UK Salary Calculator

About UK Salary Calculator

How the Conversion Formulas Work

Every conversion reduces to one identity: annual salary equals hourly rate multiplied by total working hours. Once the annual figure is known, shorter periods come from simple division.

Converting	Formula	Example (£50,000/year, 40h/week, 52 weeks)
Annual to hourly	Annual / (hours/week x weeks/year)	£50,000 / (40 x 52) = £24.04/hr
Hourly to annual	Hourly x hours/week x weeks/year	£24.04 x 40 x 52 = £50,003
Annual to monthly	Annual / 12	£50,000 / 12 = £4,166.67
Annual to biweekly	Annual / 26	£50,000 / 26 = £1,923.08
Annual to weekly	Annual / 52	£50,000 / 52 = £961.54
Annual to daily	Annual / (weeks/year x 5 days)	£50,000 / 260 = £192.31

Worked example: A contractor quotes a day rate of £500 and works 47 weeks a year after holidays and sick leave, 5 days per week. Annual gross is 500 x 5 x 47 = £117,500. Hourly equivalent at 8 hours per working day is £117,500 / (47 x 40) = £62.50/hr. Monthly gross is £117,500 / 12 = £9,791.67. This is the simplest version of the maths this calculator performs for every period at once.

Note the difference between biweekly and semi-monthly pay. Biweekly means every two weeks, so 26 paychecks per year. Semi-monthly means twice a month on fixed dates, so 24 paychecks per year. The two produce slightly different per-paycheck figures for the same annual salary. This calculator uses biweekly, which is the more common schedule in the United States.

Quick Salary Reference Table

Common annual-to-hourly conversions assuming a standard 40-hour week and 52 weeks per year (2,080 total hours):

Annual Salary	Monthly	Weekly	Hourly
£25,000	£2,083	£481	£12.02
£30,000	£2,500	£577	£14.42
£40,000	£3,333	£769	£19.23
£50,000	£4,167	£962	£24.04
£60,000	£5,000	£1,154	£28.85
£75,000	£6,250	£1,442	£36.06
£100,000	£8,333	£1,923	£48.08
£150,000	£12,500	£2,885	£72.12

What Is a Good Salary in the UK and US?

Median full-time gross pay in the UK was £39,039 per year in the April 2025 ASHE release from the ONS, which is roughly £19 per hour at a 40-hour schedule (the previous year's figure was £37,430). In the US, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Q4 2025 Usual Weekly Earnings release put median full-time pay at $1,194 per week, or about $62,088 annualised and $29.85 per hour. These medians shift meaningfully by region, age, and occupation.

Percentile	UK Annual (ASHE 2024)	US Annual (2025)
10th	£23,360	$31,200
25th	£28,900	$41,600
Median (50th)	£37,430	$62,088
75th	£52,800	$97,500
90th	£74,400	$156,000

UK figures are from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. US figures derive from BLS Current Population Survey data. These are gross, before income tax, National Insurance or FICA.

Part-Time, Term-Time and Contract Adjustments

Not everyone works 40 hours across 52 weeks. Changing either number rescales every conversion in the table. A few common schedules:

• Part-time (20 hours/week): An hourly rate of £15 gives 15 x 20 x 52 = £15,600 annual gross.
• Term-time only (39 weeks/year): A £30,000 full-time equivalent role paid only across term time becomes 30,000 x (39/52) = £22,500.
• Contractor (47 weeks after holidays): A day rate of £400 for 5 days a week over 47 weeks is 400 x 5 x 47 = £94,000 annual gross.
• Compressed week (4 x 10 hours): Still 40 hours per week, so annual gross is unchanged; hourly rate stays the same.

Freelancers and contractors should remember that gross rate has to cover pension contributions, holiday pay, sick pay, and personal insurance that employees get as benefits. A common rule of thumb used by UK IT contractors is that a day rate should be roughly 1.3 to 1.5 times the equivalent salaried hourly rate to achieve comparable total compensation after overheads. For a like-for-like view, pair this tool with the employee cost calculator, which shows what a £50,000 employee actually costs the business once employer NI, pension and other on-costs are added.

Evaluating Job Offers and Total Compensation

When comparing two offers, converting both to the same period makes salary directly comparable. Salary alone is rarely the full picture. Benefits, pension, equity and leave policies all carry real monetary value.

• Employer pension match: A 5% employer pension match on a £50,000 salary is worth £2,500 per year of deferred compensation.
• Private health insurance: Typically £1,000-£3,000 per year in the UK; in the US employer-sponsored health cover averaged roughly $8,400 per single employee in the 2025 KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey.
• Annual leave: An extra 5 days off at £50,000 equates to about £962 of paid-not-worked time, compounding over a career.
• Commuting costs: A £5,000 annual commute effectively reduces take-home by that amount. The ONS estimated the average UK commute at 59 minutes per day in 2024, which is also a real time cost.
• Bonus and equity: Variable pay can add 5-30% to base at mid-senior levels. Discount for volatility - a discretionary bonus is worth less than guaranteed salary, pound for pound.

To compare pay rises or negotiated offers in percentage terms, the percentage calculator makes it quick to translate a 6% rise into the cash equivalent at your current salary.

UK Minimum Wage Reference (April 2026)

UK National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates announced by the Low Pay Commission and set out on gov.uk for April 2026:

Age Group	Hourly Rate	Full-Time Annual (37.5h x 52w)
21 and over (NLW)	£12.71	£24,784
18-20	£10.85	£21,158
Under 18	£8.00	£15,600
Apprentice	£8.00	£15,600

Full-time annual figures assume 37.5 paid hours per week, a common UK full-time contract. A 40-hour week at £12.71 would instead produce £26,437 gross. Always check the exact contracted hours on a job offer rather than assuming a standard week.

US federal minimum wage remains $7.25 per hour, unchanged since 24 July 2009. That is the longest freeze since the Fair Labor Standards Act introduced a federal minimum in 1938. Thirty states plus Washington DC have set higher state minimums, so the effective floor varies by location. Check the US Department of Labor state wage table for the rate that actually applies.

Common Mistakes When Comparing Salaries

• Mixing gross and net: Job ads usually quote gross. Take-home depends on tax code, pension, student loan plan and location. Applying a single flat tax rate is a rough approximation at best.
• Ignoring employer pension: A lower headline salary with a generous pension match can beat a higher salary with minimum auto-enrolment contributions.
• Assuming 2,080 hours: Many UK contracts are 37.5 hours per week, not 40, giving 1,950 working hours. Hourly conversions differ by about 6% between the two assumptions.
• Forgetting unpaid overtime: If a "40-hour" role regularly requires 50 hours, the real hourly rate is 20% lower than the calculator suggests.
• Ignoring currency differences: Converting a US offer to sterling using today's FX rate ignores cost of living, tax systems, and healthcare costs. Compare after-tax, cost-adjusted income rather than raw FX.

All calculations run in your browser. No salary data is sent anywhere.

Sources

• GOV.UK - National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates
• GOV.UK - The National Minimum Wage in 2026 (Low Pay Commission)
• ONS - Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025
• BLS - Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers
• US Department of Labor - Minimum Wage
• KFF - 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey