Salary to Hourly Calculator UK

The conversion, step by step

The hourly rate is your annual salary divided by the hours you actually work in a year: salary ÷ (52 weeks × hours per week). A £30,000 salary on a 37.5-hour week is £30,000 ÷ 1,950 hours = £15.38 an hour, which is £576.92 a week and £2,500 a month. The same salary on a 40-hour week is only £14.42 an hour — the headline salary means little until the hours behind it are known.

That is why two jobs with identical salaries can pay very differently: a 35-hour week at £30,000 beats a 45-hour week at £32,000 on an hourly basis (£16.48 versus £13.68). Whenever you compare offers, convert them all to hourly rates first, and remember to count the hours you really work — including regular unpaid overtime — not just the contracted ones.

52 weeks, or fewer?

The calculator defaults to 52 working weeks, which is right for most salaried UK jobs: annual leave is paid, so you are paid for the holiday weeks too. But if you are hourly-paid and unpaid during holidays, or you take unpaid leave, the honest divisor is the weeks you actually work — 48 weeks, say, after four unpaid weeks off — which raises the hourly rate, because the same annual pay is spread over fewer hours.

The daily figure assumes a five-day week: weekly pay ÷ 5. Part-time workers should enter their actual weekly hours, not a full-time equivalent — a £15,000 salary for 18 hours a week is £16.03 an hour, not half of a full-time rate worked out on 37.5 hours. The calculator only knows the numbers you give it, so give it the real ones.

Gross is not take-home

Every figure here is gross: before income tax, National Insurance and pension contributions. A £15.38 hourly rate does not mean £15.38 in your pocket — after 2026/27 deductions, take-home pay is typically around three-quarters of gross for a basic-rate taxpayer, varying with your tax code, student loan and pension choices. Use our take-home pay calculator alongside this one for the net figure.

The hourly rate is still the right tool for comparing jobs, negotiating raises and pricing freelance work: a freelancer converting a salary to a day rate should add on for holidays, sick days, pension and the gaps between contracts, which is why freelance day rates run well above the equivalent salaried hourly rate.