Salary Calculator

How to use the salary calculator

Enter any pay figure and tell the calculator what period it covers — an hourly wage, a day rate, a weekly or biweekly paycheck, a monthly salary or an annual package. Add the hours and days you normally work each week, plus how many public holidays and vacation days you take. The calculator converts your pay into every common frequency at once so you can compare a job offer quoted per hour with one quoted per year, or check what a salary really means per month.

The results table shows two columns. The unadjusted column assumes you are paid for all 52 weeks of the year. The holidays and vacation adjusted column accounts for the days you are not working: if you are paid by the hour or day, those days usually cost you income; if you are salaried, your pay stays the same but your effective hourly rate rises because you are paid for fewer hours of work.

Salary conversion formulas

For the adjusted figures the calculator works out your real working days: working days = 52 × days per week − holidays − vacation days. An hourly worker's adjusted annual income is the hourly rate × hours per day × working days. A salaried worker's effective hourly rate is the annual salary ÷ (working days × hours per day).

Worked example

Suppose you earn $30 an hour for a 40-hour, five-day week. Without any time off that is 30 × 40 × 52 = $62,400 a year, or $5,200 a month, $2,400 biweekly and $1,200 a week. Now take 10 public holidays and 15 vacation days. A five-day week gives 260 scheduled days, so you actually work 235. If those 25 days are unpaid, your income falls to 30 × 8 × 235 = $56,400 — about $6,000 less than the headline figure. Switch the period to "Year" and enter $62,400, and the calculator instead shows that a salaried worker taking the same time off effectively earns about $33.19 per hour worked.

Biweekly vs semi-monthly vs monthly pay

These three are easy to confuse, and the difference matters for budgeting:

• Biweekly — every two weeks, giving 26 paychecks a year. Two months each year contain three paydays, which many people use as a bonus for savings.
• Semi-monthly — twice a month, usually on the 15th and last day, giving 24 slightly larger paychecks.
• Monthly — 12 paychecks, common across Europe, India, the Middle East and much of Asia.

A common mistake is to multiply a biweekly paycheck by two to get monthly pay. Because a year has 26 biweekly periods, the true monthly average is biweekly × 26 ÷ 12, about 2.17 paychecks.

Tips for comparing job offers

• Compare like with like. Convert every offer to the same basis — annual pay is easiest — and remember contractors and hourly workers usually do not get paid holidays.
• Count real hours. A salary that expects 50-hour weeks pays far less per hour than the same salary at 37.5 hours. Enter your realistic hours to see the true rate.
• Look beyond gross pay. Pension or 401(k) matching, health cover, bonuses and paid leave can be worth 20–40% of base salary.
• Think in take-home terms. Use the paycheck calculator to estimate net pay after tax and deductions, and the pay raise calculator to see what a percentage increase is worth.

All figures are gross (before tax) and are estimates; your employer's payroll rules, overtime and contract terms determine your actual pay.