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Creators & Freelancers

Hourly to salary calculator

Turn an hourly rate into an annual salary, and see it the other way too. It uses the hours and weeks you actually work, not a flat 2,080-hour year, and shows the paid-time-off gap that is the real reason a contractor needs a higher hourly rate than a salaried worker to match the same pay.

§ 01 Your numbers

Change anything. The answer updates as you type.

Your hourly rate or the one you are considering.
The hours you actually work in a typical week.
Weeks you actually work and bill. A salaried worker is paid for 52; a contractor taking four weeks off works 48, and that gap is the whole point.
Annualized
$96,000
  • Per month$8,000
  • Per week$2,000
  • Salaried-equivalent (a full 52 weeks)$104,000
  • Weeks off a salaried worker is still paid for$8,000
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$40,000 to $100,000 annualized is a full-time freelance income. Get the quarterly taxes and the benefits you now buy yourself in order.

What this assumes, and where it could be wrong

Every one of these is a place the number could be off. They are here because you should be able to check our working, not because we are hedging.

A YEAR IS NOT 2,080 HOURS FOR A FREELANCER, AND THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT.
The standard annualization multiplies an hourly rate by 2,080, which is 40 hours times 52 weeks with nobody taking a day off. A contractor who takes four weeks unpaid works 48 weeks, so the honest annual figure is lower, and it is exactly why a freelance hourly rate has to be higher than a salaried one to land at the same pay. The hours and weeks are your inputs

The paid-time-off gap is real money, not a rounding error. A salaried worker is paid for 52 weeks and works fewer; a contractor is paid only for the weeks they work. The gap the calculator shows is what that difference is worth on your numbers, and it is the first thing to price into a contract rate.

This converts gross pay, before taxes. As a contractor, the annual figure also carries self-employment tax and no employer benefits, which is a further reason the hourly needs to be higher. The self-employment tax calculator handles that half.

Overtime, unpaid admin, and marketing time are not in this. If you bill 40 hours but work 55, your true hourly is lower than the number in the box, and the freelance rate calculator is built to account for the share of hours you actually invoice.

The defaults are ours and are a starting point. Set the hours and weeks to your real ones, because the answer is only as honest as those two inputs.

Frequently asked questions

How do I convert an hourly rate to a salary?
Multiply the hourly rate by the hours you work each week and the weeks you work each year. The common shortcut multiplies by 2,080 (40 hours times 52 weeks), but that assumes you never take unpaid time off, which is true for a salaried worker but not for a contractor who takes unpaid time off. The calculator above uses your real hours and weeks.
What is $50 an hour annually?
At a full 40-hour week and all 52 weeks, fifty dollars an hour is $104,000 a year. But a contractor who takes four weeks unpaid works 48 weeks, which brings it to $96,000, and the $8,000 difference is the paid time off a salaried worker still gets. The calculator shows both figures side by side.
Why does a contractor need a higher hourly rate than a salaried worker?
Because the contractor is not paid for time off, carries self-employment tax, and gets no employer benefits or paid holidays. To match a salaried package, the hourly has to cover all of that, which is why a straight rate-times-2,080 comparison flatters the salaried job and understates what a contractor needs.
How many working hours are in a year?
The standard full-time figure is 2,080, which is 40 hours across 52 weeks with no time off. Real working years are shorter once you subtract holidays, vacation, and sick days, so a salaried worker's effective hourly is higher than 2,080 implies, and a contractor's honest year is shorter still.

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