For many people, calculating their hourly wages is as simple as reading their pay slips. However, if you are an employee or self-employed, you need to perform some calculations to find this value. You can calculate your hourly wages for a certain project, for a certain period of time or based on your salary. If you start from the latter, remember to consider all the variables to get an accurate data.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: As a Self Employed
Step 1. Check how many hours you worked
For this calculation to be useful you need to know what your reference paid period is. You can consider all your annual earnings to get an accurate calculation, or calculate your hourly wages for a specific project or time frame.
For example, if you have been paid for a job or a project, you need to write down how many hours you spent on it to know the hourly wage. Alternatively, you can calculate hourly wages for a shorter period of time, such as a month or a few weeks
Step 2. Calculate your earnings
Keep track of all checks / wire transfers you have received. Be sure to consider the same time frame that you evaluated to calculate the number of hours. Again, you may be considering just one project or several payouts.
You can choose whether or not to include taxes in your calculations. Remember that if you don't, your hourly wages will seem higher than they actually are
Step 3. Divide your earnings by the number of hours you work
This way you get the hourly wage based on the project or time period you have selected.
- Earnings: Hours of work = Hourly wages.
- Example: € 15,000: 214 h = € 7, 10 per hour.
- You can also do some research online and find calculators that allow you to check your results, as well as enter variables.
Method 2 of 3: As an Employee Worker
Step 1. Calculate your annual salary
Many people already know this, but if this is not the case, you can check it on a recent paycheck. Take into account the gross (not net) salary, which is the value of your salary before taxes are applied. At this point, multiply the value you have detected by the number of months you receive per year.
- If your contract is thirteenth, multiply the value by 13.
- If you work in an industry where a fourteenth month's salary is also paid, multiply this by 14.
Step 2. Calculate how many hours you work in a year
In general, this standard formula is used for a quick calculation:
- 7.5 hours a day x 5 days a week x 52 weeks a year = 1950 hours worked per year.
- 8 hours a day x 5 days a week x 52 weeks a year = 2080 hours worked per year.
Step 3. Calculate your hourly wages
Once you get this data, you can divide your annual salary by the number of hours worked and you will roughly get the hourly wage.
For example, if your total salary is € 15,000 per year and you have worked for 2080 hours, then € 15,000: 2080 h = € 7.21 per hour (approximately)
Method 3 of 3: Advanced Calculations to Find Hourly Wages from Wages
Step 1. Edit your annual income
If possible, add all the money that comes from your job that goes into your annual salary. Basically you have to consider tips, rewards and incentives.
- You should add any bonuses and extras you get from your job to your annual salary.
- If you are in an occupation that involves receiving tips, then the calculation becomes a little more complex. Keep track of how many you receive for several weeks or months and then divide the total by the number of weeks taken into account - this way you get the average weekly tip value. Finally, multiply the average by the number of weeks you receive tips in a year (remember not to consider the weeks you cannot have them, for example when you are on vacation).
- As a general rule, remember that the more weeks you track your income in the form of tips, the more accurate the average value is.
Step 2. If you work overtime, add it to your hours
To find out how much you are paid for this kind of service, multiply the overtime hours by the extra you receive and then add the product to your annual salary.
- Overtime may not be paid to you, depending on the contract and position you hold. In any case, you have to add them to the number of hours.
- Example: Suppose, on average, you work two extra hours each week except when you are on vacation (two weeks a year). So you work overtime of 2 hours x 50 weeks = 100 hours per year.
- According to this example you have to change your hours and bring it to: 2080 + 100 = 2180.
Step 3. Subtract the number of paid vacation hours from the hours
Add together all the hours of paid leave and vacation that you have enjoyed during the year and subtract them from the total hours worked. Remember to include holidays, illnesses and any occasions when you went out earlier or entered after work.
- Remember to include in this count only the hours of paid leave that you have enjoyed. For example, you may have gained two weeks of leave, but you may not have used them.
- Suppose you take two weeks of paid vacation a year, that you are never sick and that every Friday afternoon you go out an hour earlier. For this reason you have to reduce the number of hours by: (8 hours x 2 weeks x 5 days) + (1 hour x 50 weeks) = 130 hours per year.
- In this case you have to change the hours worked in a year as follows: 2180 - 130 = 2050.
Advice
- Check that the work is ongoing. If it is an occasional job, your pay may be significantly lower.
- When you split, a rounding error results in slightly less accurate hourly wages than annual wages. However, small changes in the annual salary (up to about 200 euros) have an imperceptible impact on the hourly rate.
- Check if you are paid even during the hours of leave and find out how many hours they are.
