See what your pay looks like at every level β hourly, weekly, monthly, or annual β all from one number. Enter your wage or salary, your hours, and your paid time off, and the calculator converts it across every standard US pay period instantly.
This salary calculator converts wage figures across all standard US pay periods: hourly, daily, weekly, biweekly (every 2 weeks), semimonthly (twice per month, 24 times per year), monthly, and annual. It accepts total paid days off per year (vacation + holidays) to calculate working hours accurately, since a $55,000 salary at 260 paid working days differs from one at 240. An optional cost-of-living adjustment lets you compare offers in different metro areas. The output includes gross pay at every period, your effective hourly rate accounting for PTO, and a side-by-side salary comparison table if you're evaluating two offers.
1. Select your input pay type: hourly, weekly, biweekly, monthly, or annual.
2. Enter your wage or salary figure.
3. Enter your weekly hours (default: 40) and paid days off per year (vacation + holidays; typical range 10β25).
4. Optionally, enter a second offer or a raise amount for a side-by-side comparison.
5. Optionally, select your state and target city for a cost-of-living adjustment.
6. Click Calculate to see your salary at every pay period and your effective hourly rate.
The salary calculator uses a straightforward hourly-to-annual chain:
Annual salary = Hourly rate Γ Hours per week Γ Working weeks per year
Working weeks = 52 β (Paid days off Γ· 5). For a standard 40-hour week with 10 days PTO: 52 β 2 = 50 working weeks. Annual = Hourly Γ 40 Γ 50. Then all other periods derive from the annual figure: Monthly = Annual Γ· 12; Biweekly = Annual Γ· 26; Semimonthly = Annual Γ· 24; Weekly = Annual Γ· 52; Daily = Annual Γ· Working days; Hourly = Annual Γ· (Working weeks Γ Weekly hours). Note: biweekly (26 pays) differs from semimonthly (24 pays) β a common source of confusion.
Gross salary is your pay before any taxes or deductions. Your actual take-home is meaningfully lower β for a $70,000 salary with standard deductions in 2026, federal income tax, Social Security, and Medicare together typically reduce take-home by 20β27%, depending on your state and filing status. Use this salary calculator to establish your gross figures, then run the take-home paycheck calculator for the net picture.
The choice between hourly and salaried employment is rarely as simple as comparing the headline numbers. Salaried positions typically include benefits β health insurance, paid leave, 401(k) matching β that can add $8,000β$20,000 in annual compensation value beyond the base pay. Hourly roles, especially contractor or 1099 arrangements, may offer higher gross rates but require you to self-fund benefits, pay self-employment tax (15.3%), and manage your own retirement savings.
A 2026 benchmark: if you're moving from a $26/hour W-2 position with employer benefits to a $36/hour 1099 contractor role, the contractor rate needs to account for self-employment tax (~$5.51/hour at that income level), health insurance ($400β$700/month), retirement contributions, and lack of paid leave. Run the true hourly equivalent and you may find the $36 contract rate is roughly equivalent to a $28β$30 W-2 hourly β or perhaps just barely better. The salary calculator's cost-of-employment adjustment helps you make this comparison precisely.
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) sets a minimum salary threshold for employees to qualify for exemption from overtime pay. As of 2024, the Department of Labor raised the threshold to $684/week ($35,568/year) for the standard exemption. A pending rule aimed to raise this to $55,068/year, but it was blocked in court and remains litigated. The current enforceable threshold is $684/week.
Why does this matter for your salary calculation? If you're offered a salary below $35,568, your employer must pay overtime (1.5Γ your regular rate) for hours beyond 40/week β and you should factor that into your total compensation estimate. If you're offered a salary above that threshold and classified as exempt, no overtime applies, even if you regularly work 50-hour weeks. That's equivalent to working unpaid overtime, and the effective hourly rate drops accordingly. Modeling this in the salary calculator β using actual expected hours instead of 40 β often reveals an unflattering effective hourly rate on nominal salaried offers.
A $75,000 salary in Omaha, Nebraska has significantly more purchasing power than the same salary in San Francisco, California. The Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) tracks cost-of-living indices by metro area. San Francisco's composite index sits around 180 vs. Omaha's roughly 88 (US average = 100). That means a San Francisco salary of $75,000 is equivalent to about $41,000 in purchasing power in Omaha β or conversely, you'd need about $164,000 in San Francisco to match Omaha's $75,000 quality of life.
