How to work out hourly rate
- Hourly rate
- £13.46
- Paid hours a year
- 2,080
- Loaded hourly cost, with on-costs
- £15.48
- Day rate at the hours entered
- £107.69
Nothing in these worksheets is a figure we found somewhere, with one exception that is labelled: the worked example's hourly rate is the April 2026 National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over as GOV.UK publishes it, and you replace it with your own average. Every other number comes from the inputs you enter and the arithmetic stated on the page: days open times shifts a day times people a shift times hours a shift; salary over contracted hours times paid weeks. The defaults are a worked example of a common small team, not a recommendation and not a benchmark.
The figures above start from a worked example (£13.46). Change any input and the answer updates as you type.
Download the How to work out hourly rate worked example (CSV)
This is the person's sheet, and it exists because a salaried person on a shift rota costs an hourly amount whether or not anyone has ever worked it out. Give it the annual salary, the contracted hours a week, the weeks paid a year, the employer on-costs as a percentage of pay, the hours on this week's rota and the hours in a working day. It returns the paid hours a year, the hourly rate, the loaded hourly cost once on-costs are added, a day rate, the weekly pay, what this week's rota costs for that person loaded, and the rota hours over their contract. The figure worth arguing about is the on-cost percentage: it is the one input that comes from your own payroll rather than the contract, and it is the one that moves the cost of the week most.
The rate, off the salary and the paid hours
£28,000 a year over 40 contracted hours and 52 paid weeks is 2,080 paid hours and an hourly rate of £13.46. That is the figure a rota should cost a salaried person at, and it is rarely written down anywhere, which is why salaried people end up looking free on a rota that is anything but.
The loaded cost, once on-costs are added
At 15% on-costs the loaded hourly cost is £15.48, and a working day of eight hours is £107.69 in bare pay. The percentage is the one input that comes from your own payroll rather than the contract, and it is the one that moves the cost of the week most; replace 15 with your real figure.
The rota week, and the hours over contract
A 44 hour rota week costs £681.15 loaded for this person, and four of those hours are over their 40 hour contract. Weekly pay stays £538.46 whatever the rota says, which is exactly the point: on a salary the extra hours cost the person, and on the rota they should still be counted.
How to work out hourly rate: common questions
How is the hourly rate worked out?
Annual salary divided by the paid hours in the year, which is contracted hours a week times weeks paid. £28,000 over 40 hours and 52 weeks is 2,080 paid hours and £13.46 an hour. Change the hours or the weeks and the rate follows.
What should the on-cost percentage include?
Whatever you pay on top of the wage: employer National Insurance, employer pension contributions and anything else the payroll adds. It is a percentage you take from your own payroll, not a figure this site publishes; 15 is a worked example so the sheet has a number, not a benchmark.
Is this take-home pay?
No. This is what an hour of the person costs the employer and what a rota week costs at that rate, before any tax or deduction on the employee's side. What the person takes home after tax and National Insurance is a different calculation on a different site.
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Keeping the rota
The worksheet gives you one week's hours and cost. Pro remembers it: the people, their rates and contracted hours, every week's shifts, every swap and every change, and the totals that follow when a shift moves.
- Keep this person's rate and hours so next week's costing starts from them
- Put two rota weeks side by side and see what the change costs
- Share the figures without our name on them
- Send a member of staff their shifts for the week without leaving the rota
- Not used by Weekrota: nothing here takes a payment from your staff
- Push the week's rota cost across to the books as a wage accrual
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Cite or embed this figure
How to work out hourly rate (Hourly rate): £13.46, Weekrota, worked example.
Cite as: "How to work out hourly rate, Weekrota", updated 2026-09-05, https://weekrota.com/tools/how-to-work-out-hourly-rate/.