What is a salary worth by the hour? Divide it by the hours it pays for in a year. A full-time year is 2,080 hours: 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. That is the work year the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses to turn hourly wages into yearly pay.
On that basis, $60,000 a year is $28.85 an hour, and $25 an hour is $52,000 a year. The salary to hourly calculator does the same math with your own hours, paid weeks and unpaid days off. It works in both directions and shows pay for each period, before taxes.
For a quick estimate in your head, halve the salary and drop the thousands: $60,000 is about $30 an hour. To go the other way, double the wage and add three zeros: $25 an hour is about $50,000 a year.
A worked example: $60,000 a year
Here is how the calculator splits a $60,000 salary at 40 hours a week for 52 paid weeks.
| Pay period | How it is figured | Pay |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | Salary ÷ 2,080 hours | $28.85 |
| Daily | A fifth of a week | $230.77 |
| Weekly | Salary ÷ 52 | $1,153.85 |
| Biweekly | Salary ÷ 26 | $2,307.69 |
| Semimonthly | Salary ÷ 24 | $2,500.00 |
| Monthly | Salary ÷ 12 | $5,000.00 |
Biweekly and semimonthly pay are easy to mix up. Biweekly means every two weeks, or 26 paychecks a year. Semimonthly means twice a month, or 24. Biweekly is the most common: 43% of private establishments paid that way in February 2023, according to the BLS. Now and then a biweekly schedule fits 27 paydays into a calendar year, so it is worth asking an employer how it splits a salary that year.
Longer hours lower a salary's hourly rate
In the calculator, salaries don't earn overtime. So the more hours a salary covers, the less it pays per hour. Here is $60,000 a year over 52 paid weeks:
| Hours a week | Hours a year | Per hour |
|---|---|---|
| 35 | 1,820 | $32.97 |
| 40 | 2,080 | $28.85 |
| 45 | 2,340 | $25.64 |
| 50 | 2,600 | $23.08 |
| 60 | 3,120 | $19.23 |
Some salaried workers are owed overtime anyway. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, those paid less than $684 a week ($35,568 a year) generally are, according to the Labor Department's Fact Sheet #17A.
Paid time off changes the math too. The 2,080-hour year counts paid holidays and vacation as paid hours. With 10 paid holidays and 10 vacation days, a full-time job works 1,920 hours. So $60,000 comes to $31.25 for each hour actually worked. The federal government uses a 2,087-hour year for its own staff, which makes $60,000 come to $28.75 an hour.
Overtime for hourly workers
For hourly pay, the calculator adds overtime at time and a half past 40 hours a week. That is the federal rule for most covered hourly workers. At $20 an hour, a 45-hour week pays $950: $800 for the first 40 hours and $150 for 5 hours at $30. Over a year that is $49,400 instead of $41,600. Hours can't be averaged over two weeks, and federal law doesn't require extra pay for weekends or holidays as such, according to the Labor Department's Fact Sheet #23. Some states go further. California pays time and a half past 8 hours in a workday.
The minimum wage, by the year
The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since July 24, 2009. Full time, that is $15,080 a year. The Labor Department's state table, updated July 1, 2026, lists 30 states and the District of Columbia with higher minimums. DC's is $18.40 an hour, or $38,272 a year full time. Washington's is $17.13, or $35,630.
For context, the BLS put average hourly earnings on private nonfarm payrolls at $37.81 in September 2026, over an average week of 34.4 hours. The median is lower. Full-time wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings of $1,251 in the second quarter of 2026. That is about $31.28 an hour over 40 hours, or $65,052 a year.
What the calculator leaves out
All figures are before taxes. Take-home pay is lower after income taxes and payroll taxes. Employees pay 6.2% Social Security tax on wages up to $184,500 in 2026 and 1.45% Medicare tax, or $4,590 on $60,000. The calculator doesn't save or send what you type, and it is an educational estimate, not financial or legal advice.
Use it on your own site
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Source: US Department of Labor, overtime pay and state minimum wages, table updated July 1, 2026; BLS, The Employment Situation, September 2026; IRS Topic 751; all checked October 18, 2026. Figures are educational estimates, not financial advice.