To turn an hourly wage into a yearly salary, multiply the rate by the hours you work in a week, then by 52 weeks. A full-time week of 40 hours gives 2,080 hours a year, so $25 an hour comes to $52,000 a year before tax.
A quick mental version is to double the rate and add three zeros: $25 becomes about $50,000. It runs a little low because it assumes 2,000 hours, which suits a year with two unpaid weeks better than a year paid in full.
Hourly rates turned into yearly pay
The table runs common rates through a full-time year, with the amounts in between for each way of being paid. Every figure is the same yearly total divided a different way, so nothing here is rounded until the last step.
| Hourly rate | Week | Every 2 weeks | Twice a month | Month | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $15.00 | $600 | $1,200 | $1,300.00 | $2,600.00 | $31,200 |
| $18.00 | $720 | $1,440 | $1,560.00 | $3,120.00 | $37,440 |
| $20.00 | $800 | $1,600 | $1,733.33 | $3,466.67 | $41,600 |
| $22.00 | $880 | $1,760 | $1,906.67 | $3,813.33 | $45,760 |
| $25.00 | $1,000 | $2,000 | $2,166.67 | $4,333.33 | $52,000 |
| $28.00 | $1,120 | $2,240 | $2,426.67 | $4,853.33 | $58,240 |
| $30.00 | $1,200 | $2,400 | $2,600.00 | $5,200.00 | $62,400 |
| $35.00 | $1,400 | $2,800 | $3,033.33 | $6,066.67 | $72,800 |
| $40.00 | $1,600 | $3,200 | $3,466.67 | $6,933.33 | $83,200 |
| $45.00 | $1,800 | $3,600 | $3,900.00 | $7,800.00 | $93,600 |
| $50.00 | $2,000 | $4,000 | $4,333.33 | $8,666.67 | $104,000 |
Two columns trip people up. A month is the year divided by 12, not four weeks, because most months are longer than four weeks.
“Every two weeks” pays 26 times a year while “twice a month” pays 24 times, so the second paycheck is bigger even though the yearly total is the same. The biweekly vs semimonthly guide shows both calendars.
When your year is not 52 weeks of 40 hours
The multiplication only holds if every week is paid and every week has the same hours. Change either one and the yearly figure moves, sometimes by more than a raise would.
| The year | Hours worked | Yearly pay | vs full time | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full time, paid every week | 2,080 | $49,920 | The usual hourly-to-salary answer | |
| Full time, two weeks unpaid | 2,000 | $48,000 | −$1,920 | Unpaid vacation or a seasonal shutdown |
| Part time, 30 hours | 1,560 | $37,440 | −$12,480 | No overtime below 40 hours |
| 45 hours every week | 2,340 | $59,280 | +$9,360 | 5 overtime hours a week at time and a half |
Unpaid time comes straight off the total: each unpaid week costs a full week of pay. Part-time hours scale down in a straight line. Overtime is the one change that adds more than the hours alone, because each hour past 40 in a workweek is paid at 1.5 times the regular rate.
That premium is counted week by week, never averaged across a pay period, which matters for anyone whose hours swing. How to calculate overtime works through uneven weeks and bonuses.
Weighing a salaried offer against hourly pay
The most common reason to convert is a job offer. The trap is comparing the salary with the hourly rate times 2,080 when the current job regularly runs past 40 hours, because the overtime disappears once the pay becomes a salary for an exempt role.
| Now, hourly | Offer, salaried | |
|---|---|---|
| Pay for the first 40 hours, all year | $56,160 | $64,000 |
| Overtime, 6 hours a week at 1.5 times | $12,636 | |
| Yearly pay | $68,796 | $64,000 |
| Effective rate for 46 hours a week | $28.76 | $26.76 |
The offer is $4,796 less a year if the hours stay at 46. It works out to $1,231 a week, above the $684 weekly salary level, so the job can be treated as exempt from overtime if its duties also qualify.
Here the salary looks like a raise against the straight-time pay, yet it pays less than the hours actually being worked. To keep the same income, the salary would need to cover the overtime too, or the hours would need to come down.
Whether a salaried job can skip overtime is set by federal law, not by the job title.
The salary must be at least $684 a week ($35,568 a year), and the job’s main duties must fit one of the Department of Labor’s exemptions, such as executive, administrative or professional work. A salaried employee who fails either test still earns overtime.
Look past the pay line as well. Salaried roles often include paid holidays and paid leave that an hourly job does not, and the benefits package can be worth more than the difference in pay.
From a yearly figure to each paycheck
Once you have the yearly number, divide it by the paychecks in the year: 52 for weekly pay, 26 for every two weeks, 24 for twice a month and 12 for monthly. Pay periods in a year covers the years that have a 27th biweekly payday.
All of these figures are gross pay. Take-home pay is lower once income taxes, FICA and benefit deductions come out, as gross pay vs net pay explains.
For employers moving a role from hourly to salary
- Check both exemption tests before dropping overtime. Paying a salary on its own does not end overtime; the salary level and the duties test both have to be met.
- Price the overtime into the salary. If the role has averaged extra hours, use the employee’s real yearly earnings, not the base rate times 2,080, or the change will read as a pay cut.
- A salary can still be nonexempt. Some employers pay a fixed salary and track hours for overtime. Overtime is then figured from a regular rate based on the hours that salary pays for.
- Update the paperwork. The first salaried pay stub should show the new salary per period. Choose the salary pay type in our pay stub generator and it splits the yearly figure across the pay frequency for you.
Going the other way, from a salary to an hourly figure, has its own surprises; see salary to hourly.
Sources: Department of Labor overtime fact sheet (#23), salary levels for exempt workers and white-collar exemption fact sheet (#17A). Checked October 21, 2026.
