Start with paid hours
For a simple hourly-to-annual conversion, multiply hourly rate by paid hours per week and working weeks per year. At $25 per hour, 40 hours per week and 52 paid weeks, the gross annual equivalent is $52,000.
If some weeks are unpaid, use the actual number of paid working weeks instead of automatically using 52.
Annual salary to hourly rate
The reverse conversion divides annual salary by annual working hours. A $52,000 salary divided by 2,080 hours gives $25 per hour.
This is a comparison rate, not necessarily a payroll rate. Salaried work can include variable weekly hours, paid leave, bonuses and benefits that are not captured by a simple division.
Monthly and biweekly are different schedules
Monthly pay is annual pay divided by 12. Biweekly pay is annual pay divided by 26 in a typical year with 26 two-week pay periods. Twice-monthly pay would instead use 24 pay periods.
That distinction matters because two biweekly paychecks do not always equal one monthly amount. Some months contain three biweekly paydays.
Compare more than one number
Gross pay is only one part of compensation. When comparing jobs or contracts, consider schedule, paid leave, benefits, overtime eligibility, commute and other factors separately. NumLuma’s pay calculators intentionally focus on the arithmetic rather than pretending those external factors are identical.