Converting an hourly wage to an annual salary (or back) makes it easier to compare job offers and plan a budget. The math depends on how many hours you work each week and how many weeks you work each year.
Hours and weeks matter
Annual pay is your hourly rate times weekly hours times weeks worked per year. Full-time is often assumed to be 40 hours across 52 weeks, but unpaid time off reduces the weeks worked — drop the weeks-per-year to reflect that. These figures are gross pay, before taxes and deductions.
A worked example
At $25 an hour, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, gross pay is $52,000 — that's $25 × 40 × 52. Monthly that's about $4,333, and weekly it's $1,000. Take two weeks of unpaid leave (50 working weeks) and the annual figure drops to $50,000, which shows how much unpaid time off is really worth.
Gross pay vs. what you take home
These are gross figures, before income tax, Social Security and Medicare, health-insurance premiums, and retirement contributions come out. Depending on where you live and your deductions, take-home pay is often 20–30% lower than gross — so build your budget from your net paycheck, not the headline number.
When comparing an hourly job with a salaried one, look past the annual figure: hourly roles are usually eligible for overtime while many salaried roles are not, and paid time off and benefits can be worth thousands. A lower headline number with strong benefits can beat a higher one without them.