For job seekers evaluating offers in different cities, this is one of the most undercalculated factors. The salary calculator's cost-of-living adjustment uses C2ER indices to convert any salary to its purchasing-power equivalent in another city. A tech professional choosing between a $105,000 offer in Austin and a $130,000 offer in New York City, for example, may find Austin's lower number actually delivers more purchasing power after cost-of-living adjustment.
Every week of paid leave you take is a week you're still paid β your effective working hourly rate is lower than the raw math suggests.
Health insurance, 401(k) match, and employer payroll taxes add 25β40% to the employer's cost above your stated salary.
Biweekly (26 pays) produces two "extra" paychecks per year compared to semimonthly (24 pays) β the gross per check differs even at the same annual salary.
FLSA-exempt vs. non-exempt status determines whether extra hours are compensated.
State taxes vary from 0% (Texas, Florida, Nevada) to 13.3% (California top rate), dramatically affecting net pay.
Purchasing power varies by 40β60% between the cheapest and most expensive US metros.
Latoya works 40 hours/week as an administrative coordinator at $22.50/hour. She gets 10 vacation days and 8 federal holidays (18 days total). Working weeks = 52 β 3.6 = 48.4. Annual gross = $22.50 Γ 40 Γ 48.4 = $43,560. Biweekly gross = $43,560 Γ· 26 = $1,675.38. Semimonthly = $43,560 Γ· 24 = $1,815. Monthly = $3,630. The difference between biweekly and semimonthly paychecks ($1,675 vs. $1,815) often surprises workers who are used to one schedule and switch to the other.
Theo's salary increases from $68,000 to $74,500 in Portland β a $6,500 annual raise (9.56%). Biweekly raise impact: $6,500 Γ· 26 = $250 more per paycheck before taxes. After federal income tax, Social Security, Medicare, and Oregon state income tax (~8.75% at this income level), the additional take-home per paycheck is roughly $148. Theo uses the salary calculator and take-home paycheck calculator together to calibrate his revised monthly budget.
1. Always ask for the total compensation package, not just base salary. A $5,000 raise is worth less than switching to an employer with a 5% 401(k) match on a $70,000 salary ($3,500/year + tax savings).
2. Model your effective hourly rate before accepting a salaried offer. Divide expected annual salary by your realistic expected annual working hours β including regular overtime β to see your true hourly equivalent.
3. Check FLSA exemption status. If you're classified as exempt and regularly work over 40 hours, your effective hourly rate may be lower than you think.
4. Use cost-of-living tools before relocating. Don't accept a "raise" to a higher-cost city without running the real purchasing-power math first.
5. Negotiate total compensation, not just base. Signing bonuses, extra vacation days, remote work stipends, and vesting schedules all have calculable dollar values.
Multiply your hourly rate by weekly hours, then by working weeks per year. For 40 hours/week with 2 weeks PTO: hourly Γ 40 Γ 50 = annual salary. The salary calculator handles this instantly with any PTO configuration.
Biweekly means 26 pay periods per year (every 2 weeks). Semimonthly means 24 pay periods per year (twice per month). At the same annual salary, biweekly paychecks are slightly smaller but you receive two extra checks per year.
US median annual earnings for full-time workers are approximately $62,000β$65,000 in 2026, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Median hourly earnings are around $30β$31. These vary significantly by occupation, education level, and geography.
The salary calculator shows gross pay only. For net (after-tax) pay, use the Take-Home Paycheck Calculator which applies 2026 federal and state tax rates.
Under FLSA, overtime is 1.5Γ the regular hourly rate for hours over 40/week. Some states (California, for example) require daily overtime for hours over 8/day regardless of weekly total.
The current FLSA threshold for salaried overtime exemption is $684/week ($35,568/year). Salaried employees earning above this threshold in bona fide executive, administrative, or professional roles are exempt from overtime requirements.
Contractors pay self-employment tax of 15.3% (on the first $184,500 of net earnings in 2026), must fund their own benefits, and receive no paid leave. A common rule: your contractor rate should be 25β30% higher than an equivalent W-2 rate to break even on total compensation.
Divide the annual raise amount by your number of pay periods (26 for biweekly, 24 for semimonthly, 12 for monthly). Apply your marginal tax rate to find the after-tax take-home increase per check.
Brief disclaimer: This calculator provides estimates for educational and planning purposes only. Actual salary, tax withholding, and benefit values depend on your employer, location, and individual circumstances. FLSA thresholds and state tax rates referenced reflect current data and may change. Results should be treated as planning guidance rather than financial, tax, or legal advice.