Convert between hourly, weekly, monthly, and annual salary. Estimate your take-home pay after taxes and understand your true compensation.
| Period | Gross Pay |
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| Period | Net Pay |
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A salary calculator solves two related problems that affect almost every working person at some point: understanding what a given salary actually means in terms of spendable monthly income, and comparing compensation packages expressed in different formats — annual versus hourly, full-time versus part-time, gross versus net. This tool handles both with a single set of inputs, converting any salary figure into a complete picture of what it represents across every relevant time period and after estimated deductions.
The gap between gross salary and net take-home pay is larger than most people expect when they first calculate it. Gross salary is the total compensation your employer pays before any deductions are applied — the headline figure on job advertisements and employment contracts. Net pay is what physically arrives in your bank account after income tax, social security or national insurance, pension contributions, health insurance premiums, and any other mandatory or voluntary payroll deductions are removed. This gap commonly represents 20% to 40% of gross in most developed economies, depending on income level and jurisdiction.
Understanding this gap matters for three specific reasons. First, every personal budget must be built from net income figures — budgets built on gross salary consistently overestimate available money and fail to balance when real deposits arrive. Second, when evaluating a salary increase or new job offer, the relevant question is not what the gross figure is but what the after-tax, after-deduction income difference will actually be — a $10,000 raise in a 30% effective tax bracket produces roughly $7,000 in additional annual net income, not $10,000. Third, comparing job offers with different benefit structures requires converting both to equivalent net annual income by quantifying the monetary value of all non-salary components.
The frequency conversion feature addresses a separate but equally practical problem. Job postings quote annual salaries. Rent is monthly. Freelance contracts reference daily rates. Hourly workers need to know their annual equivalent for financial planning. This calculator converts any of these formats into all the others simultaneously — enter your annual salary and instantly see the monthly, weekly, daily, and hourly equivalents, or start from an hourly rate and work upward to the annual equivalent for comparison with salaried offers.
💡 The Effective Hourly Rate Test: When comparing two job offers with different salaries and different expected hours, calculate the effective hourly rate for each: divide the annual net take-home pay by total annual hours worked (hours per week multiplied by working weeks per year). A higher gross salary that requires 55-hour weeks may actually pay less per effective hour than a lower salary with a standard 40-hour week — and involves giving up 750 or more additional hours annually. The effective hourly rate is the only truly comparable metric across different compensation structures.
The gap between gross and net pay is created by several categories of deduction that apply in different proportions depending on your country, employer, and personal circumstances.
Income tax is the largest deduction for most employees in most countries. Progressive tax systems apply lower rates to lower income brackets and higher rates to higher brackets — meaning your effective tax rate (total tax as a percentage of gross income) is always lower than your marginal rate (the rate on your highest dollar of earnings). This distinction matters: a raise that pushes you into a higher bracket only increases your marginal rate on the portion above the threshold, not on your entire salary.
Social security, national insurance, or equivalent contributions are mandatory in most developed countries and fund pension systems, unemployment insurance, and healthcare programs. These typically range from 5% to 12% of gross earnings depending on the country and income level, with employers often matching contributions that do not appear in the employee's gross-to-net calculation but represent a real cost to the employer.
Pension or retirement contributions may be mandatory (as in countries with compulsory superannuation) or voluntary. While these deductions reduce current take-home pay, they are actually money still working for you — building tax-advantaged retirement savings that will generate income later. Including pension contributions in the "deductions" field of this calculator gives a realistic view of current spendable income, but they should be recognised as delayed compensation rather than a pure cost.
Health insurance premiums vary enormously by country and employer. In some healthcare systems, employer-sponsored health insurance is a significant monthly deduction; in others, it is negligible or absent. Private health insurance premiums, where applicable, should be included in the "Other Deductions" field for a complete take-home pay calculation.
When assessing a pay rise, the headline gross figure is less relevant than two adjusted calculations. First, apply your effective tax rate to find the after-tax increase — a $5,000 annual raise at a 28% effective tax rate produces approximately $3,600 in additional annual net income, or $300 per month. Second, factor in any increased costs associated with the new role — commuting costs, professional attire requirements, reduced flexibility — that may absorb a portion of the nominal increase. A pay rise that looks significant in gross terms can reduce substantially once tax and associated cost changes are accounted for.
Base salary is only one component of total compensation, and in many roles it is not the largest or most variable component. Employer pension contributions can represent 5–15% of salary in additional compensation. Health and dental coverage has a direct monetary value equal to what you would pay for equivalent private coverage. Remote work flexibility eliminates commuting costs that can reach thousands of dollars annually. Bonus potential, stock options, profit-sharing, and annual leave entitlements all contribute to total compensation value. When comparing two job offers, converting all components to an estimated annual dollar value and comparing total compensation — not just base salary — often reveals a very different ranking than the headline salary figures suggest.
This calculator is most useful when it connects directly to your budgeting process — the net monthly pay figure it produces should flow directly into your Budget Calculator as the income foundation for your monthly financial plan.
Type your salary figure and select the period it represents — annual, monthly, weekly, or hourly. The calculator converts immediately to all other periods. If you are evaluating a job offer quoted annually, enter it as annual. If you work hourly and want to understand your annual equivalent, enter your hourly rate and select hourly.
Set the sliders to your actual working schedule rather than contract hours if they regularly differ. If you reliably work 45 hours when contracted for 40, using 45 gives a more accurate effective hourly rate. Adjust working weeks for any unpaid leave weeks in your year — the difference between 48 and 52 working weeks changes your annual equivalent hourly rate meaningfully.
Find your effective tax rate on your most recent annual tax return — it is total income tax paid divided by total gross income, expressed as a percentage. This is almost always lower than your marginal bracket rate. Enter this effective rate rather than your marginal rate for the most accurate net pay calculation. If you do not have a recent return, use your country's standard tax calculator with your income level to estimate your effective rate.
Add up all additional regular deductions beyond income tax: pension contributions, health and dental insurance premiums, national insurance or social security contributions, student loan repayments, and any other payroll items. Enter the combined monthly total. This step is what separates a rough tax estimate from a genuinely accurate take-home pay figure.
The visual breakdown shows your annual gross income split into take-home pay, income tax, and deductions as both dollar amounts and percentages. This proportion view is particularly useful when modelling the effect of a salary increase — it immediately shows how much of the gross increase would reach your bank account after the marginal tax rate applies to the additional income.
Transfer the calculated net monthly pay directly into the Budget Calculator as your primary income figure. This ensures your entire financial plan is built on money you actually receive rather than on the gross figure that appears on your payslip but never reaches your account.