Hourly to Salary Calculator

To convert hourly to annual: multiply your hourly rate by your weekly hours, then multiply by the weeks you actually work in a year. £20/hour at 40 hours over 52 weeks = £41,600 annual gross. To convert annual to hourly: divide salary by (weekly hours x weeks worked). The same £41,600 at 40 hours x 52 weeks = £20/hour.

The number that catches most people out is the weeks-worked figure. Salaried staff are paid for 52 weeks even though they take 5-6 weeks of holiday plus bank holidays; hourly contractors usually only earn during the weeks they work, which is closer to 46-48. If you are quoted £25/hour as a freelancer, that is not the same gross income as £52,000 salaried, even though the simple maths suggests it is. The calculator shows hourly, daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly and annual side by side so you can spot the right comparison.

Negotiating a contract role versus a permanent role is the obvious case. A permanent £45,000 with 28 days holiday is roughly equivalent to £24/hour as a contractor only if the contractor works 46 weeks; at 40 weeks the contractor needs about £27.50/hour to match. Use the [UK Tax Calculator](/uk-tax-calculator) afterwards to compare take-home, because employed PAYE and umbrella company contractors pay tax differently from limited-company directors.

The other big use is comparing job offers with different working patterns. A £30,000 salary at 35 hours a week is a higher hourly rate (£16.48) than £32,000 at 40 hours a week (£15.38), which most candidates do not realise until they run the numbers. Part-time roles, compressed weeks (4 days x 10 hours), and term-time-only contracts all distort the headline salary, and the converter quietly does that comparison for you.