Salary to Hourly Wage Calculator
Your offer letter says $48 an hour. Your alarm clock, your train, and your 9 pm Slack messages disagree. Enter your salary below — then add your commute and unpaid overtime to see the hourly rate your life actually pays for.
Your salary, your hours
Calculations use gross (pre-tax) salary and a 52-week year. Paid vacation is counted inside those 52 weeks.
- Scheduled work hours / year—
- Commute hours / year—
- Unpaid overtime / year—
- Total hours your job costs you—
The math behind it
Both rates come from the same salary. The nominal rate only counts scheduled hours. The true rate counts every hour the job takes from you — the 2,080 hours on paper, plus the hours on the train, plus the hours that never appear on your timesheet. That is the rate your paycheck is actually paying you.
Frequently asked questions
How do you convert an annual salary to an hourly wage?
Divide the annual salary by the number of working hours in a year. The standard calculation uses 40 hours per week × 52 weeks = 2,080 hours. For example, $100,000 ÷ 2,080 = $48.08 per hour.
What is "true hourly wage" and why is it lower?
True hourly wage divides your salary by all the time your job actually costs you: scheduled work hours plus commuting time plus unpaid overtime. These extra hours earn you nothing, so the real rate per hour of your life is lower than the nominal rate on your offer letter.
Does this calculator include taxes or paid time off?
No. All figures use gross (pre-tax) salary and assume a 52-week working year. Paid vacation days are counted as work weeks, which keeps the math simple and comparable between jobs.
Why use 52 weeks? What about holidays and vacation?
The calculator uses 52 weeks so different jobs can be compared on the same basis. Paid time off is included in the 52 weeks rather than subtracted, because the salary still covers those weeks.
Does this work for part-time workers or different schedules?
Yes. Enter your actual weekly hours — for example 20 hours/week at a $50,000 salary — and the calculator divides by your real yearly hours (20 × 52 = 1,040).
How does unpaid overtime affect my hourly wage?
Every unpaid overtime hour is added to the denominator but adds nothing to the numerator, dragging your true hourly wage down. Five unpaid overtime hours per week plus a one-hour daily commute turns a $100,000 salary into a true rate of about $38.46/hour.