Convert your hourly rate to an annual salary, or find out what your salary works out to per hour.
By Konstantin Iakovlev · Founder, Calks.uk
Last updated: · Verified against HMRC and GOV.UK 2026/27 rates
Rates verified: 28 September 2026
Disclaimer
This calculator is for guidance only. It is not financial or tax advice: check anything you rely on against the official source or a qualified adviser. Rates and figures come from HMRC and GOV.UK and are reviewed for the 2026/27 tax year. Everything is calculated in your browser; nothing you enter is sent to our servers.
How It Works
This calculator converts between hourly pay and annual salary using standard UK working patterns. The default assumption is 37.5 hours per week over 52 weeks per year, giving 1,950 working hours annually. You can adjust the hours per week and the paid weeks per year, so cut the weeks if you take unpaid time off. Part-time workers can enter their actual weekly hours to get an accurate annual equivalent, and the result also shows 2026/27 income tax, National Insurance and take-home pay, which helps when comparing job offers quoted in different formats.
The formula is straightforward: annual salary equals the hourly rate multiplied by hours per week multiplied by paid weeks per year. For example, £15 an hour over 37.5 hours and 52 weeks gives £29,250. The reverse calculation divides the annual salary by total working hours to find the effective hourly rate. If your contract does not pay for the 8 bank holidays in England and Wales, that removes £900 from the annual figure at that rate (8 days × 7.5 hours × £15). Salaried staff who want to know what they earn per hour actually at work can divide by about 46 working weeks, which allows for the 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday plus around 0.4 weeks of unplanned absence. A £30k salary divided by 37.5 hours over 46 weeks comes to £17.39 an hour.
Contractor and freelance rates run 50-100% above the equivalent salary, and there is a reason for the gap. A £30k employee really costs the employer about £35k once NI, pension, holiday, sick pay, training, equipment and management overhead are added. A freelancer bears those costs personally and needs to earn roughly 50% more to net the same amount. Contractors also go without paid time off, sick pay, statutory employment protections and pension auto-enrolment. A common rule of thumb sets the contractor day rate at annual salary multiplied by 1.6 and divided by 220 working days, so a £40k salary translates to about £290 a day.
Holiday entitlement affects the sums too. UK statutory holiday is 5.6 weeks, or 28 days for a full-time worker. Most full-time salaried staff receive 20-25 days of holiday plus 8 bank holidays, giving 28-33 paid days off a year. Hourly workers on regular hours get the same 5.6 weeks, paid at their normal rate when they take it. The 12.07% figure applies only to irregular-hours and part-year workers: for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024 their holiday builds up at 12.07% of hours worked, and the employer may instead add rolled-up holiday pay of 12.07% to each payslip as a separate item, so a quoted rate that looks generous may simply have holiday pay rolled in.
Premiums and allowances change the effective rate. Overtime is commonly paid at time-and-a-half, which is 1.5 times the base rate, with double time, or 2 times, for bank holidays or unsocial hours, while night shift allowances add 10-30%. London weighting typically adds £4-£6k a year to compensate for higher living costs in the capital. Some sectors such as the NHS and the civil service have explicit London pay bands, while others build the uplift into the negotiated salary. London weighting is taxed as ordinary salary, with no special treatment.
Example: £18.50/hour, 37.5 hours/week
- Weekly gross: £18.50 × 37.5 = £693.75
- Annual gross (52 weeks): £693.75 × 52 = £36,075
- Monthly gross: £36,075 ÷ 12 = £3,006.25
- Income tax: (£36,075 − £12,570) × 20% = £4,701
- National Insurance: (£36,075 − £12,570) × 8% = £1,880.40
- Annual take-home: £36,075 − £4,701 − £1,880.40 = £29,493.60 (£2,457.80 a month)
Frequently Asked Questions
- If I know my hourly rate, what will I earn in a year?
- Multiply your hourly pay by the hours you work each week and then by the number of paid weeks. The default is 37.5 hours a week over 52 weeks (1,950 hours a year), so £15 an hour comes to £29,250 and £18.50 an hour to £36,075. You can change the weekly hours and the paid weeks per year (cut the weeks for unpaid time off), and the calculator also shows 2026/27 income tax, NI and take-home pay: £36,075 leaves £29,493.60 after £4,701 tax and £1,880.40 NI.
- How do I work out my real hourly rate from an annual salary?
- Dividing by 1,950 hours gives the contractual rate, but you are not at work for all of those hours. Statutory holiday takes 5.6 weeks and unplanned absence typically another 0.4 weeks, leaving about 46 working weeks. Dividing a £30k salary by 37.5 hours across 46 weeks gives an effective £17.39 an hour for the time you actually spend working, which is the fairer figure to compare against a contractor's or hourly worker's rate.
- How much more should a contractor charge than an employee earns?
- Contractor rates typically sit 50-100% above the equivalent salary because the contractor covers costs the employer would otherwise bear, such as NI, pension, holiday, sick pay, training and equipment, and forgoes statutory protections and pension auto-enrolment. A widely used rule of thumb is annual salary multiplied by 1.6 and divided by 220 working days, so a £40k salary points to a day rate of about £290.
- Is holiday pay included in my hourly rate?
- Only if your contract says so, and only if you work irregular hours or part of the year. For those workers, in leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, holiday builds up at 12.07% of hours worked, and the employer may pay rolled-up holiday pay of 12.07% on top of each pay packet, shown as a separate item on the payslip. Workers on regular hours get 5.6 weeks of paid leave at their normal rate instead. A rate that looks high may be quoted with holiday pay rolled in, so ask which basis applies before comparing offers.
- How much is London weighting worth on a salary?
- London weighting typically adds £4-£6k a year to a salary to offset the higher cost of living in the capital. Employers such as the NHS and the civil service publish explicit London pay bands, while private firms usually fold the uplift into the salary they negotiate with you. It is taxed exactly like the rest of your pay, so the net benefit is smaller than the headline figure once income tax and NI are taken off.