Salary to Hourly Converter
Convert between annual salary and hourly rate instantly. See your pay broken down by hour, day, week, month, and year with configurable working hours and weeks.
Convert Annual Salary
Hourly Rate
£20.51
per hour, based on 1,950 hours/year
Why Salary and Hourly Rate Are Not Interchangeable
On paper a £40,000 salary at a 37.5-hour week converts to £20.51 per hour using 52 weeks. In practice salaried workers usually take 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave plus 8 bank holidays, which means they actually work closer to 1,762 hours, pushing the effective hourly rate to £22.70. Hourly contractors are typically only paid for hours worked, so to match a salaried equivalent including holiday pay they need a higher headline rate.
When converting your salary to an hourly figure, decide whether you are calculating gross hourly equivalent (assuming all 52 weeks paid) or true hourly working rate (only counting hours actually worked). The calculator defaults to all 52 weeks because that is the most common comparison; toggle the working weeks down to 46.6 if you want to see the figure that includes statutory leave and bank holidays.
Salary to Hourly Conversion Reference (37.5 Hour Week, 52 Weeks)
| Annual Salary | Hourly Rate | Daily (8 hr) | Weekly |
|---|---|---|---|
| £25,000 | £12.82 | £102.56 | £480.77 |
| £35,000 | £17.95 | £143.59 | £673.08 |
| £45,000 | £23.08 | £184.62 | £865.38 |
| £60,000 | £30.77 | £246.15 | £1,153.85 |
| £80,000 | £41.03 | £328.21 | £1,538.46 |
| £100,000 | £51.28 | £410.26 | £1,923.08 |
Going Freelance: What Multiplier to Apply
A common shortcut for salaried workers considering freelance is to take their hourly rate and multiply by 2 to 2.5. The doubling is not greed, it accounts for the costs that disappear from your day when you leave employment. As a freelancer you absorb your own pension contributions (around 5 to 8% of income for parity), your own holiday pay (10.7% to match statutory leave), sick pay, training, equipment, accounting fees, and any periods between contracts.
On a £40,000 salary equivalent (£20.51 per hour), a fair freelance day rate sits between £325 and £410 (8 hours at £41 to £51). Anything below £40 per hour as a UK freelancer is below the loaded cost of an equivalent permanent employee, which means you are quietly subsidising the client's business. The [side-hustle-hourly-rate](/side-hustle-hourly-rate) tool gives a brutal truth check on what your real hourly figure looks like once expenses come out.
Hourly to Salary: What Job Listings Actually Mean
When a role is advertised at '£18 per hour, full time', that sits at a £35,100 annual gross at 37.5 hours over 52 weeks, or roughly £33,750 if you back out the unpaid weeks of statutory leave. Job ads are inconsistent; some include leave, some quote what would be paid if you worked every week of the year. Always ask whether quoted hours include paid holidays and bank holidays before accepting; the difference between the two assumptions is around 10% of total pay.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many working hours are in a year in the UK?
The standard full-time week in the UK is 37.5 hours, which gives 1,950 hours over a 52-week year. After statutory holiday entitlement (28 days including bank holidays for a 5-day worker, equivalent to 5.6 weeks), actual working hours come down to roughly 1,740 to 1,762 hours per year. Use 1,950 for gross conversions and 1,740 for true working-rate comparisons.
Should I use 40 or 37.5 hours per week?
Use 37.5 hours for most UK office and professional roles, which usually count an unpaid lunch break as outside working hours. Use 40 hours for shift work, retail, hospitality and most US-style contracts where the lunch break is included or unpaid breaks are shorter. The calculator lets you set the figure manually so you can match your specific contract.
Does this calculator account for tax?
No, this is a gross conversion only. To see your take-home figure after income tax, National Insurance and pension contributions, use the UK tax calculator. As a quick rule of thumb, take-home in the UK is typically 70 to 75% of gross for salaries between £25,000 and £50,000, falling lower as you cross higher rate tax thresholds.
What hourly rate equates to a £50k salary?
A £50,000 salary equates to approximately £25.64 per hour at a standard 37.5-hour week over 52 weeks. Adjusted for 5.6 weeks of statutory leave plus bank holidays, the true working-rate figure is closer to £28.41 per hour. A freelancer aiming for £50,000 a year billable income with normal expenses should target a day rate of around £400 to £450.
Why does the daily rate use 8 hours?
Eight hours is the standard contracting and freelance day length, which usually maps to a working day with a paid hour for lunch (so a 9 to 5 day). Many salaried roles work a 7.5-hour day. The calculator uses 8 hours for the daily figure because that is the most common comparison when discussing day rates with clients or recruiters.
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