Hourly pay multiplies a rate by hours worked. Twenty hours at $15 an hour is $300.
Step 1: Let's Learn
Read it, or press Listen and follow the words.
Salary
A salary is a fixed annual amount, paid in equal instalments. It does not rise with extra hours worked.
Overtime
Hours beyond 40 in a week are commonly paid at 1.5 times the normal rate, often called time and a half.
Commission
Commission pays a percentage of sales. It may stand alone or sit on top of a base salary.
Comparing offers
To compare a salary with an hourly rate, convert both to the same period. A full-time year is about 2080 hours.
Gross is not what arrives
Everything computed here is gross pay, before deductions. The amount reaching your account is net pay, and it is always less.
Hourly against salaried
Hourly pay multiplies a rate by hours worked, so income rises with hours and overtime rules apply. A salary is a fixed annual amount divided across pay periods, and extra hours usually carry no extra pay.
Overtime is a higher rate
Hours beyond a legal threshold are commonly paid at one and a half times the base rate. Computing overtime pay means splitting the hours into regular and overtime portions and applying each rate separately.
Converting between periods
An hourly rate becomes an annual figure by multiplying by hours per week and weeks per year. Doing this is what lets an hourly job and a salaried job be compared at all — they are otherwise stated in different units.
Commission, piece rate and tips
Some pay depends on output or sales rather than time. Those forms shift risk onto the worker: a slow month means less income. Understanding which form a job uses tells you how predictable the income will be.
Step 2: Try It Yourself
Tap and try it out.
Job A
Job B
Job C
Job B has the most. It has 60 more than Job C.
Step 3: Watch an Example
One step at a time.
Watch Amara Compute a Week With Overtime
Amara earns $20 an hour and worked 46 hours this week.
- Step 1
The first 40 hours are at the normal rate: 40 × 20 = $800.
Step 4: Your Turn
Practice makes it stick.
The Shift
Problem 1 of 2
18 hours at $14 an hour. What is the gross pay, in dollars?
dollars
The Commission
Problem 2 of 2
A salesperson earns 5% commission on $8000 of sales. How much commission, in dollars?
dollars
Work Out the Pay
1 of 8
30 hours at $12 an hour. Gross pay in dollars?
2 of 8
A $52000 salary paid weekly. How much per week, in dollars?
3 of 8
$20 an hour with time and a half. What is the overtime rate, in dollars?
4 of 8
44 hours at $10 an hour, overtime after 40. Gross pay in dollars?
5 of 8
3% commission on $12000 of sales. Commission in dollars?
6 of 8
$25 an hour for a 2080-hour year. Annual gross in dollars?
7 of 8
Sort each pay arrangement by how it is calculated.
Tap something to move it.
- Empty
- Empty
8 of 8
$62400 a year paid monthly. Monthly gross in dollars?
Step 5: Quick Check
Show what you know.
Question 1 of 2
25 hours at $16 an hour. Gross pay in dollars?
Question 2 of 2
What is the difference between gross and net pay?
What You Learned
- Hourly pay is rate times hours; a salary is a fixed annual amount.
- Overtime beyond 40 hours is commonly 1.5 times the normal rate.
- Everything here is gross pay, before deductions.