Salary calculator

The calculator first turns your pay into an annual amount and then divides it into every other pay period. It uses 52 weeks a year:

Period	Per year
Hourly	hours per week × 52
Daily	days per week × 52
Weekly	52
Biweekly (every two weeks)	26
Semimonthly (twice a month)	24
Monthly	12
Quarterly	4

A full-time schedule of 40 hours a week gives 2,080 hours a year. That's why a quick rule of thumb for full-time pay is: annual salary ≈ hourly wage × 2,000, or a little more precisely × 2,080.

Biweekly and semimonthly are not the same. Biweekly pay comes every other Friday, for 26 paychecks a year, and two months a year have three paydays. Semimonthly pay comes on fixed dates such as the 15th and the last day of the month, for 24 paychecks, so each one is a little larger.

At $25 an hour, 40 hours a week, 5 days a week:

• Daily: $200
• Weekly: $1,000
• Biweekly: $2,000
• Semimonthly: $2,166.67
• Monthly: $4,333.33
• Annual: $52,000

If you also enter 10 holidays and 15 vacation days that are unpaid, you work 235 of 260 weekdays (90.4%). The adjusted figures drop to about $47,000 a year, $3,916.67 a month, or an effective $22.60 per hour averaged over the full year. This matters for contractors, freelancers and hourly workers without paid time off.

A salary of $65,000 a year at 40 hours a week works out to:

• $31.25 an hour (65,000 / 2,080)
• $1,250 a week
• $2,500 every two weeks
• $2,708.33 twice a month
• $5,416.67 a month

When comparing a salaried offer with an hourly one, remember that salaried exempt employees usually aren't paid overtime, while non-exempt hourly employees must generally get time and a half for hours over 40 in a workweek under the Fair Labor Standards Act. A 50-hour week at $30 an hour with overtime pays $1,650, which is more than a $75,000 salary works out to per week.

All amounts are gross pay, before anything is withheld. Your take-home pay will be lower after:

• federal income tax withholding,
• Social Security and Medicare taxes (FICA),
• state and local income taxes, where they apply,
• 401(k) contributions, health insurance premiums and other deductions.

How much is withheld depends on your W-4, your state and your benefits elections, so it varies a lot from person to person. Your pay stub shows the exact amounts. Use this calculator to compare offers and pay periods on equal terms, then check the take-home figure with your employer or a paycheck estimate.

Most salaried employees are paid for holidays and vacation, so their annual salary doesn't change with time off. For them, leave the holidays and vacation fields at zero, or simply read the unadjusted figures.

If you're paid only for the hours you work, time off reduces your annual income. The adjusted column multiplies your pay by the share of weekdays you actually work. For example, 10 holidays and 15 vacation days out of 260 weekdays leaves 235 working days, so your yearly pay is 235 / 260 = 90.4% of the full-year figure. This is also a useful way to set a freelance rate: decide what yearly income you need, then work out the hourly rate that gets you there after time off and unbilled hours.

• Part-time: enter your actual weekly hours, such as 20 or 30, to get the right annual figure.
• Irregular schedules: use your average weekly hours over a few months.
• Comparing job offers: convert both to the same period and add the value of benefits such as employer 401(k) match and health insurance, which can be worth thousands of dollars a year.
• Sharing: your inputs are saved in the link, so the Share button sends the exact comparison.

This is a pay-period conversion, not tax or legal advice.