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Salary Breakdown Calculator

Convert a salary between annual, monthly, bi-weekly, weekly, daily, and hourly equivalents.

  • salary
  • wage
  • hourly
  • annual
  • pay
  • income
  • rate

About Salary Breakdown Calculator

A salary quoted as one figure — "$75,000 a year" or "$25 an hour" — has a dozen equivalent representations once you account for hours worked. An annual salary divided by 12 gives monthly gross, divided by 26 gives the bi-weekly figure most North American payrolls actually pay, divided by 52 gives a per-week rate, and so on. The conversions get interesting when you change one of the assumptions: a 40-hour week vs a 37.5-hour week vs 35 hours; a 52-week year vs 50 weeks for someone taking unpaid leave; a 5-day work week vs 4.

This converter lets you fix one number (annual, hourly, whatever) and see all the others, with the hours-per-week and weeks-per-year assumptions exposed. An optional take-home percentage roughly models tax and benefit deductions for a quick post-tax view — but it's a single flat multiplier, not a real tax calculation.

How to use

Type your salary in the "Amount" field and choose what unit it's expressed in. The other five units fill in immediately based on the work-schedule assumptions below: hours per week (default 40), weeks per year (default 52), days per week (default 5). Change any of those to model a different work pattern — 4-day weeks, sabbatical years, or part-time hours.

Tick "Show take-home estimate" to add a second column with a flat take-home percentage applied. This isn't a tax calculation: it doesn't know your jurisdiction, brackets, deductions, or benefits. It's just a quick "what if my net is roughly 70% of gross" estimate — useful for back-of-envelope planning, useless for filing taxes.

Frequently asked questions

  • Why does bi-weekly use 26 instead of weekly × 2?

    Because 26 bi-weekly pay periods make up a year (52 weeks ÷ 2). The annual figure divides cleanly by 26 — that's the cheque size each fortnight. Twice the weekly rate gives the same per-fortnight cheque only when your weeks-per-year is exactly 52. If you set weeks-per-year to 50 (to account for unpaid time off), weekly × 2 differs from annual ÷ 26 because the year-end maths is no longer symmetric.

  • What's the right number for hours per week?

    Depends on your contract. Most full-time salaried jobs in North America assume 40. The UK and much of Europe default to 35–37.5 hours/week. Public-sector and unionised jobs sometimes use 35, and four-day-week trials use 32. If you're calculating an hourly rate from a salary to compare against a freelance rate, use the hours you actually work, not the nominal contract figure.

  • Is the take-home percentage accurate?

    No — it's a flat multiplier, not a real tax calculation. A genuine take-home figure depends on your country, province/state, filing status, deductions, pension contributions, benefit premiums, and the progressive structure of income tax. The percentage here is a rough thumb — type 70 if you want to model "about 30% off the top" — and is only useful for quick estimates. For real numbers, use a tax-bracket calculator specific to your jurisdiction.

  • How do I compare a salary offer to my current hourly contract rate?

    Convert both to the same unit at the same hours-per-week. If your contract pays $80/hour and you bill 30 hours a week 48 weeks a year, that's 80 × 30 × 48 = $115,200 of gross revenue. A salaried offer at $100,000 with benefits is lower gross but includes employer-paid benefits and paid time off; the like-for-like comparison usually shifts in the salary's favour by 15–25% once benefits are valued.

  • Why don't the monthly and bi-weekly figures agree exactly?

    Because 12 months ≠ 26 fortnights. There are roughly 4.33 weeks per month, so a true monthly figure (annual ÷ 12) is slightly larger than 2 × bi-weekly. Most payrolls handle this by giving you 26 bi-weekly cheques (not 24) and ignoring the calendar month entirely — which is why there are two months a year when you get three cheques instead of two.

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