Paycheck Calculator

How hourly to salary conversion works

The math behind "X an hour is how much a year" is simple multiplication. Your gross annual pay is your hourly rate times the hours you work each week times the weeks you work each year:

Going the other direction — salary to hourly — divides your annual salary by your total yearly work hours:

With the classic US full-time schedule of 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, that is 2,080 work hours per year. So $25/hour × 2,080 = $52,000/year gross, and $52,000/year ÷ 2,080 = $25/hour. Two weeks of unpaid vacation? Just set "weeks per year" to 50 instead of 52.

What affects your take-home pay

Gross pay is only the starting point. What lands in your bank account is shaped by:

• Federal income tax — the US uses progressive brackets, so your effective rate is lower than your top bracket.
• State income tax — varies widely; several states have no income tax at all, while others add 5–13%+ on top of federal.
• FICA tax — Social Security (6.2%) + Medicare (1.45%) = 7.65% on most wages, split with your employer if you're a W-2 employee.
• Pre-tax deductions — 401(k) contributions, health insurance premiums and HSA deposits reduce taxable income.
• Post-tax deductions — Roth 401(k), union dues or wage garnishments come out after tax.

This calculator deliberately does not hardcode any state tax table — rates change every year and vary by filing status. Instead, enter your own combined estimate in the tax rate field; your last pay stub shows exactly what percentage you actually lose to taxes.

US pay frequencies

How often you're paid changes the size of each paycheck, not your yearly total. The most common US schedules are:

Biweekly is the most common schedule in the US — and it comes with a nice bonus: twice a year you get a third paycheck in a month, which many people put straight into savings.