The sum for how to work out your hourly rate is short: annual salary divided by the paid hours in the year, where paid hours are contracted hours a week times the weeks you are paid for. What makes people search work out my hourly rate uk is not the division, it is the inputs: whether to use 52 weeks or the weeks actually worked, what to do with a 37.5 hour week, and, for the employer, what the hour really costs once National Insurance and pension are added. This page works the sum both ways, from the person's side and from the rota's side, on the free hourly rate calculator on this site.
The sum, and the worked example
£28,000 a year on 40 contracted hours a week, paid for 52 weeks, is 2,080 paid hours and an hourly rate of £13.46. Change the hours to 37.5 and the same salary is £14.36 an hour; change the weeks to 48 and it rises again. The rate is a property of the contract, not of the week, which is why a salaried person on a rota looks free: the salary does not move when the rota gives them 44 hours instead of 40. The calculator returns the paid hours, the hourly rate, a day rate at the hours you enter and the weekly pay from those three inputs.
The employer's figure: the loaded hourly cost
An hour of a salaried person costs the employer more than the hourly rate, because employer National Insurance, pension contributions and anything else the payroll adds sit on top of the wage. The calculator takes that as a percentage you enter from your own payroll; on the worked example 15% turns £13.46 into a loaded £15.48, and a 44 hour rota week into £681.15. The percentage is the input that moves the cost of the week most, and it is the one figure here that this site does not publish, because it is yours.
Work out hourly rate uk: which weeks, which hours, and the minimum
Use the weeks you are paid for, which for most salaried people is 52, holiday included. Use the contracted hours in the contract, not the hours worked, or the rate will move every week. And check the answer against the floor: from April 2026 GOV.UK sets the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over at £12.71 an hour, £10.85 for 18 to 20 and £8 for under 18s and apprentices. A salary that works out below the rate for the person's age is a problem before the rota is written. What the hour takes home after tax is a different calculation and a different site.
Questions people ask about how to work out your hourly rate
How do I work out my hourly rate from an annual salary?
Divide the salary by contracted hours a week times weeks paid a year. £28,000 over 40 hours and 52 weeks is £13.46 an hour. The free calculator on this site does it and adds the day rate and the weekly pay.
Why is the employer's hourly cost higher than my hourly rate?
Because the employer pays National Insurance and pension contributions on top of the wage. The calculator adds those as a percentage the employer enters from their own payroll; it does not publish a figure for them.
Does this work out take-home pay?
No. It works out the rate before tax and what an hour and a rota week cost the employer. What lands in the account after tax and National Insurance is a different calculation on a different site.