Hourly to Salary Calculator
Work out the annual, weekly, and monthly equivalent of an hourly rate — at any working pattern, gross of tax.
Hourly → Salary
£20.00 per hour over 1,950 hours a year (37.5 h/wk × 52 wk) works out at £39,000.00 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 on its own is hard to judge. This tool turns it into the annual figure most of us actually think in, which makes it far easier to size up a job. Reach for it when you are comparing an agency or zero-hours rate against a permanent salary, weighing up going freelance versus staying employed, or simply trying to budget month to month when your pay arrives as an hourly figure rather than a fixed wage.
In the UK a lot of work is priced by the hour — care, hospitality, construction, contracting, supply teaching and locum roles among them. Seeing the annualised equivalent lets you line a £20-an-hour offer up against a £35,000 salaried post on the same terms, so you can compare like with like before you decide which is genuinely the better deal.
How to read your result
The annual figure is gross — it is your pay before income tax, National Insurance and any pension contribution come out, so your take-home will be meaningfully lower. It is simply your hourly rate multiplied by the hours you work each week and the number of weeks you work in the year, so it is only as accurate as those two inputs.
That makes the weeks-per-year setting the one to watch. Leave it at 52 and the calculator assumes you are paid for every single week, including any time off. If your hourly role has no paid holiday, drop the weeks to reflect the time you will not be earning — otherwise the annual figure will flatter the offer.
A worked example
Take a rate of £20 an hour on a standard 37.5-hour week. Across a full 52 weeks that comes to £20 × 37.5 × 52 = £39,000 gross a year. But say the role offers no paid holiday and you take the equivalent of four weeks off unpaid: set weeks to 48 and the figure falls to £36,000. That £3,000 gap is exactly why the holiday position matters so much when you are comparing an hourly rate against a salaried one.
Common mistakes to avoid
Most of the confusion comes from treating the headline annual figure as if it were guaranteed, paid-for income.
- Assuming 52 paid weeks when your hourly role gives no paid leave — unpaid time off pulls the real annual figure down.
- Reading the gross figure as take-home; income tax, National Insurance and pension contributions still come off.
- Comparing an agency hourly rate to a salary without valuing the missing holiday pay, sick pay and employer pension.
- Leaving overtime or holiday pay in your base rate, which inflates the contractual annual figure.
UK working hours and paid holiday
A full-time week in the UK is commonly around 37.5 hours, though 40 is widespread in some sectors and the calculator lets you set whatever your contract says. The key UK feature, though, is statutory paid holiday: most workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks — 28 days for a five-day week — and this can include the public and bank holidays. Salaried staff get that built into their pay, which is why a salary and a bare hourly rate are not directly comparable.
Hourly and agency rates often look higher precisely because they may not include that paid holiday, employer pension or sick pay, and they should be checked against the National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage floors, which rise each April. When you compare an hourly offer with a salary, add the value of the paid time off and benefits back in rather than judging on the headline rate alone.
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Frequently asked questions
Why does this give a higher figure than my actual annual income?▾
Because hourly-paid work usually has gaps. The calculator assumes you actually work the hours you enter every week of the year. If you take unpaid leave, are between contracts, or your hours fluctuate, your real annual figure will be lower. Drop weeks/year to model time off — for example, set it to 48 if you typically take four weeks unpaid.
How do agency or zero-hours rates compare to a salaried equivalent?▾
Headline-for-headline, an agency hourly rate is usually higher than a permanent salaried rate to cover the lack of paid holiday, sick pay, employer pension contributions, and job security. As a rough rule: a £20/hour agency rate for full-time hours is broadly comparable to a £35,000–£37,000 permanent salary — and notably less if benefits are generous. The calculator gives you the headline annualised figure; weigh the package, not just the rate.
Is the annual figure before tax?▾
Yes — gross. To estimate take-home for the UK, deduct: income tax (20% above the personal allowance, then 40%, then 45%), Class 1 National Insurance (~8% above the primary threshold for employees), and pension auto-enrolment (5% minimum employee contribution if opted in). For a basic-rate single earner, net is roughly 70–75% of gross.
What about overtime — does this calculator handle it?▾
Not directly. Enter your base hourly rate and base hours/week to get the salary-equivalent of your contractual pattern. If overtime is a meaningful part of your earnings, do a separate calculation for the overtime hours at the higher rate, then add the two annualised figures.
Does this work for self-employed day rates?▾
Loosely. Convert a day rate to hourly first (day rate ÷ hours per day), then enter that. But a self-employed annual gross is not directly comparable to a salaried gross — you'll have business expenses, no paid holiday, and self-employed National Insurance instead of Class 1. Subtract roughly 25–30% from the calculator's annual figure for a like-for-like comparison with PAYE.