Twenty dollars an hour is $41,600 a year. The math behind it: full-time work is 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, which comes to 2,080 hours a year, and $20 x 2,080 = $41,600.
That single formula converts any hourly wage to an annual salary. But the raw conversion is only the start. Overtime, part-time schedules, and taxes all bend the final number - often by more than the formula itself suggests.
Here are the full conversion tables, the overtime math, and the one comparison mistake to avoid when weighing an hourly job against a salaried offer.
The 2,080-hour formula
Annual salary = hourly rate x 2,080.
The 2,080 comes from the standard full-time year: 40 hours a week times 52 weeks. It is the convention employers and job boards use, which makes it the right basis for comparing offers.
For quick head math, double the hourly rate and add three zeros: $20 becomes $40,000. That shortcut uses 2,000 hours instead of 2,080, so it runs about 4% low - fine for a gut check, not for a decision.
The formula’s honest assumption: you are paid for all 52 weeks. That holds if your paid time off is real (you take vacation and still get paid) or you simply work year-round. Unpaid weeks - a seasonal gap, unpaid leave - come straight out of the total.
Conversion table: $15 to $60 an hour
All figures are gross pay (pay before taxes and deductions) at 40 hours a week.
| Hourly rate | Weekly (40 hrs) | Yearly (2,080 hrs) |
|---|---|---|
| $15 | $600 | $31,200 |
| $16 | $640 | $33,280 |
| $17 | $680 | $35,360 |
| $18 | $720 | $37,440 |
| $19 | $760 | $39,520 |
| $20 | $800 | $41,600 |
| $22 | $880 | $45,760 |
| $25 | $1,000 | $52,000 |
| $28 | $1,120 | $58,240 |
| $30 | $1,200 | $62,400 |
| $35 | $1,400 | $72,800 |
| $40 | $1,600 | $83,200 |
| $45 | $1,800 | $93,600 |
| $50 | $2,000 | $104,000 |
| $55 | $2,200 | $114,400 |
| $60 | $2,400 | $124,800 |
Remember what this table is not: your take-home pay. Taxes and deductions come out before anything reaches your bank - gross vs net pay covers exactly what comes out and why.
Want your exact wage instead of a table row? Every wage from $10 to $100 an hour has its own page - yearly, monthly, biweekly, and take-home in all 50 states plus D.C. - in the hourly wage directory.
Overtime changes the math
If you are non-exempt (eligible for overtime - most hourly workers are), federal law under the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) requires 1.5x your regular rate for hours past 40 in a week.
That premium adds up fast. Say you earn $20 an hour and average 5 overtime hours a week:
- Overtime rate: $20 x 1.5 = $30 an hour
- Extra pay: 5 hours x $30 = $150 a week
- Over a year: $150 x 52 = $7,800
- New annual total: $41,600 + $7,800 = $49,400
Five extra hours a week - 12.5% more time - raised annual pay by 18.75%. That premium is why a lower-paying hourly job with steady overtime can out-earn a salaried offer, since most salaried (exempt) roles pay nothing extra for hour 41.
Two honest caveats. Overtime is not promised - staffing changes and slow seasons can cut it without notice, so budget on your base 40 hours and treat overtime as extra. And check your own classification: some salaried workers are actually non-exempt and owed overtime, because exempt status depends on duties and pay level, not on the word salary.
If your overtime income swings month to month, a structure like the 50-30-20 budget works best when you run it on the income you can count on.
Part-time: same formula, your hours
Swap 40 for your real weekly hours: annual pay = hourly rate x hours per week x 52.
| Hours per week | $18/hr | $20/hr | $25/hr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | $18,720 | $20,800 | $26,000 |
| 25 | $23,400 | $26,000 | $32,500 |
| 30 | $28,080 | $31,200 | $39,000 |
| 35 | $32,760 | $36,400 | $45,500 |
The wage-only comparison undersells full-time work in one way: benefits. Employer health coverage, 401(k) matching, and paid time off often ride on full-time status, and they are worth real money beyond the hourly rate. When you compare a part-time and a full-time offer, price the benefits in, not just the wage.
Going the other way: salary to hourly
Divide the salary by 2,080. A $65,000 offer is $31.25 an hour. A $50,000 salary is about $24.04.
This direction matters when a salaried offer lands and you currently earn a wage. Two checks worth running:
- The straight rate. $65,000 sounds much bigger than $30 an hour. At 2,080 hours it is $31.25, so it genuinely is bigger - barely.
