Salary to Hourly: How to Convert Annual Salary to Hourly Pay
One division turns any salary into an hourly rate. The only decision is which number goes on the bottom of the fraction: your real yearly hours, not the idealized ones.
To convert salary to hourly pay, divide your annual salary by the number of hours you work in a year. The standard divisor is 2,080 hours (40 hours a week times 52 weeks), so $52,000 becomes $25.00 an hour. Use your actual weekly hours and weeks worked for a number you can trust.
The salary to hourly formula
Hourly rate = annual salary / (hours worked per week x weeks worked per year)
That is the whole formula. Everything else is deciding what belongs in the bottom half. Payroll departments, job postings, and offer letters almost always use 40 hours a week and 52 weeks a year, which gives the familiar 2,080-hour divisor. If you want your conversion to match how employers quote rates, use 2,080. If you want the number to reflect your life, use your real hours. Read how many work hours are in a year for a full breakdown of where 2,080 comes from and when to use a different number.
Worked examples at common salaries
Using the standard 2,080-hour year:
$45,000 a year. 45,000 / 2,080 = $21.63 an hour. A solid entry-level or support-role number, and the rate you would use to compare against hourly job ads in that range.
$52,000 a year. 52,000 / 2,080 = $25.00 an hour exactly. This is the textbook example, and the reason $25 an hour is such a common benchmark in salary discussions.
$70,000 a year. 70,000 / 2,080 = $33.65 an hour. One of the most searched salary conversions, and a useful anchor: anything quoted above $33.65 an hour beats a $70,000 salary on straight pay.
$100,000 a year. 100,000 / 2,080 = $48.08 an hour. The six-figure milestone translates to just over $48 an hour, which surprises people who expected a bigger hourly number.
The overtime trap: when the real rate is lower
The 2,080-hour math assumes every extra hour is paid. For many salaried workers it is not. If you are expected at your desk 45 or 50 hours a week with no overtime pay, divide your salary by the hours you actually work, not 2,080:
$52,000 at 45 hours a week. 45 x 52 = 2,340 hours. 52,000 / 2,340 = $22.22 an hour. That is an 11% pay cut hiding inside the schedule.
$52,000 at 50 hours a week. 50 x 52 = 2,600 hours. 52,000 / 2,600 = $20.00 an hour. Five unpaid extra hours a week erase a full $5 from the headline rate.
This is the single most useful version of the conversion: comparing a salary offer against an hourly job that pays overtime. Hourly workers get 1.5x past 40 hours, so a $25-an-hour job with 5 overtime hours a week pays an effective $26.39 an hour across the full 45 hours. See how to calculate overtime pay for the full math, then run both offers through our salary to hourly calculator to compare them side by side.
Adjusting for time off
Two weeks of vacation plus a handful of holidays bring a typical full-time employee closer to 1,950 hours worked per year. The salary stays the same, but the divisor shrinks, so the effective rate rises: $52,000 / 1,950 = $26.67 an hour. This is the number that reflects what each hour of your actual working time is worth. Most employer-side conversions ignore time off and stick with 2,080; use 2,080 when you want to match their quotes, and your real hours when you want the truth.
Convert your salary in seconds
Enter your salary, your real hours per week, and the weeks you work per year. Our free calculator returns your hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly pay, with an optional overtime mode at 1.5x.
Salary to hourly conversion questions
How do I calculate my hourly rate?
Divide your annual salary by the number of hours you work in a year. The standard is 2,080 hours, which is 40 hours a week times 52 weeks. For example, $52,000 divided by 2,080 equals $25.00 an hour.
What is the formula for hourly rate?
Hourly rate equals annual salary divided by (hours worked per week times weeks worked per year). With the standard 40-hour week and 52 weeks, the divisor is 2,080.
How do I convert my salary to an hourly rate?
Take your gross annual salary and divide it by your total yearly hours. If you work a standard full-time schedule, divide by 2,080. If you work a different schedule, multiply your weekly hours by the weeks you work per year and divide the salary by that number instead.
How much is $70,000 a year hourly?
$70,000 divided by 2,080 hours equals $33.65 an hour. That assumes a standard 40-hour week with no unpaid overtime. At 50 hours a week, the real rate drops to $26.92 an hour.
Does my real hourly rate change if I work more than 40 hours a week?
Yes. Unpaid extra hours lower your true hourly rate because you divide the same salary by more hours. A $52,000 salary worked at 50 hours a week is $20.00 an hour, not $25.00 an hour.