Your annual income is your pay per paycheck times the number of paychecks in a year. Paid monthly, that's monthly pay × 12. Paid every two weeks, it's your paycheck × 26, not × 24.
The calculator above takes the monthly route. It multiplies your gross monthly pay, meaning pay before tax and deductions, by the months you're paid. Paid by the hour or the week? Convert first, using the figures below.
How many paychecks land in your year?
Two schedules sound alike but aren't. Semi-monthly means twice a month, so 24 paychecks. Biweekly means every two weeks: 26 paychecks, and in some years 27. Here's the same $2,400 paycheck on each schedule:
| Pay schedule | Paycheck | Paychecks a year | Annual income |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twice a month (semi-monthly) | $2,400 | 24 | $57,600 |
| Every two weeks (biweekly) | $2,400 | 26 | $62,400 |
| Biweekly, in a 27-payday year | $2,400 | 27 | $64,800 |
| Every week, half the paycheck | $1,200 | 52 | $62,400 |
Biweekly pay brings two more paychecks than semi-monthly, $4,800 a year in this case. Multiply a biweekly paycheck by 24 and you'll understate your income by exactly that.
Why some years have 27 paydays
Twenty-six two-week periods cover 364 days. A calendar year has 365 or 366, so your payday slides a day or two later each year. After about 11 years, the slide adds up to a full two weeks, and one year catches 27 paydays. Weekly paydays drift the same way, adding a 53rd about every five or six years. It's a calendar effect, not a raise: your usual income is still 26 paychecks.
Paid by the hour? Start from 2,080 hours
The usual full-time year is 2,080 hours: 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. At $25 an hour, that's $52,000 before tax.
Mortgage lenders that follow Fannie Mae's Selling Guide use the same sum, with your average weekly hours.
A calendar year has slightly more workdays than 52 weeks, though. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management counts 2,080, 2,088 or 2,096 work hours, depending on the year. To turn federal salaries into hourly rates, it uses the long-run average: 2,087 hours.
| Work pattern at $25 an hour | Paid hours a year | Annual pay |
|---|---|---|
| 40 hours a week, all 52 weeks paid | 2,080 | $52,000 |
| 40 hours a week, 2 weeks unpaid | 2,000 | $50,000 |
| 37.5 hours a week, all 52 weeks paid | 1,950 | $48,750 |
| 30 hours a week, all 52 weeks paid | 1,560 | $39,000 |
Hours matter as much as the rate. A 37.5-hour week pays $3,250 a year less than a 40-hour week at the same rate. The hourly to salary calculator runs this sum for any rate and hours.
Paid time off counts, unpaid time off doesn't
The 2,080-hour year assumes you're paid for every week, holidays and vacation included. That holds only if your employer pays for time off. The Fair Labor Standards Act "does not require payment for time not worked," says the Department of Labor. Paid vacation, sick days and holidays are a matter of agreement with your employer.
So count paid hours only. Two unpaid weeks remove 80 hours, which is $2,000 at $25 an hour. Each unpaid 8-hour holiday costs another $200.
Weekly pay times four isn't monthly pay
A month holds about 4.33 weeks, not 4: that's 52 weeks ÷ 12 months. The shortcut quietly drops four weeks of pay a year. On $1,000 a week, × 4 × 12 gives $48,000, while × 52 gives $52,000.
To use the calculator's monthly field, convert weekly pay first: weekly pay × 52 ÷ 12. For biweekly pay, it's the paycheck × 26 ÷ 12. Fannie Mae's guide uses exactly these two conversions.
Gross or take-home: which should you use?
Use gross pay when an application asks for your income, unless the form says otherwise. Mortgage lenders that follow Fannie Mae start from gross pay for every pay schedule. Government earnings data are gross too: BLS figures are "before taxes and other deductions."
Take-home pay is gross pay minus income tax, Social Security, Medicare and deductions such as health premiums. Entering it where gross is asked makes your income look smaller than it is. The salary calculator estimates federal income tax and FICA on an annual salary.
Overtime, bonuses and commission need an average
The calculator scales one steady amount, so don't feed it your best month. Average variable pay over a longer stretch instead. Fannie Mae recommends a two-year history of bonus, commission, overtime or tip income. It may accept as little as 12 months, and it averages year-to-date and previous-year earnings.
For your own figure, add last year's overtime or bonus total to your annual base pay. The overtime calculator works out time-and-a-half pay for extra hours.
How does your annual income compare?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes median weekly earnings every quarter. In the second quarter of 2026, full-time wage and salary workers earned a median $1,251 a week. Here's what the medians come to over 52 weeks:
| Full-time workers, Q2 2026 | Median weekly earnings | Times 52 weeks |
|---|---|---|
| All | $1,251 | $65,052 |
| Men | $1,380 | $71,760 |
| Women | $1,131 | $58,812 |
BLS counts anyone who usually works 35 hours or more as full time. Its figures include usual overtime, commissions and tips. Women's median was 82.0% of men's. Multiplying by 52 assumes every week is paid, so treat these as yardsticks, not annual medians. The US income percentile calculator ranks household income against Census Bureau data.
Paid for only part of the year?
Change the months field when you're paid for fewer than 12. Start a $4,500-a-month job in April, and you'll receive $40,500 that calendar year: 9 × $4,500. Seasonal work paid over 10 months? Enter 10.
A question about your current income, though, wants the ongoing rate: $4,500 × 12 = $54,000. Fannie Mae's base-pay formulas also start from your current pay amount.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers, Second Quarter 2026 (July 21, 2026)
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Computing Hourly Rates of Pay Using the 2,087-Hour Divisor
- U.S. Department of Labor, Vacation Leave
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide, B3-3.3-01 Base Income (March 4, 2026)
- Fannie Mae Selling Guide, B3-3.3-02 Bonus, Commission, Overtime, and Tip Income (March 4, 2026)