SalaryToHourlyComparing two job offers: salary vs hourly, honestly
The offer with the bigger number is not always the offer with the bigger pay. This guide puts both on one honest basis.
Step 1 — Put both offers on annual totals at real hours
For the salaried offer, the annual total is the salary — but write down the hours it will actually take beside it. For the hourly offer, annualise at realistic weeks and hours, not the maximum imaginable: rate × hours × weeks you will genuinely be paid for. A $32-an-hour role paid for 48 weeks is $61,440, not the $66,560 a 52-week annualisation advertises.
Step 2 — Add overtime, expected rather than hoped
If the hourly role reliably includes overtime, price it at 1.5× with the overtime calculator. If the salaried role reliably includes unpaid extra hours, note its effective hourly rate falling. Expected means: what happened in an ordinary recent month, not the busiest week of the year.
Step 3 — Value paid leave
Paid vacation, holidays and sick leave are pay for hours not worked. Multiply paid leave hours by the hourly equivalent to get a cash value for each offer. Four weeks at 40 hours is 160 hours; at $30 an hour that is $4,800. An hourly offer with no paid leave starts that far behind, whatever its rate.
Step 4 — Put rough numbers on benefits
Employer health-insurance contributions and retirement matching are compensation that never appears in pay figures. You do not need precision — a rough annual figure for each side (what the employer contributes, what the match is worth at your planned contribution) is enough to stop a $3,000 benefit gap being invisible next to a $1,000 pay gap.
Step 5 — Compare effective hourly rates last
Now divide each adjusted annual total by the realistic hours each job will take. The effective rates are the cleanest single comparison: they fold in the gaps, the leave, and the long salaried weeks. If they are within a dollar or two, decide on the things money does not settle here — commute, stability, the work itself — rather than pretending the arithmetic has a winner it does not have.
Run your own figures in the salary to hourly calculator; the method behind every number is in how to calculate hourly rate.
Frequently asked questions
How do I compare a salary offer with an hourly offer?
Convert both to the same basis: a realistic annual total at your likely hours. Annualise the hourly offer at the weeks it will really run, add expected overtime, then add a rough value for paid leave and employer benefits on each side before deciding.
How much is paid time off worth?
Roughly your hourly rate × paid hours not worked. Four weeks of paid leave at $30 an hour is about $4,800 a year of pay for time off — an hourly offer with no paid leave needs to beat the salaried rate by about that much to draw level.
Should I ever take the lower headline number?
Sometimes, yes — if it comes with paid leave, predictable hours, employer retirement contributions or health coverage that the higher headline lacks. That is exactly why the headline comparison is not enough.