Understanding salary periods
Same pay, told five ways.
Translate hourly to annual, salaried to take-home, freelance to staffing-agency-equivalent.
Hourly to annual.
The simple formula is rate × hours-per-week × weeks-worked. The default in many calculators is 40 × 50 = 2,000 hours per year, which assumes a two-week unpaid break. A US full-time-equivalent for benefits purposes is 2,080 (52 full weeks). European calculators often default to ~1,800 hours to account for statutory holiday and longer leave.
annual ≈ hourly × hours/wk × weeks/yr
Salaried vs hourly.
A salaried role pays the same regardless of hours worked — for better or worse. An hourly role tracks each hour and typically pays time-and-a-half above 40/week (in the US). Going from hourly to salaried often hides overtime; going back the other way often reveals it. The total comp can look identical on paper and feel different in practice.
Pay periods around the world.
Common conventions
- United States — bi-weekly (every 2 weeks, 26 cheques/yr)
- Canada — bi-weekly or semi-monthly
- UK, Australia, NZ — monthly is standard
- Continental Europe — monthly, often with 13th-month bonus
- Japan — monthly + summer & winter bonuses
Gross vs net.
The numbers in this tool are gross — before tax, social contributions, and benefits deductions. Net pay (the amount that actually hits your account) depends on your jurisdiction and personal situation. As a rough US guide, take-home is 70–80% of gross for most middle-bracket earners. Outside the US, payroll deductions are often higher because they include healthcare and pension at source.
Freelance equivalence.
A freelance day rate must cover what a salaried role's benefits do — health insurance, paid leave, retirement, unemployment buffer. A common rule of thumb: take a salaried target and divide by ~1,400 billable hours (not 2,000) to get a sustainable hourly rate. Anything less and you're subsidising your own benefits.