Determining how much you make an hour is an important consideration when you’re employed via salary. It’s useful for a number of reasons. First, you may need to compare the hourly wage of your new salaried position against a previous job held in which you were paid hourly. Secondly, you may need to know your hourly wage of a salaried position to calculate some sort of overtime wage. Lastly, you might just want to know because you’re curious!
Also, some jobs have different time commitments even without overtime compensation. You may be working a 40-hour work week making $100,000 and are curious how that compares to earning $120,000 but working 75 hours every week. Calculating how much you make an hour is a way to do a true comparison of each salary.
Let’s first look at how to calculate how much you make an hour, then we’ll look at some common examples.
How to calculate how much you make an hour: The quick estimate
If you want a simple way to roughly estimate your hourly pay, you can do the following. First, assume 2,000 hours worked in a year. This is based on the common two weeks of vacation which gives you 50 weeks of work, then it assumes 40 hours of work per week. 50 x 40 is 2,000 hours per year. Simple.
Now, just take the annual salary, take off the final 3 zeros from the end and divide the new number by two. There you go!
Let’s look at an example. If you’re making $40,000 per year. You take off the final 3 zeros giving you $40. Divide by two gives you $20. You make $20 per hour.
If you’re making $200,000 per year, take the zeros off and get $200. Divide by two and you get $100. You make $100 per hour.
How to calculate how much you make an hour: A precise answer
If you don’t want to just assume 2,000 hours per year, we can get more precise. For example, maybe you have more time off each year, or maybe during half the year you work 60 hours a week, but only 30 hours a week during other parts of the year. You can do a ratio of hours worked and your income to get your hourly pay. Let’s look at some examples.
If you earn $50,000 per year and have four weeks of vacation and on average work 40 hours per week, then we can calculate the number of hours worked in a year as 52-4 = 48 weeks x 40 hours = 1920 hours worked.
Now divide the salary by the hours: $50,000 / 1,290 hours = $26.04. There’s your hourly pay.
One more example. You earn $75,000. Half the year you work 30 hours a week and the other half the year you work 60 hours a week. You have two weeks of vacation. So that means 50 hours of work total. 25 of them are 30 hours, and 25 of them are 60 hours. (25 x 30) + (25 x 60) = 2,250 hours total. $75,000 / 2,250 hours = $33.33. There’s your hourly pay.
So, you’ve got two ways to calculate how much money you make per hour depending on your salary. Let’s now provide a quick glance at some common salary numbers.
At a glance hourly wages by salary
Assuming two weeks of vacation and 40 hour work weeks, the following are the hourly wages associated with common salary numbers.
$40,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $40,000 a year, you are earning $20 per hour.
$50,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $50,000 a year, you are earning $25 per hour.
$60,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $60,000 a year, you are earning $30 per hour.
$70,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $70,000 a year, you are earning $35 per hour.
$80,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $80,000 a year, you are earning $40 per hour.
$90,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $90,000 a year, you are earning $45 per hour.
$100,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $100,000 a year, you are earning $50 per hour.
$110,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $110,000 a year, you are earning $55 per hour.
$120,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $120,000 a year, you are earning $60 per hour.
$130,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $130,000 a year, you are earning $65 per hour.
$140,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $140,000 a year, you are earning $70 per hour.
$150,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $150,000 a year, you are earning $75 per hour.
$175,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $175,000 a year, you are earning $87.50 per hour.
$200,000 a year is how much an hour?
If you make $200,000 a year, you are earning $100 per hour.
Other things that can affect your take-home pay
While it’s important to know your hourly pay from your salary, it’s also worth noting items that can affect your take-home pay. If you’re trying to determine how much money you will take home each paycheck, here are a few things you’ll want to be aware of.
If you’re trying to figure out your gross pay for each pay period, you need to know how many pay periods your company has in a given year. Typically this might be every two weeks, or sometimes it might be twice a month. Either way, you can determine your gross pay per paycheck by dividing your salary by the number of pay periods.
When you start a job, you will also have to fill out a W-4 form that indicates the number of exemptions you have. This determines how much tax is withheld from your paycheck by your employer. If you’re single, the exemptions number might be 0 or 1. If you have a number of dependents, the number will likely be higher.
Your tax filing status will also be important to know. Whether you are single, married filing jointly or married filing separately, these will all have a bearing on your take-home pay.
Other payroll deductions from your take-home pay include things like 401(k) contributions and various insurance plans associated with your employment (health insurance, life insurance, etc.).