Where 2,080 comes from, what unpaid time off and overtime do to the answer, and why a salaried job with long weeks pays less per hour than it looks.
Forty hours a week for 52 weeks is 2,080 hours, and nearly every salary-to-hourly conversion uses it, including payroll systems. It counts paid holidays and paid vacation as hours, which is right for pay: you are paid for them. The quick mental version, double the hourly rate and add three zeros, uses 2,000 hours instead, so $25 an hour becomes $50,000 rather than $52,000. That shortcut is exactly right for someone who takes two unpaid weeks a year.
Two reference points. The federal minimum wage of $7.25, unchanged since 2009, is $15,080 over 2,080 hours; many states and cities set a higher floor. And the median full-time worker's $1,251 a week works out to $65,052 a year and about $31.28 an hour at 40 hours.
For an hourly job, the year is the week's pay times the weeks you are actually paid. Two unpaid weeks take 3.8% off. Overtime works the other way and faster: under the Fair Labor Standards Act, hours past 40 in a workweek are paid at one and a half times the regular rate, so five extra hours every week add 18.8% to the year for 12.5% more time.
Overtime is counted week by week, not across a pay period. Fifty hours one week and thirty the next is ten hours of overtime, even though the two weeks average forty. A few states, California among them, also require overtime past eight hours in a day.
| $25 an hour, and… | Per year | Against 2,080 hours |
|---|---|---|
| 40 hours, 52 paid weeks | $52,000 | the baseline |
| 40 hours, 50 paid weeks | $50,000 | −3.8% |
| 45 hours, 52 weeks, overtime at 1.5× | $61,750 | +18.8% |
A salaried worker who is exempt from overtime is paid the same whatever the hours. To be exempt under federal law, the job has to pass a duties test and pay at least $684 a week, $35,568 a year. The Department of Labor tried to raise that level in 2024, but the courts vacated the increase, so $684 still governs in 2026. Salaried workers below it are generally owed overtime like anyone else.
Above the line, the hours are the hidden variable. The median $65,052 salary is $31.28 an hour at 40 hours a week and $27.80 at 45. A salary right at the $35,568 threshold, worked at 50 hours a week, pays $13.68 an hour. When you compare a salaried offer with an hourly one, divide by the hours you will really work, not by 2,080.
A biweekly schedule pays 26 times a year and a semimonthly one 24, so the same $65,052 salary is $2,502 a check biweekly and $2,710.50 semimonthly. Budgets built on biweekly pay should use the smaller check twice a month; two months a year then bring a third check, which is a good moment to move money to savings.
All of these are before tax. What reaches your account is lower by federal and state income tax, Social Security, Medicare and anything you contribute before tax.
It assumes 2,000 hours, so it runs 3.8% low for a full year of paid weeks: $50,000 against $52,000 at $25 an hour. It is exact only if you take two unpaid weeks.
Only exempt salaried workers go without it, and exemption needs both the right duties and at least $684 a week. Pay below that is generally owed overtime past 40 hours.
Biweekly is 26 checks a year, semimonthly 24. On a $65,052 salary each biweekly check is $208.50 smaller.
Median earnings are the Bureau of Labor Statistics' usual weekly earnings for full-time wage and salary workers, second quarter 2026. The exemption threshold is the federal level; some states set a higher one. Hourly and annual figures are computed with the code behind the salary-to-hourly calculator.
Nothing is saved or sent anywhere; this just checks your answers in the page itself.
State law can add daily overtime, set a higher exemption threshold or a higher minimum wage. The federal figures here are the floor, not the whole picture.