$15 an hour is how much per year?
The amount you earn per year based upon an hourly rate of $15 depends upon the number of hours you work per week and the number of weeks you work per year.
If you work 52 weeks per year
$31,200 per year
If you earn an hourly wage of $15 and work 52 weeks per year, your yearly salary would equate to $31,200. This is based upon you working a standard 40-hour week.
If you work 50 weeks per year
$30,000 per year
If you earn $15 per hour and work 50 weeks per year, with 2 weeks unpaid leave, your salary would equate to $30,000 per year, based upon 40 hours of work per week.
In this article, we'll look further at how your yearly salary can be calculated more accurately, give you an opportunity to work out your own annual, monthly and weekly pay and examine how your salary compares to that of an average US worker.
On this page:Hourly pay to salary calculator
$15 per hour to monthly, weekly, daily wage
To calculate your annual salary, as well as your monthly and weekly pay, based upon your hourly rate of $15, we need to factor in the number of hours you work each week.
The latest data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics suggest that men work an average of 40.5 hours per week and women work an average of 36.6 hours per week, but these figures vary for age, marital status, race and ethnicity. 4
Using this information we can produce the following figures:
| Yearly salary | $15 per hour is $31,200 per year |
| Monthly salary | $15 per hour is $2,600 per month |
| Weekly wage | $15 per hour is $600 per week |
| Daily wage | $15 per hour is $120 per day |
| Note: Figures are for gross pay, before any taxes and deductions are taken out. Calculations are for 40 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. | |
How to calculate your yearly salary
So, you get paid 15 dollars an hour? To work out what that adds up to over the course of a year, we need to know how many hours you work in a year, and multiply those hours by $15.
The standard working week for a full-time employee in the USA is 40 hours. You may get paid for 52 weeks per year, or you may receive two weeks of unpaid leave per year, meaning you get paid for 50 weeks of the year, instead of 52.
If you work more than 40 hours per week, we look at figures including overtime pay 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.
What does the average US worker earn per hour?
The average hourly pay of an American worker is $28.83, as of June 2023 1. 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.
How your yearly pay compares with others
You earn 58.5% of the $53,329 average US salary. 2 Remember, though: it only takes a handful of billionaires to push the national average way higher than the norm. That's why it makes more sense to look at the median salary figure instead, for comparison.
The median - or middle - salary of a US worker in 2023 is $57,200, which is $1,100 per week. You earn 54.5% of the median national salary. 3
Adding time and a half pay
If you get paid a 1.5 rate for working more than 40 hours, your time and a half rate is $22.50 per hour.
Here’s what your income would look like with an extra 5, 10, 15 or 20 hours at a 1.5 hourly rate...
| Hours/week | Extra $/week | Extra $/year | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45 hour week | $112.50 | $5,625 | $36,825 |
| 50 hour week | $225 | $11,250 | $42,450 |
| 55 hour week | $337.50 | $16,875 | $48,075 |
| 60 hour week | $450 | $22,500 | $53,700 |
Other ways to think of $15 per hour across the year
- 31,200 slices of dollar pizza ($1 each)
- 6303 skinny peppermint lattes at Starbucks ($4.95 for venti size)
- 2400 cinema tickets ($13 each)
- 1248 visits to the Whitney Art Museum (at $25 per head)
- 62 Botox treatments (at $500 each)
- 23.5 nights at Skylofts at MGM Grand, The Strip, Las Vegas ($1325 per night)
- 15 labradoodle puppies ($2000 each)
- 0.2cm³ of Leonardo da Vinci's ‘Salvator Mundi'. The painting measures 45.4cm x 65.6cm, and was sold for $450.3 million in 2017 (nearly half a billion US dollars). So each of its 2978cm³ is worth $151,208
A word of advice
Our calculator and guide is a fun, easy way to work out your ‘on-paper’ salary, based on your hourly wage. But, please don't base any major financial decisions on the figures alone. We can give you a good indication of your annual salary, but you’ll also need to think about sick days, family leave, overtime, taxes and all the other fun things that affect work and pay.
Your income tax will depend upon your circumstances and the state in which you live - every state taxes its employees differently. So, you should keep that in mind. You can see the current income tax rates and brackets for different states on this page from Tax Foundation.
If you're intending to start saving towards a goal and want to know how long it might take, we have a guide and calculator to assist you.
And, if you're thinking of asking your boss for a pay raise, we also have a calculator to help you calculate a pay increase figure, so that you can see how much extra you might take home each week, month or year.
Summary
An hourly wage of $15 equates to a yearly salary of $31,200 for someone working 40 hours per week for 52 weeks per year, or $30,000 if you take 2 weeks of unpaid leave (50 weeks per year).
These figures are pre-tax, don't take into account for overtime or sick pay and assume you work the same number of hours every week.
For serious advice on your finances, spending and saving strategies, we recommend speaking with a qualified financial advisor.
Convert other hourly rates
Calculator by Alastair Hazell.Article references
- Trading Economics. United States Average Hourly Wages.
- Career Addict. The 10 Countries with the Highest Average Salaries.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (USA). Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics (USA). Household Data Annual Averages 2022.
