How to convert hourly pay to annual salary
Converting an hourly wage into an annual salary is straightforward once you know the three numbers that drive it: your hourly rate, how many hours you're paid for each week, and how many weeks of the year you actually get paid. Multiply your hourly rate by the hours you work each week, then multiply that result by the number of paid weeks you work each year, and you have a gross annual figure.
For example, $25 × 40 hours × 52 weeks = $52,000 before taxes.
Most full-time roles use 40 hours a week as the baseline, but plenty of jobs don't. Retail, healthcare, and hospitality schedules often run 30–36 hours, while some salaried professional roles are built around 37.5 hours. Changing that one number moves your annual estimate a lot, which is exactly why this calculator lets you adjust it instead of assuming a fixed 40-hour week for everyone.
Why weeks worked matters as much as hours worked
The "paid weeks per year" figure is the part people forget to adjust. If you're paid through unpaid time off, sick leave without pay, or a seasonal layoff period, you're not actually being paid for all 52 weeks of the year. Dropping the figure to 50 weeks (two unpaid weeks off) or 48 weeks (a month off) gives you a more honest picture of what you'll actually bring home over twelve months, rather than an optimistic number that assumes uninterrupted pay.
Weekly, biweekly, and monthly breakdowns
Once the annual figure is set, the rest is just division. Weekly pay is your annual salary divided by the number of paid weeks. Biweekly pay — the most common pay cycle in the US — divides your annual salary by 26 pay periods, which is why it doesn't line up perfectly with "two weekly paychecks" if your weekly figure was based on fewer than 52 weeks. Monthly pay divides the annual figure by 12, which is useful for budgeting rent, subscriptions, and other bills that are billed monthly rather than weekly.