How to convert salary to an hourly rate
Divide yearly pay by the number of hours you are paid for in a year. A standard full-time schedule is 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, which is 2,080 hours.
If you take unpaid time off, lower the weeks per year. For example, two unpaid weeks means 50 weeks and 2,000 paid hours.
Worked example
A $62,400 salary at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks is $62,400 ÷ 2,080 = $30.00 an hour. That is $1,200 a week, $2,400 every two weeks, $2,600 twice a month and $5,200 a month.
Biweekly vs. semimonthly pay
These sound alike but aren't. Biweekly means every other week, which gives 26 paychecks a year, so two months each year have three paydays. Semimonthly means twice a month, usually on fixed dates such as the 15th and the last day, which gives 24 paychecks. On the same salary, each semimonthly check is larger than a biweekly one.
What this calculator leaves out
- Taxes and deductions. These figures are gross pay. Federal and state income tax, Social Security, Medicare, insurance premiums and retirement contributions come out before your take-home pay.
- Overtime. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees earn at least 1.5 times their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek.
- Benefits. Health insurance, retirement matching and paid leave add real value when comparing a salaried job with an hourly one.