- The real-hours rate. Salaried roles often expect more than 40 hours with no overtime pay. That same $65,000 at a steady 50 hours a week works out to $25 an hour (65,000 divided by 2,600 hours). If the role’s culture means long weeks, the effective rate can fall below the wage you left.
Ask about real expected hours before you compare. It is the difference between a raise and a pay cut wearing a raise’s clothes.
The unpaid-time-off gap most converters miss
The 2,080 formula quietly assumes one thing: you are paid for all 52 weeks. That holds for salaried jobs and for hourly jobs with paid time off. It often does not hold for hourly work - about 1 in 5 private-sector workers gets no paid holidays at all, and the lowest-paid hourly jobs are the least likely to offer any paid days off (BLS). When your time off is unpaid, the salary a converter shows you is a ceiling you only reach by never missing a scheduled hour.
Here is the gap in real numbers. Say you earn $25 an hour, and a converter shows $25 x 2,080 = $52,000. It is easy to read that as your income. But over the year you lose 15 unpaid workdays - a mix of the days your workplace closes for holidays without paying hourly staff, a family emergency, and two sick days. That is 120 hours (15 days x 8), so you actually work 2,080 - 120 = 1,960 hours.
Your real pay: 1,960 x $25 = $49,000. The $52,000 headline overstated your year by $3,000 - nearly 6% - and every dollar of that gap is time you were never paid for.
Now run the round trip and watch it break. Divide your real $49,000 by the standard 2,080 and you get about $23.56 an hour - lower than the $25 you actually earn - because you divided by 2,080 hours you never worked. The round trip only closes when the hours match on both sides. That is why 2,080 is the right basis for comparing offers (every job is measured the same way) but the wrong basis for budgeting your paycheck when your days off are unpaid.
The mirror image is the salaried worker. Give a $52,000 salaried employee those same 15 days as paid time off and they still collect $52,000 while working 1,960 hours - a true rate of $26.53 an hour, which the work-hours-in-a-year guide breaks down in full. Same headline number, opposite reality: paid time off quietly raises your real rate, unpaid time off quietly lowers your real pay.
The rule: convert at 2,080 to compare jobs, then subtract your realistic unpaid hours before you budget on the result.
Compare net pay, not gross pay
Every number so far is gross. What you can actually spend is net - what remains after federal income tax, FICA (7.65% combined for Social Security and Medicare on most wages), and state income tax where your state charges one.
Net is where two identical offers stop being identical. The same $52,000 produces a different take-home in Texas than in California, because state income tax differs - nine states charge none at all on wages (the full list).
So finish every conversion with one more step: run the annual figure through our take-home pay calculator with your state and filing status. Compare jobs on the number that reaches your bank - and treat the results as estimates, not tax advice.
FAQ
How much is $25 an hour per year?
$52,000 gross at full time: $25 x 2,080 hours. Your take-home will be noticeably lower after taxes, so run it through the take-home pay calculator with your state to get the real number.
Why 2,080 hours and not 2,000?
Because a year holds 52 weeks, and 40 x 52 = 2,080. The 2,000-hour shortcut exists only because it is easy to multiply in your head - it quietly drops two weeks of pay, so use it for estimates, never for comparing offers.
Does the formula include overtime or bonuses?
No - it converts base wage only. Add overtime at 1.5x your rate for the hours you reliably work past 40 a week, and treat bonuses separately since they are usually not promised. Base pay is the floor; everything else is upside.
I work 32 hours a week. What is my annual pay?
Multiply your rate by 32, then by 52. At $22 an hour that is $22 x 32 x 52 = $36,608. Some employers treat 32 hours as full time for benefits and some do not, so ask - the wage math and the benefits math are separate questions.
Do paid holidays and vacation change the hourly-to-salary math?
Only when they are unpaid. The 2,080 formula already assumes you are paid for all 52 weeks, so paid holidays and paid vacation are baked in - you do not add them on top. The one time you adjust is when your time off is unpaid: subtract those hours from 2,080, because that money never reaches your paycheck. A $25 wage is $52,000 at 2,080 paid hours, but only $49,000 if 120 of those hours are unpaid days off.
Is salary better than hourly?
Neither wins by default. Salary usually buys predictability; hourly pays for every hour you actually work, including overtime at 1.5x if you are non-exempt. Convert both to a yearly number, subtract taxes with the calculator, price in the benefits, and compare what reaches your bank.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Labor - overtime pay under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
- Social Security Administration - 2026 FICA rates
- IRS (2026 figures)
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - Employee Benefits Survey / National Compensation Survey (access to paid holidays and vacation, private industry, 2025)
