How the conversion works
Everything starts from one number: the pay for a year.
- From hourly: annual pay = hourly rate × hours per week × weeks worked per year.
- From a salary: hourly rate = salary ÷ (hours per week × weeks per year).
The other periods come from those two:
- Week: hourly rate × hours per week (a week you work).
- Day: a fifth of that week, assuming a five-day week.
- Every two weeks, twice a month, month: the year divided by 26, 24 and 12, the way a salary is paid out.
The defaults are 40 hours and 52 weeks, a standard full-time year of 2,080 paid hours. Change the weeks if you have unpaid time off, or the hours if you work part-time or a 37.5-hour week.
Worked example
$25 an hour, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks:
| Per | Before tax |
|---|---|
| Hour | $25.00 |
| Day | $200.00 |
| Week | $1,000.00 |
| Every 2 weeks | $2,000.00 |
| Twice a month | $2,166.67 |
| Month | $4,333.33 |
| Year | $52,000.00 |
Going the other way, a $60,000 salary at 2,080 hours is $28.85 an hour. At 37.5 hours a week and 50 weeks (1,875 hours) the same salary is $32.00 an hour.
The after-tax column
Gross pay isn’t what you live on, so the table also shows each period after taxes for the state you choose. The calculator runs the full 2026 paycheck calculation on the yearly amount:
- Federal income tax under the 2026 withholding tables, with a standard W-4 (no dependents, no extra withholding).
- Social Security at 6.2% up to $184,500 of wages, and Medicare at 1.45%, plus 0.9% above $200,000.
- Your state’s income tax and payroll taxes, such as disability insurance where it applies.
For $52,000 a year as a single filer, the take-home is $43,962.10 in Texas (no state income tax) and $41,841.02 in California. That’s $1,690.85 and $1,609.27 every two weeks respectively. Every period in the table is scaled by the same take-home share, so the after-tax hourly rate is the real value of an hour’s work in that state.
Salaried vs hourly: what the numbers hide
The same yearly figure can mean different things:
- Overtime. Hourly workers covered by federal law get at least 1.5× pay for hours over 40 in a week. A salary usually has no overtime unless you’re a non-exempt salaried employee. Use the overtime calculator for weeks with extra hours.
- Paid time off. A salary keeps paying through vacation and holidays. If your hourly job doesn’t pay for time off, lower the weeks to the weeks you actually work.
- Benefits. Health insurance, retirement matching and paid leave aren’t in either number but can be worth thousands a year when comparing offers.
Pages for common amounts
When your rate or salary matches one of the amounts people search most, the calculator links to that amount’s page, with the after-tax pay in every state side by side. For a full paycheck with your own W-4, 401(k) and insurance, use the paycheck calculator.