Hourly to yearly pay: how to convert your salary

The formulas for converting pay

A normal full-time job in Norway is 37.5 hours a week. Multiply by 52 weeks and you get 1,950 hours a year. That is the figure most often used to convert between hourly, monthly and yearly pay.

Some agreements use a different number of hours, for example for shift work and rotas, where the working week is often shorter, or where the employer has agreed different working hours. Check your employment contract or collective agreement if you want to be exact. With 1,950 hours, the formulas are:

• Yearly pay = hourly pay × 1,950
• Monthly pay = yearly pay / 12
• Hourly pay = yearly pay / 1,950
• Hourly pay = monthly pay / 162.5 (because 1,950 / 12 = 162.5)

Example: hourly pay to yearly and monthly pay

Say your hourly pay is NOK 250. Your yearly pay is then 250 × 1,950 = NOK 487,500. Your monthly pay is 487,500 / 12 = NOK 40,625.

If you work 40 hours a week instead, the number of hours in a year is 40 × 52 = 2,080. With the same hourly rate, that gives NOK 520,000 a year. That is why you need to know how many hours a week the pay covers when you compare two jobs.

Remember that this is pay before tax, and that holiday pay, allowances and overtime either come on top or have to be calculated separately. We go through them further down.

Monthly pay to hourly pay

Going the other way, you divide. Say your monthly pay is NOK 45,000. Your yearly pay is 45,000 × 12 = NOK 540,000, and your hourly pay is 540,000 / 1,950 = about NOK 276.92. You get the same answer by dividing the monthly pay by 162.5.

From yearly pay you do the same. Say you are offered NOK 600,000 a year. That equals NOK 50,000 a month and about NOK 307.69 an hour.

The hourly rate is useful when you compare a permanent job with one that pays by the hour, or when two jobs have different working hours. Read more about weighing up the whole package in the guide on comparing job offers.

Part time and the job percentage

If you work part time, use the hours you actually work. A job at 80% of a 37.5-hour week is 30 hours a week, and 30 × 52 = 1,560 hours a year.

Pay for part-time jobs is often stated as the full-time salary. Say the job is 80% (stillingsprosent) and the full-time salary is NOK 600,000. You are then paid 600,000 × 0.8 = NOK 480,000 a year. The hourly rate stays the same, about NOK 307.69, because both pay and hours are reduced by the same amount.

If you want to compare part-time pay with salary statistics, do the opposite: divide your pay by the job percentage to find what it equals in a full-time role. 480,000 / 0.8 gives NOK 600,000. See the guide on what the right salary is for how to compare from there.

Overtime: at least 40% extra

The Working Environment Act says overtime must be paid with a premium of at least 40% of your hourly pay. Many collective agreements and employment contracts give higher rates, such as 50% or 100%, depending on when the overtime is worked.

Say your hourly pay is NOK 250. With a 40% premium, overtime pays 250 × 1.4 = NOK 350 an hour. If you work 10 hours of overtime in a month, that gives NOK 3,500 extra before tax.

Employees in senior or particularly independent positions are exempt from the overtime rules, and their contracts often state that overtime is included in the salary. If you are unsure whether this applies to you, Arbeidstilsynet (the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority) has more information.

Holiday pay in the calculation

You earn holiday pay (feriepenger) in one year and receive it the following year. Under the Holiday Act (ferieloven), the rate is at least 10.2% of what you earned the year before. Many agreements give five weeks of holiday, and then 12% is common. If you are over 60, you get an extra 2.3 percentage points.

Say you earned NOK 487,500 last year. At 10.2%, your holiday pay is NOK 49,725. At 12%, it is NOK 58,500.

If you have a fixed monthly salary, you usually receive holiday pay instead of your normal pay during your holiday, and in June most employees get holiday pay instead of ordinary pay. If you are paid by the hour and only for the hours you work, your holiday pay is what you live on during your holiday. So do not think of it as a bonus, but as pay for your holiday weeks.

Gross and net: before and after tax

All the figures above are gross, meaning before tax. What you are actually paid, net, depends on your tax card from Skatteetaten. The tax card tells your employer how much to deduct, and the deduction usually takes a larger share the more you earn.

Say your monthly pay is NOK 40,625 and the deduction is 30%. You are then paid about NOK 28,438. This is only an example, because your actual deduction depends on your income and deductions and is shown on your tax card.

Convert your pay with the hourly pay calculator

If you would rather not do the maths yourself, you can use the hourly pay calculator at Selja. You enter your pay per hour, month or year and how many hours you work a week, and see what it equals per hour, day, week, month and year. The calculator also shows overtime pay with 40%, 50% and 100% premiums, holiday pay at 10.2% or 12%, and an estimate of your take-home pay after tax.

If you want to know whether your pay is at the right level for the role, you can check it for free in the Salary check.