

20 dollars an hour is how much per year?

Let’s make it easy to calculate your annual income for a 20 dollar per hour job! All you need to do is multiply your hourly rate of $20 by the number of hours you’re paid to work across the course of a year.

We’re basing our math on the standard working week of a US employee, which is 40 hours. People usually 50 weeks of the year, with the other two weeks taken as unpaid leave. However, we will work out the numbers for both 50 weeks and 52 weeks so you have all the information at hand.

Yearly salary for $20 per hour

40 hours per week for 50 weeks equals 2000 hours of work in a year. $20 per hour would end up giving a salary of: $40,000 per year

Yearly salary (52 weeks)

40 hours per week for 52 weeks equals 2080 hours of work in a year. $20 per hour would end up giving a salary of: $41,600 per year

If you work more than 40 hours per week, we look at figures including overtime further down the article. You can also use our hourly to salary calculator to work out an annual salary based upon different figures for hours per week and weeks per year.

Here’s another way to think of 20 dollars per hour across the year…

  1. 40,000 slices of dollar pizza ($1 each)
  2. 8080 skinny peppermint lattes at Starbucks ($4.95 for venti size)
  3. 3076 cinema tickets ($13 each)
  4. 1600 visits to the Whitney Art Museum (at $25 per head)
  5. 80 Botox treatments (at $500 each)
  6. 30.2 nights at Skylofts at MGM Grand, The Strip, Las Vegas ($1325 per night)
  7. 20 labradoodle puppies ($2000 each)
  8. 0.3cm³ of Leonardo da Vinci's ‘Salvator Mundi' (the painting measures 45.4cm x 65.6cm, and was sold for $450.3 million in 2017, so each of its 2978cm³ is worth $151,208)

How much does the average US worker earn per hour?

The average hourly pay of an American worker, as of 2021, is $25.60 (ref). It's worth remembering that average hourly pay will vary for different industries. For example, the average hourly pay in the hospitality industry is around $16, compared to over $40 in the utilities industry.

Salary pay day

How your yearly pay compares with others

You earn 66.1% of the $60,558 average US salary. Remember, though: it only takes a handful of billionaires to push the national average way higher than the norm.

The median - or middle - salary of a US worker in 2021 is $51,428, which is $989 per week (BLS). You earn 77.8% of the median national salary.

Here’s the median household income in some US states:

Median household income by state
State Household income*
New Jersey$80,088
New York$64,894
Puerto Rico$19,343
*household income combines all salaries at one address
Reference: census.gov: ‘2017 ACS Median house-hold income (dollars)’

Now compare your wages with the average annual salary of other nations

Average salary per country
Country Salary
New Zealand$46,917
Your Salary$40,000
(All figures are in US dollars)
Reference: OECD (2017 data used, to match other examples)

How much do I make in a day?

If you work 8 hours a day at $20 per hour, you earn: $160 per day

What’s my weekly pay?

If you work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for $20 per hour, you earn: $800 per week

What's my monthly pay?

Dividing your annual $40,000 salary by 12 months gives an average of: $3333.33 per month

The above figures are for gross pay, before any taxes and deductions are taken out.

What if I work above 40 hours and get paid time-and-a-half?

If you get paid a 1.5 rate for working more than 40 hours, your ‘time-and-a-half’ rate is $30.00 per hour.

Here’s what your income would look like with an extra 5, 10, 15 or 20 hours at a 1.5 rate
Hours/week Extra $/week Extra $/year Total
45 hour week$150$7,500$47,500
50 hour week$300$15,000$55,000
55 hour week$450$22,500$62,500
60 hour week$600$30,000$70,000

50-30-20 Rule

The 50-30-20 budgeting method suggests a very general idea that people spend 50% of their income (after tax) on living expenses, 30% on discretionary items (fun, entertainment, holidays) and 20% on saving. Finance journalist Paula Pant has written a very good article about this.

Woman holding piggybank for saving her pay

A word of advice

This calculator is a fun, easy way to work out your ‘on-paper’ salary. Of course, it’s rarely that simple, as there are all kinds of tax and deductions to consider, depending on your location. There might also be additional pay in the form of commission or tips. So use this as a guideline, but don’t over-rely on the numbers.

If you're looking to start saving towards a goal, we have an article and calculator to help you calculate how long it might take to save.

For serious advice on your finances, we recommend speaking with a qualified, independent financial advisor.

Last updated: 17 June 2021