Hourly Wage Calculator

The conversion this calculator performs

Weekly pay is the hourly rate times hours per week. Annual is weekly times 52, monthly is annual divided by 12, and biweekly is weekly times two.

At $20 an hour and 40 hours a week that is $800 weekly, $1,600 biweekly, $41,600 a year and $3,466.67 a month. The reverse direction divides instead: $60,000 a year at 40 hours a week is 60,000 ÷ 52 ÷ 40 = $28.85 an hour.

One caveat on the 52. A 365-day year holds 52.14 weeks, not 52. Multiplying $800 by 52 gives $41,600 where the calendar-based figure is $41,714. The 52-week convention is standard and matches how most employers describe an annualized rate, but it is a convention rather than an identity.

Pay frequency adds its own mismatch. Biweekly payroll runs 26 times a year, which lines up with 52 weeks exactly. Semimonthly payroll runs 24 times and does not line up with weeks at all, so a semimonthly paycheque is not two weekly cheques.

Overtime is a weekly test under federal law

29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1) requires not less than one and one-half times the regular rate for hours worked over forty in a workweek. Forty in a workweek, not eight in a day. A schedule of 10, 10, 10, 10 and nothing on Friday totals forty hours and carries no federal overtime at all.

At $20 an hour and 45 hours: 40 × 20 = $800, plus 5 × 30 = $150, giving $950 for the week and $49,400 a year. Without the premium those same 45 hours pay $900 a week and $46,800 a year. The overtime checkbox in this calculator applies that federal rule and nothing else.

Some states go further. California, Alaska, Nevada and Colorado impose daily overtime thresholds that federal law does not have, and where a state rule is more generous the employee is owed the more generous one. Exempt employees sit outside the overtime provisions entirely, so for them an hourly figure is a budgeting number rather than a pay entitlement.

Minimum wage floors

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and has been since 24 July 2009, under 29 U.S.C. § 206(a)(1)(C). At 40 hours a week for 52 weeks that is $290 a week and $15,080 a year.

Section 206(g) permits a youth wage of $4.25 an hour for employees under 20 during their first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment.

Where a state or local minimum is higher than the federal one, the higher rate governs. Many are higher, which makes $7.25 a floor under a floor rather than a working number in most places. The English mode of this calculator does not check any minimum wage — it converts whatever rate you type in, so pair the result with your own state or city rate.

Paid in Korea: the weekly holiday allowance

Korea adds a pay item with no US equivalent, and missing it makes a Korean offer look about 17 percent smaller than it is.

Article 55(1) of the Labor Standards Act requires at least one paid holiday per week on average. The allowance works out to (weekly contracted hours ÷ 40) × 8 × hourly rate, with weekly hours capped at 40, so a 48-hour week still earns eight hours of it. Two conditions apply: contracted hours averaging at least 15 a week over four weeks, which comes from Article 18(3), and full attendance on that week's scheduled workdays, which comes from Article 30(1) of the Enforcement Decree.

The minimum wage is 10,320 won an hour for 2026 and rises to 10,700 won on 1 January 2027. Because the paid weekly holiday counts as paid time, a full-time month is treated as 209 hours rather than 174: (40 + 8) × 365 ÷ 7 ÷ 12 comes to 208.57, which the Ministry of Employment and Labor rounds to 209. That gives a monthly minimum of 2,156,880 won for 2026 and 2,236,300 won for 2027.

The allowance also applies at workplaces with fewer than five employees. What those small workplaces are exempt from is the 1.5× premium for overtime, night and holiday work and the annual paid leave entitlement — not the weekly holiday allowance.

Paid in Japan: 47 different minimum wages

Japan has no single national minimum wage rate. Each of the 47 prefectures sets its own, and the rate that applies is the one for the prefecture where the employee actually works, not where the employer is headquartered.

For fiscal 2025 the weighted national average is 1,121 yen, up 66 yen or 6.3 percent from 1,055. Tokyo is highest at 1,226 yen; Kochi, Miyazaki and Okinawa are joint lowest at 1,023, a spread of 203 yen. Industry-specific minimums exist alongside the prefectural ones, and where both apply the higher governs.

Effective dates are staggered rather than simultaneous. The fiscal 2025 round began on 1 October 2025 in Tochigi and finished on 31 March 2026 in Akita, almost six months apart, because prefectures with the largest increases deferred them.

The fiscal 2026 round is under way. On 28 July 2026 the central council issued guideline increases of 54 yen for rank A prefectures and 56 yen for ranks B and C, which would put the weighted average at 1,176 yen if every prefecture adopted the guideline exactly. It has no legal force; each prefectural labour bureau director fixes the binding amount after gazette publication and an objection period. Tokyo's recommended figure is 1,280 yen and Kanagawa's is 1,279 yen. Expect changes from around 1 October 2026.

What the calculator leaves out

Every figure is gross. Income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare, health premiums and retirement contributions all come out afterwards, so take-home pay is lower.

Unpaid meal breaks are not deducted. Scheduled 9 to 5 with an unpaid half-hour lunch is 37.5 paid hours a week, not 40, and that gap is worth $2,600 a year at $20 an hour.

Shift differentials, bonuses, tips and tip credits, commissions and paid time off are not modelled. Neither are state daily-overtime rules, state and local minimum wages, or exempt classification.

Treat the output as an estimate for planning. For a binding answer, check the US Department of Labor for federal rules and your state labour agency for state ones; the Ministry of Employment and Labor for Korea; and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare with your prefectural labour bureau for Japan.

Frequently asked questions

How much is $20 an hour a year?

$41,600 at 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, which is $800 weekly, $1,600 biweekly and $3,466.67 monthly. At 45 hours a week with the federal overtime premium it becomes $950 a week and $49,400 a year.

Does overtime start after 8 hours in a day?

Not under federal law. 29 U.S.C. § 207(a)(1) sets the threshold at forty hours in a workweek, so four ten-hour days carry no federal overtime. California, Alaska, Nevada and Colorado add daily thresholds of their own, and the more generous rule applies where one exists.

What is the federal minimum wage?

$7.25 an hour, unchanged since 24 July 2009. That is $290 a week and $15,080 a year at 40 hours. A youth rate of $4.25 applies to employees under 20 for their first 90 consecutive calendar days. Where a state or local minimum is higher, the higher rate governs.

$60,000 a year is what per hour?

$28.85, calculated as 60,000 ÷ 52 ÷ 40. The hours assumption matters: the same salary at 45 hours a week is $25.64 an hour, and at 50 hours it is $23.08.

Why does the Korean version of this calculator add a weekly holiday allowance?

Because Korean law requires it. An employee whose contracted hours average at least 15 a week and who works all scheduled days that week earns (weekly hours ÷ 40) × 8 hours of extra paid time. At 40 hours and the 2026 rate of 10,320 won that is 82,560 won a week on top of 412,800 won of worked time.

Why does Japan's minimum wage differ from city to city?

It is set per prefecture, not nationally. For fiscal 2025 the range runs from 1,023 yen in Kochi, Miyazaki and Okinawa to 1,226 yen in Tokyo, against a weighted national average of 1,121 yen. The applicable rate follows the workplace location, and new rates take effect on staggered dates rather than all at once.

Why doesn't weekly pay times 52 match my annual salary?

A calendar year holds 52.14 weeks, so the 52-week convention understates slightly: $800 a week is $41,600 by convention and $41,714 by the calendar. Semimonthly payroll, unpaid leave and partial first or last months move the figure further.