Converting Between Hourly and Annual Pay

Turning an hourly rate into a yearly salary looks like simple multiplication. It mostly is — but a few details decide whether your answer is realistic.

Plantrino Guides · Updated 2026 · About a 9-minute read

"Is 35 an hour a good wage?" is hard to answer until you turn it into a yearly figure you can compare. Converting between hourly and annual pay is a genuinely useful skill — for comparing job offers, for budgeting, and for understanding your own worth. This guide shows how, and where the simple version goes wrong.

The Basic Conversion

The standard way to turn an hourly rate into an annual salary uses a common assumption: a 38-hour week (full-time hours vary, but this is a frequent figure) across 52 weeks of the year.

At 35 an hour, 38 hours a week: 35 × 38 × 52 = 69,160 a year. To go the other way — salary to hourly — simply reverse it: divide the annual salary by 52, then by the weekly hours.

Why the Simple Formula Can Mislead

The formula above multiplies by 52 weeks — but here is the catch. A salaried employee is usually paid for 52 weeks including their paid leave: annual leave, public holidays, sick leave. They earn the same salary whether or not they are at their desk.

An hourly worker, in many cases, is paid only for hours actually worked. If they take unpaid time off, they earn nothing for it. So multiplying an hourly rate by a full 52 weeks can overstate what an hourly worker truly takes home across a year, because it assumes every week is fully worked and paid.

For a fair comparison, an hourly worker may want to multiply by the number of weeks they actually expect to work and be paid — for example, 48 instead of 52 — to get a more realistic annual figure.

Comparing Hourly and Salaried Roles Fairly

Two roles can show the same converted number yet differ in important ways. When comparing, look beyond the headline figure:

• Paid leave. Salaried roles typically include paid annual, sick, and public holiday leave. An hourly role may not — which makes an equal headline figure not truly equal.
• Overtime. Hourly workers are often paid extra for additional hours; some salaried roles expect extra hours with no extra pay.
• Stability. A salary is predictable each pay; hourly income can swing with the hours available.
• Other benefits. Retirement contributions and other entitlements may differ between the two.

The Casual Loading Wrinkle

In Australia there is a further twist: casual loading. Casual employees are typically paid a higher hourly rate — the loading is commonly around a quarter on top, though the exact figure comes from the relevant award or agreement — precisely because they do not receive paid annual leave, paid sick leave, or the same job security.

This matters when you compare rates. A casual on 40 an hour and a permanent on 32 an hour may be on nearly equivalent packages once the loading and leave entitlements are counted. Comparing the raw 40 against the raw 32 double-counts the casual's advantage: the higher rate is the compensation for the missing benefits. Strip the loading out first if you want a like-for-like rate.

"Including Super" vs "Plus Super"

Job ads quote salaries two different ways, and the gap is real money. "80,000 plus super" means 80,000 in salary with the employer's 12% superannuation guarantee paid on top. "80,000 including super" (a "package") means the super comes out of that figure — your actual salary is the package divided by 1.12:

So an "80,000 including super" package is really about 71,400 of salary — roughly 8,600 less in your pay than the "plus super" version of the same headline number. When converting an hourly rate for comparison against an advertised salary, always check which convention the ad is using before deciding which job pays more.

A Worked Comparison

Put it all together. Offer A is casual at 40 an hour, 38 hours a week; offer B is permanent at 70,000 plus super with four weeks of annual leave.

Offer A converted naively: 40 × 38 × 52 = 79,040 — it looks clearly ahead. But a casual planning four weeks off unpaid should count 48 paid weeks: 40 × 38 × 48 = 72,960. Now remove the effect of a typical casual loading to compare the underlying rate, remember that quiet fortnights may bring fewer hours, and the two offers land much closer than the headline suggested. Neither is "correct" — but only the second version of the arithmetic tells you what you are actually choosing between.

Quick Reference

Some handy approximate conversions for a full-time 38-hour week:

Frequently Asked Questions

Converting hourly to annual pay is straightforward multiplication — rate, hours, weeks — but the honest figure depends on how many weeks are genuinely paid. When comparing an hourly job with a salaried one, weigh paid leave, overtime, and stability alongside the converted number, and the comparison becomes a fair one.