Hourly wage to actual paycheck — with overtime, deductions and all the taxes
| Line | Per biweekly check |
|---|
Hourly workers live in a different pay reality than salaried ones: hours vary, overtime changes weeks, and the gap between the advertised wage and the deposited check decides whether the month works. This calculator converts your rate and real hours — overtime included at time-and-a-half — into the actual biweekly deposit after 2025 federal tax, FICA and state tax, plus the number that cuts through everything: your effective after-tax hourly wage.
| Hourly rate (40 hrs) | Annual gross | Approx. biweekly take-home* |
|---|---|---|
| $15 | $31,200 | ~$1,010 |
| $20 | $41,600 | ~$1,310 |
| $25 | $52,000 | ~$1,590 |
| $30 | $62,400 | ~$1,870 |
| $40 | $83,200 | ~$2,410 |
*Single filer, mid-tax state, no pre-tax deductions — run your exact case above. The useful shortcut hiding in the table: annual gross ≈ hourly rate × 2,080, and for quick mental math, full-time take-home lands near hourly rate × 1,500–1,600 per year for most earners.
An hourly offer at $26 with steady 5 hours of weekly overtime beats a $58,000 salary on gross — but salary may carry better benefits, and exempt status means those extra hours pay zero. Run both through this tool and the Salary After Tax Calculator, compare monthly take-home and the effective per-hour figure, and let the arithmetic referee.
Withholding tables treat each check as your new normal, so a fat OT check gets a fat withholding rate — temporarily. At filing, all income is taxed at your ordinary brackets, and over-withheld amounts come back as refund. There is no overtime tax.
2,080 at 40/week (52 weeks) — the standard conversion. With 2 weeks unpaid time off, use 2,000; the difference matters when converting hourly to annual for offer comparisons.
Biweekly = every two weeks = 26 checks (two 3-check months/year); semimonthly = twice a month = 24 slightly larger checks. Same annual pay, different budgeting rhythm — this tool reports biweekly, multiply by 26/24 to convert.
Same ordinary income treatment; reported tips flow through withholding like wages. Cash tips are legally reportable ($20+/month) — and unreported tips also shrink your Social Security earnings record, which costs you at retirement.
The months with three paydays are pre-built savings events: budgeting on a 2-check month standard and sweeping the extras to an emergency fund or debt payoff (see the Debt Payoff Calculator) is the classic hourly-worker wealth hack.
Fix over-withholding with the W-4 Calculator (a $2,600 refund is $100/check you lent the IRS), use pre-tax benefits, and check state tax if remote work gives you location options.
Yes — wage and hours never leave your browser.
Know your effective after-tax hourly wage and every decision gets sharper — extra shifts, offer comparisons, whether the commute is worth it. It's the one number employers never print, and it's the one that runs your budget.