Hourly to Salary Calculator
Work out the annual, weekly, and monthly equivalent of an hourly rate — at any working pattern, gross of tax and social charges.
Hourly → Salary
€20.00 per hour over 1,820 hours a year (35 h/wk × 52 wk) works out at €36,400.00 a year — gross.
Results update as you type. Figures are gross — before tax and deductions.
Formula
Hourly to annual is a single multiplication:
annual = hourly × hours_per_week × weeks_per_year.
Drop weeks/year below 52 if you take unpaid leave or expect gaps between contracts. Use the
Salary → Hourly tab to flip the calculation:
hourly = annual / (hours_per_week × weeks_per_year).
When this calculator helps
An hourly rate is difficult to judge until you turn it into an annual figure, which is the number most contracts and budgets across the euro area are built around. Use this tool when you are comparing job offers, deciding between freelance and employed work, or planning your monthly budget around pay that arrives as an hourly rate rather than a fixed salary.
Plenty of work across Europe is priced by the hour — hospitality, care, construction, seasonal, contract and platform roles among them. Converting the rate to a yearly figure lets you set a €20-an-hour job against a salaried position on equal terms, so you can see which genuinely pays more before you decide. Because working norms differ widely between member states, getting the hours and weeks right matters more here than almost anywhere.
How to read your result
The annual figure is gross — it is your pay before income tax and social-security contributions are deducted, and those charges are substantial in much of the euro area, so your net pay will be considerably lower. It is simply your hourly rate multiplied by your weekly hours and the weeks you work in the year, so the inputs need to match your actual contract.
Full-time hours vary by country, so set the weekly hours to your own arrangement rather than assuming a single norm. Keep weeks at 52 if your paid annual leave is already reflected in the rate; if it is not, reduce the weeks so the figure mirrors the time you will genuinely be earning.
A worked example
Take €20 an hour on a 35-hour week, the statutory full-time pattern in France. Across 52 weeks that is €20 × 35 × 52 = €36,400 gross a year. If instead you work a 40-hour week, common in several member states, the same rate annualises to €41,600 — a sizeable difference from the hours alone. This is why setting the weekly hours to your country's norm, rather than a single assumed figure, matters so much across the euro area.
Common mistakes to avoid
Most errors come from treating the gross annual figure as guaranteed net income, or from assuming one country's rules apply everywhere.
- Assuming 52 paid weeks when your role gives no paid leave — unpaid time off reduces the real annual figure.
- Reading the gross figure as take-home; income tax and social-security charges of 20% or more apply in many member states.
- Using one country's full-time hours for another — statutory full-time ranges from 35 hours upward across the EU.
- Overlooking 13th- or 14th-month payments and holiday allowances, which change how an annual figure is actually paid out.
EU working hours and paid leave
There is no single full-time week across the euro area: France's statutory figure is 35 hours, while 38 to 40 is common elsewhere, so the calculator lets you set whatever your contract specifies. The EU Working Time Directive caps the average working week at 48 hours, including overtime, measured over a reference period, which sets the outer limit for any pattern you enter.
On paid leave the EU sets a firmer floor: the Directive guarantees every worker at least four weeks — 20 days — of paid annual leave, and many member states grant more, alongside public holidays that vary by country. Because that minimum is statutory, a salaried role and a bare hourly rate are not directly comparable; before judging an hourly offer, add back the value of the paid leave and any social benefits it may not include.
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Frequently asked questions
What's a fair hours/week to use across the EU?▾
It varies. France's statutory full-time is 35 hours; Germany typically 35–40; Spain moving to 37.5 from 2025; Netherlands often 36–40; Nordic countries 37–40. The calculator defaults to 35 — adjust to your contract. The EU Working Time Directive caps the average week at 48 hours over a 17-week reference period.
Are figures gross of social-security contributions?▾
Yes — the result is gross. Net pay varies enormously across EU member states. France, Germany, and Belgium have employee social-charge rates of 20%+ on top of income tax; Bulgaria and Ireland are notably lower. Country-specific payroll calculators are the only reliable way to estimate take-home.
What about 13th-month payments and holiday allowance?▾
Several countries fold an extra month's pay (or more) into the annual figure: Italy and Portugal pay 13–14 months; Netherlands adds ~8% as 'vakantiegeld' holiday allowance; Spain frequently pays 14 months. If your hourly is a contracted hourly figure, the calculator's annual ÷ (hours × weeks) is the right computation regardless of how it's paid out — it just won't match a per-pay-period payslip exactly.
How does this work for cross-border or remote roles?▾
The maths is independent of where you live or the employer is registered. Tax and social-security treatment, however, depend on residency, the bilateral social-security agreement, and any double-tax treaty. For a remote-EU role with a foreign employer, payroll structure can range from a local employer of record (typical) to direct foreign payroll (rare, usually triggers obligations). The calculator gives the headline annualised gross; specialist advice handles the tax implications.
Why is hourly often better paid than salaried for the same headline?▾
Two reasons. First, hourly roles often lack paid leave, so the same headline figure does more work each year — fewer non-working hours covered. Second, hourly pricing tends to attract a risk premium: less job security, fewer benefits, sometimes a 'casual rate' uplift codified in the country's labour code. As a rough rule, treat a salaried gross as worth ~10–20% more than the same headline hourly × 1,820, after accounting for paid holiday, sick leave, and pension benefits.