Hourly Wage Calculator (UK)

How to work out your hourly rate

Divide your annual salary by 52 weeks, then by the hours you work each week. On a £30,000 salary at 37.5 hours a week that is £30,000 ÷ 52 ÷ 37.5, an hourly wage of about £15.38. The calculator also works the other way: enter an hourly wage and it shows your weekly, monthly and annual pay, before and after tax.

Quick answer

To convert an hourly wage to a yearly salary: hourly rate × hours per week × 52. At £16 an hour on a standard 37.5-hour week, that is 16 × 37.5 × 52 = £31,200 a year before tax. The calculator above also handles part-time hours and take-home pay.

Convert your pay with the calculator above

Enter a salary or an hourly rate in the tool above, set your usual hours per week and how many weeks you work, and it returns the equivalent hourly, weekly, monthly and annual amounts. Everything below explains the maths behind those numbers so you can sense-check the result yourself.

The simple maths behind an hourly rate

Converting pay is arithmetic, not magic. The core formula is:

Hourly rate = Annual salary ÷ (hours per week × weeks worked per year)

Most UK full-time jobs assume a working year of 52 weeks. If you want to be precise, a calendar year is 365 days ÷ 7 = 52.14 weeks, but 52 is the convention used on payslips and in job adverts, so that's the default here. The other direction is just as straightforward:

• Hourly to weekly: hourly rate × hours per week
• Weekly to annual: weekly pay × 52
• Annual to monthly: annual salary ÷ 12
• Annual to weekly: annual salary ÷ 52
• Annual to daily: annual salary ÷ working days per year (often 260 for a 5-day week)

The one input people forget is hours. A £30,000 salary is a very different hourly rate at 37.5 hours a week than at 45. Always compare jobs on the same number of contracted hours, or the headline figure misleads you. Whether your pay is quoted weekly, monthly or annually, an salary to hourly conversion only needs those two facts: total pay and total hours.

Worked example: salary to hourly rate

Take a nurse on a £30,000 salary working a standard 37.5-hour week:

• Annual hours = 37.5 × 52 = 1,950 hours
• Hourly rate = £30,000 ÷ 1,950 = £15.38 per hour (gross)
• Weekly pay = £30,000 ÷ 52 = £576.92
• Monthly pay = £30,000 ÷ 12 = £2,500

Now compare that with a colleague on the same £30,000 but contracted to 40 hours a week. Their annual hours are 40 × 52 = 2,080, so their hourly rate is £30,000 ÷ 2,080 = £14.42. Same salary, lower hourly rate, because they're giving more hours for it. That gap is exactly why you should never judge an offer on the headline salary alone.

Worked example: hourly rate to salary

Now flip it. Say you've been offered £18 an hour for a 40-hour week and want to know the annual equivalent before you accept:

• Weekly pay = £18 × 40 = £720
• Annual salary = £720 × 52 = £37,440
• Monthly pay = £37,440 ÷ 12 = £3,120

For a part-time role the method is identical. A £14 hourly rate over 22.5 hours a week works out at £14 × 22.5 = £315 a week, or £315 × 52 = £16,380 a year. If your hours swing from week to week, use your average weekly hours, or work out an annual total and divide by 52. For an irregular schedule a weekly wage breakdown can help you spot the true average.

Gross versus take-home: where tax changes the picture

An hourly rate calculator deals in gross pay, the figure before anything is deducted. What actually lands in your account is lower, because Income Tax and National Insurance come off first. For 2026/27 the Personal Allowance is £12,570, basic-rate Income Tax is 20% on taxable income up to £37,700, and employee National Insurance is 8% between £12,570 and £50,270. So two roles with the same gross hourly rate can leave you with different amounts once a pension or student loan is in the mix.

