Lifestyle
Your true hourly wage
The "salary ÷ 2,080 hours" number is a fantasy. Count the unpaid overtime, the commute and what work costs you, and your real hourly wage looks different.
Hours & costs
Hours worked beyond contract with no extra pay.
Commuting, lunches, wardrobe, parking.
Your true hourly wage
Enter your salary and real hours, then press My real hourly wage.
People translate a salary to an hourly rate by dividing by 2,080 hours, 40 a week, 52 weeks. Real work isn't like that: there's unpaid overtime, the commute you don't get paid for, and the money it takes just to show up. Count all of it and your true hourly wage is lower, often a lot lower, than the headline figure.
Worked example
A $90,000 salary, 40 contracted hours plus 6 unpaid overtime and 5 commuting, $6,000 of work costs:
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Nominal hourly (salary ÷ contracted hours) | $47 |
| Real hours a year | 2,448 |
| Real hourly wage | $34 |
| The gap | $13/hr (26.8% less) |
On paper that's $47 an hour. Count the overtime, the commute and $6,000 of work costs, and it's $34, 26.8% less. That gap is the honest price of the job, and the number to use when weighing a shorter commute or a role with real boundaries.
Questions
Why count the commute?
Because it's time you spend for the job that you can't spend on anything else, and it costs money too. A shorter commute is in effect a raise in your true hourly wage, sometimes a bigger one than a modest salary bump.
What are "work costs"?
Everything you spend to hold the job: commuting (gas, transit, parking), lunches out, work-appropriate clothes, and the like. They come out of your pay before it does anything for you, so they belong in a true hourly figure.
How do I use this?
To compare jobs on real hours rather than the salary line. A higher salary with a brutal commute and constant unpaid overtime can pay less per real hour than a lower salary with boundaries. The real hourly wage puts the two on the same footing.
Related tools
- Hourly to salary convert a wage the standard way
- Overtime pay when the overtime is paid
- W-2 vs 1099 compare two offers on take-home
A framing tool from your own inputs, not tax or financial advice.