How it works
The formula, and the one assumption that changes everything
This salary to hourly rate calculator divides an annual (or monthly) salary by the actual hours worked in a year. The formula itself is simple — hourly rate = annual salary ÷ (weeks per year × hours per week) — but the answer swings enormously depending on one assumption most people skip past: how many weeks a year you're actually being paid for.
A salaried UK employee is typically paid for 52 weeks a year (holiday pay is included in the salary, not on top of it), so 52 weeks is the standard divisor — not 46 or 48, even though those are the weeks actually worked after annual leave.
Three worked examples
1. Standard UK full-time salary
£30,000 a year, 37.5 contracted hours a week, paid for 52 weeks: £30,000 ÷ (52 × 37.5) = £30,000 ÷ 1,950 = £15.38/hour.
2. A 40-hour week instead of 37.5
Same £30,000 salary, but a 40-hour contracted week: £30,000 ÷ (52 × 40) = £30,000 ÷ 2,080 = £14.42/hour — nearly £1 less per hour purely because the contracted hours are longer for the same pay.
3. Converting a monthly salary
A monthly salary of £2,500, 37.5 hours/week: first annualise it (£2,500 × 12 = £30,000), then apply the same formula as example 1 — £15.38/hour. Always annualise a monthly figure first rather than trying to divide it by monthly hours, since months have an uneven number of weeks.
Quick reference: common UK salaries to hourly rate
Based on 52 weeks and a 37.5-hour week — the most common UK full-time pattern.
| Annual salary | Hourly rate (37.5h/week) | Hourly rate (40h/week) |
|---|---|---|
| £20,000 | £10.26 | £9.62 |
| £25,000 | £12.82 | £12.02 |
| £30,000 | £15.38 | £14.42 |
| £35,000 | £17.95 | £16.83 |
| £40,000 | £20.51 | £19.23 |
| £50,000 | £25.64 | £24.04 |
Common mistakes
- Using 46 or 48 weeks instead of 52. Annual leave is paid, not unpaid — a salaried employee's pay already accounts for 52 weeks even though they only work roughly 46-47 of them. Using working weeks instead of paid weeks inflates the hourly figure.
- Forgetting unpaid overtime. If the contracted hours understate the hours actually worked, the real effective hourly rate is lower than the calculated one — this calculator gives the contracted rate, not the "true" rate once unpaid extra hours are factored in.
- Comparing against the National Living Wage without checking age band. The NLW/NMW rates differ by age (21+, 18-20, under 18, apprentice) — compare like for like.
- Mixing gross and net. This is a gross-to-gross calculation (before tax). For a take-home hourly figure, run the result through a take-home pay calculator as well.
Related calculations
Once you have an hourly figure, these usually come next:
- **Hourly to salary** — the reverse direction, from an hourly rate to an annual figure.
- **Pro rata salary** — for part-time or reduced-hours contracts.
- **Overtime pay** — once you know the base hourly rate, work out time-and-a-half or double-time.