Pay & work guides

How to Work Out Your Hourly Rate

Divide your gross pay by the paid hours it covers. For an annual salary with regular weekly hours: annual salary ÷ (paid hours per week × 52) = gross hourly rate.

This is the rate before Income Tax, National Insurance, pension and other deductions. Use pay and hours from the same period.

Salary, monthly or weekly pay

• Annual salary: salary ÷ (weekly paid hours × 52).
• Monthly gross pay: monthly pay × 12 ÷ (weekly paid hours × 52).
• Weekly gross pay: weekly pay ÷ paid hours that week.
• Pay every four weeks: four-weekly pay ÷ paid hours in those four weeks. There are normally 13 four-week pay periods in a year, not 12.

If your hours vary, total the gross pay and paid hours over several matching payslips, then divide the totals. For a part-time job, use your own contracted or paid hours rather than full-time hours.

Daily pay and unpaid breaks

For a daily rate, divide the gross day’s pay by the paid hours in that day. Subtract an unpaid lunch or break from the paid hours first. Do not subtract a break that is paid.

If your daily or weekly pay changes, use the actual pay and paid hours for the same days or weeks.

Basic rate versus real-life hourly value

Your basic gross hourly rate measures pay for paid hours. This site’s real-life hourly value asks a different question: how much take-home money remains after work costs for the time you physically work, including extra unpaid work. It accounts for deductions such as tax and NI, then subtracts costs such as commuting fares and work clothing. The site shows commute time and normal unpaid lunch breaks separately from its headline real-life hourly value.

Use the Annual Calculator for the full picture →

It brings deductions, unpaid extra work, commuting and work costs together. These examples show simple gross-pay arithmetic; they do not calculate a legal minimum-wage rate or your exact payslip deductions.