Scotland sets its own Income Tax rates and bands, so a Scottish taxpayer on the same gross salary keeps a slightly different amount from an equivalent worker in England, Wales or Northern Ireland (the Personal Allowance itself is UK-wide). If you want the net figure rather than the gross one, run the result through our take-home pay calculator or the gross-to-net calculator to see your actual monthly pay after deductions.

Don't forget the National Minimum Wage

Whatever rate you calculate, it has to clear the legal floor. The National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage are set by age band and reviewed every April, so check the current rates on the official page rather than relying on an old figure. You can confirm the latest rates at gov.uk's National Minimum Wage rates. If your hourly figure comes out below the rate for your age, the employer is breaking the law, and unpaid time such as compulsory training or travel between sites can quietly drag your real hourly pay under the threshold.

Tips for comparing offers fairly

• Match the hours. Convert every offer to the same weekly hours before you compare. A higher salary on longer hours can be worth less per hour.
• Count paid holiday. A salaried job usually pays you through your annual leave; a pure hourly or zero-hours role may not, so factor holiday pay in. Our holiday entitlement calculator shows how much paid leave you're owed.
• Value the extras. Pension contributions, sick pay and benefits don't show up in an hourly rate but they're real money.
• Mind overtime. If a chunk of your income comes from overtime, your average hourly rate sits between your basic and overtime rates. An overtime pay calculator works out the blended figure.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Using 40 hours when you work 37.5. The standard UK full-time week is often 37.5 or 35 hours, not 40. Guess the hours wrong and every conversion is off.
• Confusing gross and net. The hourly rate from this tool is before tax. Comparing your gross hourly rate against a friend's take-home is comparing apples with oranges.
• Ignoring unpaid breaks. A 9-to-5 with an unpaid hour for lunch is a 35-hour paid week, not 40. Only count paid hours.
• Forgetting pro-rata. Part-time salaries are usually quoted as the full-time equivalent. Use a pro-rata salary calculator to find the actual amount for your hours before converting to an hourly rate.
• Assuming a flat year. Some employers pay over 52.14 weeks or use a different weekly figure; if your payslip doesn't match, ask how the annual salary is split.

These estimates are for guidance only and are not personal tax or financial advice. Always check your own contract and payslip, and confirm current rates with HMRC or a qualified adviser before making decisions.

Related pay and salary calculators

Once you've nailed the hourly figure, line it up against the full picture. Try the salary calculator for a complete pay breakdown, the pay rise calculator to see what a raise is really worth, or the contractor day rate calculator if you're moving into freelance or contract work.

Hourly to yearly at a glance (37.5-hour week)

Check the current legal minimum for your age on GOV.UK minimum wage rates, then see what you keep with the salary calculator or pro-rata calculator.

Who should use this calculator

This converts between hourly, daily, weekly and annual pay in both directions. Two groups need it most: employees comparing an hourly job against a salaried one, and freelancers trying to set a rate that actually matches the salary they want.

For freelancers the naive conversion is badly wrong. Dividing a target salary by 2,080 hours ignores unpaid holiday, sick days, pension, employer NI, admin time and gaps between clients — a contractor typically needs to bill materially more per hour than an employee’s equivalent just to stand still. Treat the converted figure as a floor to build on, not a rate to quote.

What this calculator assumes

• Conversions are a straight proportion using the hours and weeks you enter.
• The weeks-per-year figure includes paid holiday for employees, since salaried staff are paid through leave.
• All figures are gross, before tax, NI, pension or student loan.
• There is no standard full-time week — 35, 37.5 and 40 hours are all common.

Limitations — what it does not cover

• Unpaid time for the self-employed — holiday, sickness, admin, marketing and unbilled gaps, which can be 20–30% of the year.
• Employment benefits not reflected in a rate: pension contributions, sick pay, redundancy rights and paid leave.
• Tax differences between employment and self-employment.
• National Minimum and Living Wage compliance, assessed per pay reference period.
• Overtime, shift premiums and unsocial-hours rates.
• Business costs a freelancer carries: insurance, equipment, software and accountancy.