How to Calculate an Hourly Rate From a Salary (and a Daily Rate)

Turning a salary into an hourly or daily rate is simple arithmetic, but there are two or three choices hidden in it that change the answer, and different calculators make them differently. Here is the method, the choices, and the numbers worked through.

The formula

1. Get the yearly figure. Monthly salary x 12. Weekly pay x 52.
2. Count the hours in a year. Days worked a week x hours a day x 52. Full time at 8 hours a day, 5 days a week is 2,080 hours.
3. Divide. Yearly pay / hours in a year = hourly rate.

Example: 4,000 a month is 48,000 a year. 48,000 / 2,080 = 23.08 an hour.

The salary to hourly rate calculator does this for any pay, period and working week, and there is a page for each of 49 countries with a worked table in the local currency.

Daily rate from a salary

Divide the yearly salary by the days worked in a year. Five days a week for 52 weeks is 260 days. So 3,000 a month is 36,000 a year, and 36,000 / 260 = 138.46 a day.

You will also see people divide the monthly salary by 22 (a typical number of working days in a month): 3,000 / 22 = 136.36. Neither is wrong. 260 days a year averages 21.67 days a month, so the yearly method gives a steady rate across the year, while dividing by a single month's working days gives that month's figure. The day rate calculator shows both.

Pay for part of a month

Starting or leaving partway through a month? Divide the monthly salary by the working days in that month, then multiply by the days actually worked. 3,000 in a month with 22 working days, of which 15 were worked: 3,000 / 22 x 15 = 2,045.45.

The choices that change the answer

• Paid holidays. A salary pays for your holidays, so the standard method keeps them in the 52 weeks. If you want the rate for hours you actually work, take your leave out: with 25 days off, 48,000 / ((260 - 25) x 8) = 25.53 an hour instead of 23.08.
• Your real hours. If you regularly work 45 hours a week, your effective rate is lower than the contract's. 48,000 / (45 x 52) = 20.51.
• Gross or net. These formulas work on whatever number you put in. Use gross pay to compare jobs, and net pay to see what an hour is worth to you.

Singapore: MOM's own formulas

For monthly-rated employees covered by the Employment Act, Singapore's Ministry of Manpower sets specific formulas, and they are not the general method above:

• Hourly basic rate, used for overtime: (12 x monthly basic pay) / (52 x 44). Overtime is paid at no less than 1.5 times this.
• Daily rate: (12 x monthly pay) / (52 x the number of days you are required to work a week).
• Incomplete month: monthly gross pay / working days in that month x days actually worked.

Sources: MOM, monthly and daily salary, and MOM, hours of work and overtime. The Singapore hourly rate page has a table in SGD.

Your salary's hourly rate is not your freelance rate

If you are working this out because you are thinking of freelancing, the number above is a floor, not a price. An employer pays for your holidays, sick days, equipment and the hours between tasks; as a freelancer you pay for all of it, and only part of your week is billable. To take home the same money, most freelancers need to charge well above their salary's hourly figure. The freelance rate calculator works out the number from your own costs, time off and billable share, and our rates by skill page shows what freelancers on WorkOfficially actually charge.