Whether you are negotiating a new job offer or trying to plan your monthly budget, understanding how your pay translates across different timeframes is essential. A "pay rate" is the amount of money an employee receives for work performed during a specific period. This calculator helps you convert between hourly wages and annual salaries instantly.
How to Calculate Your Hourly Rate from Salary
To manually calculate your hourly rate from an annual salary, you generally follow these steps:
Determine the total number of hours worked per year (e.g., 40 hours per week × 52 weeks = 2,080 hours).
Divide your total annual gross salary by the total annual hours.
Example: If you earn $60,000 per year: $60,000 / 2,080 = $28.85 per hour.
Difference Between Pay Frequencies
Understanding the timing of your paycheck is crucial for cash flow management:
Bi-weekly: You receive a paycheck every two weeks, resulting in 26 pay periods per year. This often results in two months out of the year where you receive three paychecks.
Semi-monthly: You are paid twice per month (usually the 1st and 15th), resulting in exactly 24 pay periods per year. The checks are slightly larger than bi-weekly checks, but you never get a "third" check in a month.
Monthly: One paycheck per month, totaling 12 per year.
Important Considerations
This calculator provides gross pay figures. This is the amount before taxes (Federal, State, Social Security), insurance premiums, or retirement contributions (401k) are deducted. Your "take-home" or net pay will be lower than the figures displayed here.
function calculatePayRates() {
var amount = parseFloat(document.getElementById("payAmount").value);
var frequency = document.getElementById("payFrequency").value;
var hoursWeek = parseFloat(document.getElementById("hoursPerWeek").value);
var weeksYear = parseFloat(document.getElementById("weeksPerYear").value);
if (isNaN(amount) || amount <= 0 || isNaN(hoursWeek) || isNaN(weeksYear)) {
alert("Please enter valid positive numbers for all fields.");
return;
}
var annualBase = 0;
// Convert everything to Annual Base first
if (frequency === "hourly") {
annualBase = amount * hoursWeek * weeksYear;
} else if (frequency === "weekly") {
annualBase = amount * weeksYear;
} else if (frequency === "biweekly") {
annualBase = amount * 26;
} else if (frequency === "semimonthly") {
annualBase = amount * 24;
} else if (frequency === "monthly") {
annualBase = amount * 12;
} else if (frequency === "annually") {
annualBase = amount;
}
// Calculate sub-metrics
var monthly = annualBase / 12;
var semiMonthly = annualBase / 24;
var biWeekly = annualBase / 26;
var weekly = annualBase / weeksYear;
var hourly = annualBase / (weeksYear * hoursWeek);
var daily = hourly * (hoursWeek / 5); // Assumes 5 day work week for daily calculation
// Formatting function
var formatCurrency = function(num) {
return "$" + num.toLocaleString(undefined, {minimumFractionDigits: 2, maximumFractionDigits: 2});
};
// Update UI
document.getElementById("resAnnual").innerHTML = formatCurrency(annualBase);
document.getElementById("resMonthly").innerHTML = formatCurrency(monthly);
document.getElementById("resSemi").innerHTML = formatCurrency(semiMonthly);
document.getElementById("resBiweekly").innerHTML = formatCurrency(biWeekly);
document.getElementById("resWeekly").innerHTML = formatCurrency(weekly);
document.getElementById("resDaily").innerHTML = formatCurrency(daily);
document.getElementById("resHourly").innerHTML = formatCurrency(hourly);
document.getElementById("resultArea").style.display = "block";
}