Hourly to Salary Calculator
Convert hourly rate to annual salary, or annual salary to hourly. Adjust hours per week, weeks per year, and tax rate for an accurate take-home estimate.
Hourly
$50.00
Weekly
$2,000
Monthly
$8,667
Annual gross
$104,000
Going freelance? Triple this number.
A salary equivalent does not include taxes, benefits, time off, and unbilled admin hours. Use the Freelance Rate Calculator to find what you actually need to charge to net this salary as a freelancer.
Find your freelance rateHourly to salary, simply
The classic shortcut: $1/hour ≈ $2,000/year at a standard 40-hour work week and 50 working weeks. So $50/hour ≈ $100K/year, $75/hour ≈ $150K/year. This shortcut helps in negotiations and quick mental math, but the actual figure depends on your hours per week and weeks worked.
Salary-to-hourly is the same math inverted: divide your annual salary by total hours worked per year. A $80K salary at 40 hours per week over 52 weeks works out to $38.46 per hour. Most people compare this to their freelance rate and are surprised by how low it is — that comparison is the foundation of going independent.
Why freelance rates need to be much higher
A W-2 employee earning $100K is roughly equivalent to a freelancer billing at $150 to $200/hour — not $50/hour. The freelancer pays both halves of payroll tax (~7.65% extra), funds their own benefits ($10K to $30K), takes unpaid time off, covers software and hardware, and has substantial unbillable hours (sales, admin, scoping). After all that, the effective rate is usually 50% to 65% of stated rate. A freelancer billing $100/hour stated often earns the equivalent of $50 to $65/hour W-2.