the arithmetic — most candidates never do, which is exactly why employers can afford to be vague about it.
Fourth, sanity-check the schedule behind any hourly annualization. If the $58,240 figure assumes 40 hours but the posting says '30–40 hours,' your real range is $43,680–$58,240, and you should negotiate (or budget) on the low end. An honest annual number beats an optimistic one every time, because rent is due whether the hours materialize or not.
Annual salary is just your pay scaled to a full year. Multiply by the number of pay periods in a year: 52 for weekly, 26 for biweekly, 24 for semi-monthly, 12 for monthly — or hours × 52 for hourly pay.
A $25/hour wage at 40 hours a week: $25 × 40 × 52 = $52,000 per year. This is the benchmark full-time conversion — every $1/hour equals $2,080 a year, so $25/hour is 25 × $2,080.
A $1,500 biweekly paycheck: $1,500 × 26 pay periods = $39,000 per year. Biweekly means 26 checks a year, not 24 — a mistake that understates annual pay by a full month's worth when people multiply by 24.
A $4,000 monthly salary: $4,000 × 12 = $48,000 per year. Monthly pay is the simplest conversion, but remember it is gross: the number on the offer letter, before a dollar of tax comes out.
For hourly pay: hourly rate × hours per week × 52. For other frequencies: weekly × 52, biweekly × 26, semi-monthly × 24, monthly × 12. The most common error is multiplying biweekly pay by 24 — it is 26 pay periods, which adds an extra two weeks of pay to the year.
$30 an hour is $62,400 a year at full-time (40 hours × 52 weeks). That is the gross figure before taxes — take-home will be lower depending on your state and filing status.
Yes. The 2,080-hour year (40 × 52) is the standard assumption behind every salary conversion. If you work part-time, seasonal schedules, or take unpaid leave, use your actual expected hours instead — the calculator lets you set your own weekly hours for exactly this reason.
No. Unpaid time off reduces your annual pay because those are hours you neither work nor get paid for. Two unpaid weeks turn a $52,000 salary into $50,000. Paid vacation and holidays, on the other hand, are included in a salary — you are paid for them.
Annual salary is the gross yearly figure; hourly wage is the rate per hour worked. They describe the same pay two ways, connected by your schedule: salary ÷ 2,080 hours = hourly equivalent at full-time. Neither includes taxes — both are before-tax numbers.
Multiply your target annual salary by 1.25 as a rough buffer, then compare against the offer. A $60,000 lifestyle needs roughly a $75,000 gross salary once federal tax, state tax, and FICA take their share — though the exact ratio depends heavily on your state. Use a paycheck calculator for the precise figure.