We have all seen the help wanted ads that say starting wage $35,000 per year. But how much will you be making per hour?

Here's a really simple calculation to break the mystery of the annual salary. First take the number of weeks in a year (52) and multiply it by the possible number of work hours in one week (typically 40). 52 x 40 = 2,080. This is the (typical)possible number of work hours in one year.

Now take the salary and divide it by the possible number of work hours in a year. So in this example you would take 35,000 and divide it by 2,080. 35,000/2,080 = 16.83.

So a job offering a starting salary of $35,000 a year is offering $16.83 per hour.

The actual gross wage of a $35,000 salary will vary by how often the employee is paid. For instance if the employee is paid bi-monthly (twice a month) that works into 24 pay periods in a year (12 months x 2 pay periods per month = 24) then you would take the 35,000 salary and divide it by 24 (35,000/24 = 1,458.33 (the .33 will fluctuate to balance the salary to $35,000 at the end of the year)) so your pay period gross wage on a $35,000 dollar salary would be $1,458.33.

Some companies pay bi-weekly (every 2 weeks) which actually works out to 26 pay periods in a year (52 weeks in a year divided by 2 which is the number of weeks in the pay period = 26) if this is the case you then take the 35,000 salary and divide it by the number of pay periods in a year, which is 26 (35,000/26 = 1,346.15 (again the .15 will fluctuate slightly from pay period to pay period to round the salary out to $35,000)) so your bi-weekly gross wage on a $35,000 dollar salary would be $1,346.15.

Learn more about this author, Deborah Hackenberger.
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