Hourly rates and annual salaries are hard to compare at a glance, and job ads in Australia mix the two freely. This wage calculator converts an hourly rate into weekly, fortnightly and annual gross wages based on the hours you work each week, and it converts an annual salary back into an hourly rate when you need the comparison in the other direction. It suits hourly paid employees checking a new rate, casual and part-time workers annualising their pay to compare it with a salaried role, and anyone weighing two offers quoted in completely different formats. The figures are gross wages before tax, which makes this the right first step before a take-home calculation. Every conversion runs in your browser on this device. Nothing you enter is uploaded, sent to a server or stored, so you can test your current rate and a rate you are negotiating for in complete privacy.
How it works
The inputs are deliberately simple: an hourly rate and the number of hours you work per week. There is also a reverse option, where you enter an annual salary plus your weekly hours and get the hourly rate that salary represents.
The forward calculation is a chain of multiplications, each step building the next period. Multiply the hourly rate by your hours per week to get the weekly wage. Double the weekly wage for the fortnightly wage. Multiply the weekly wage by 52 to get the annual wage, which is the same as multiplying the hourly rate by hours per week by 52. The reverse calculation runs the chain backwards: divide the annual salary by 52 and by your hours per week, or in one step, divide by your total annual hours. For a 38 hour week that divisor is 38 x 52 = 1,976 hours.
There is no financial year selector on this calculator, and that is intentional. Tax rates, the Medicare levy and super guarantee percentages all change between financial years, but none of them are part of this tool. It converts gross amounts only: hours into wages and wages into hours. A conversion that is correct in 2025-26 stays correct in 2026-27, because no rate from either year enters the arithmetic. If you want the after-tax version of the annual figure this tool produces, take that annual wage into the salary or pay calculator, where the financial year selector and the ATO resident rates do apply.
The hours figure deserves care, because it drives everything. Use your ordinary hours, the regular rostered hours in your contract, not a week that happened to include overtime. A full-time employee in Australia commonly works 38 hours a week, and all the standard conversions in this area assume 52 paid weeks in a year. That 52 week basis is also why the annual figure lines up with how salaries are normally quoted: a salary covers the whole year, including the weeks you spend on paid annual leave, rather than only the weeks you are physically at work.
What this calculator does not include is just as important. Penalty rates, overtime rates, allowances and loadings are not added, because they depend on your award or agreement and on when the hours are actually worked. Casual loading is not added either, for the same reason: a casual rate already has a loading built into it, so read the common questions below before comparing a casual rate directly with a permanent rate. Super is not calculated here either, because super depends on the financial year rate and on whether your pay is quoted as a package or plus super. Those pieces belong in the pay calculator, which is built for them.
Worked example
Take an hourly rate of $35 an hour, working 38 hours a week.
| Conversion | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly wage | $35 x 38 | $1,330 a week |
| Fortnightly wage | $1,330 x 2 | $2,660 a fortnight |
| Annual wage | $35 x 38 x 52 | $69,160 a year |
| Check, the other way | $1,330 x 52 | $69,160, the same result |
| In reverse | $69,160 divided by 1,976 hours (38 hours x 52 weeks) | $35 an hour |
With those three period figures in hand, you can compare this hourly role fairly against a salaried offer quoted at, for example, an annual figure alone, and you can see immediately what a one dollar change in the hourly rate is worth over a full year at your hours.
Common questions
How do I convert an hourly rate to an annual salary?
Multiply the hourly rate by your hours per week, then by the weeks you work in a year. For a full-time employee on 38 hours a week that is the hourly rate times 38 times 52. This calculator uses 52 weeks as the default, because salary is normally quoted as a yearly figure even though leave is included in it.
How do I convert a salary back to an hourly rate?
Divide the annual salary by your hours per week and by 52. For a 38-hour week, divide by 1,976 hours. That gives the base hourly rate before any overtime, penalty rates or loadings.
Does the annual figure include my paid leave?
Yes, in the sense that a salary covers the whole year, including the weeks you are on paid annual leave. If you are comparing a salaried job with hourly work, remember the hourly worker is usually not paid for time off unless they are a permanent employee.
I am a casual. Is my hourly rate comparable?
Not directly. Casual rates normally include a casual loading, commonly 25 percent, paid instead of entitlements such as paid annual leave and paid personal leave. Compare a casual rate with a permanent rate only after allowing for that loading.
Are penalty rates and overtime included?
No. This calculator converts base pay only. Overtime and penalty rates depend on your award or agreement and the hours you actually work, so they are best checked against your payslip.
Before you rely on this estimate
This calculator gives general information and gross wage estimates only. The conversions are arithmetic based on the hours you enter, not a ruling on what your award or agreement requires for your job. It is not financial, tax or legal advice. Read our Disclaimer before relying on any figure. To continue, put the annual wage into the Salary Calculator for estimated take-home pay, use the Pay Calculator for a payslip style breakdown with super and tax, or try the PAYG Calculator to estimate withholding from a single pay.