Comparing a job offer with an hourly wage against one with an annual salary requires converting both into the same unit — and while the math is simple, a couple of easy-to-miss assumptions (like paid time off) can meaningfully change the real comparison.
The baseline conversion assumes a standard full-time schedule: hours per week multiplied by 52 weeks in a year gives your total annual hours, and multiplying that by your hourly rate gives your annual salary equivalent. From there, dividing by 12 gives a monthly figure, and the weekly figure is just hours times rate directly.
How the Conversion Is Calculated
Annual Salary = Hourly Rate × Hours per Week × 52
This baseline assumes you work all 52 weeks with no unpaid time off. If you have unpaid vacation, holidays, or expect gaps in work, using 50 weeks instead of 52 gives a more conservative, realistic annual figure.
A Worked Example
At $28/hour for a standard 40-hour week: weekly pay is $1,120, monthly pay is about $4,853, and annual salary works out to $58,240 (using 52 weeks) or $56,000 (using a more conservative 50 weeks to account for unpaid time off). An $8-hour daily rate, for reference, comes out to $224 at this hourly rate.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Using 52 weeks when you actually have unpaid time off: hourly positions without paid vacation should use a lower week count for a realistic annual estimate.
- Forgetting overtime potential in the comparison: if the hourly role regularly involves overtime at time-and-a-half, the real annual comparison to a fixed salary could be meaningfully higher.
- Not accounting for benefits differences: salaried positions sometimes include benefits (health insurance, paid leave) that hourly positions don't — factor the value of those benefits into a fair comparison, not just the raw pay figure.
- Ignoring that salaried roles are often exempt from overtime: a salaried role with unpaid extra hours can have a lower effective hourly rate than it first appears once actual hours worked are considered.
Bottom Line
Converting between hourly and salary requires more than one multiplication if you want an honest comparison. Use a Salary Calculator to convert your hourly rate into annual, monthly, and weekly figures, and adjust the week count to reflect your actual expected working schedule.