$35,000 a Year Is How Much An Hour?

Anytime you search available job postings, the salary likely catches your eye before any other details. How much you’ll be paid for your work is an essential part of deciding which job opportunities are worth your time.

Some employers post an annual salary for positions, while others list the work at an hourly rate. When you’re combing through dozens or even hundreds of listings, you need a quick way to convert salary into hourly, and vice versa. If you apply for a job that pays $35,000 per year, what does that work out to per hour?

$35,000 a Year is How Much an Hour?

To calculate how much you’ll earn per hour, you can use the figure the U.S. Office of Personnel Development (OPM) uses to determine wages for federal employees. OPM says that 2,087 hours is the standard number of hours a government employee works per year — amounting to approximately 40 hours per week.

If you work 2,087 hours, earning $35,000 per year, this works out to about $16.77 per hour. Again, this hourly rate is based on working a full 40-hour week, 52 weeks per year, with no time off. While overtime and vacation time can mean you won’t work exactly 2,087 hours, it’s a useful starting point.

Earning $35,000 a year breaks down into:

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Factors That Affect the Hourly Wage of a $35,000 Annual Salary

Since the 40-hour workweek is fairly standard in most industries, it’s a useful metric when converting annual salary into hourly pay. However, the following job-specific variations may impact your hourly pay.

Your Weekly Work Schedule

First, your hourly wage is naturally impacted by how many hours you work. Someone making $35,000 a year and working 40 hours a week is making $16.77 per hour. But if you only work part-time — say 20 hours per week — your hourly wage doubles. You’d work around 1,043 hours and make about $33.56 per hour.

A higher hourly rate will determine how much extra work you can take on outside your job to meet your goals, as well as give you a good idea of what your time is worth. Understanding hourly rate will also come in handy if you’re comparing two positions with a $35,000 salary that offer very different schedules.

Vacation Time

Another factor in your hourly rate is whether or not you take time off from work. The 2,087-hour figure requires working year-round without a break outside of regular weekends. Most people need a bit of time off, whether it’s a few days of sick leave or several weeks’ worth of vacation.

Therefore, when you’re talking to hiring managers or recruiters, be sure to factor in vacation time. If your leave is considered paid leave, it won’t decrease your annual salary. That means that your hourly rate effectively goes up with each day off.

What Is $35,000 Per Year After Taxes?

Of course, this conversation changes when $35,000 is your gross pay, not your net pay. Taxes take a chunk out of your income. When you’re making a budget based on a $35,000 salary, be sure to adjust for federal and state taxes.

For the 2022 federal tax brackets, a $35,000 salary puts you in the 12% marginal tax bracket. (That’s assuming you’re either single or married filing separately. If you’re married and filing jointly, your tax bracket will depend on the total of your income and your spouse’s.)

As an individual, the first $10,275 of your income is taxed at 10%. The next $24,725 would be taxed at the marginal 12% rate. About $31,005 is left in take-home pay after federal taxes in this example. FICA taxes, for Social Security and Medicare, reduce gross pay by another 7.65%.

State taxes most likely apply as well, and these vary from state to state. Illinois levies a flat 4.95% income tax rate, for example (taking about $1,732 from your overall pay). Ohio, on the other hand, has a bracketed system like the federal government, so for your 2021 income, you’d pay $0 on the first $25,000 of income. The amount charged beyond that would be about $622.

Keep in mind that you might be able to reduce your federal tax bill through contributions to a 401(k) or IRA. There may be other deductions that lower your taxable income, too.

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$35,000 Per Year Is How Much Biweekly?

Many employers pay on a biweekly schedule, issuing paychecks every two weeks. If yours pays this way, you can use the biweekly earnings estimate to help you plan your budget, including saving for emergencies.

If you owed absolutely nothing in taxes, you could expect to make $1,341.60 every two weeks. Since you’re probably paying taxes, you could use a program like TurboTax to help calculate how taxes would affect your paychecks.

$35,000 Per Year Is How Much Per Month?

The first instinct might be to simply double the biweekly check amount to get $2.683.20 per month. However, not every month is exactly four weeks long, so some months will actually give you “extra” paychecks.

You can do a rough estimate by simply dividing $35,000 by 12 to get $2,916.67 per month. Remember, though, you might not get paid monthly, so do your planning based on your compensation schedule.

Is $35,000 Per Year A Good Salary?

How good a $35,000 salary is depends largely on where you live. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) lists the latest average hourly wage in the U.S. on private payrolls as $32.27 as of July 2022.

Earning $16.77 per hour puts you below the national average. But keep in mind that $35,000 a year will stretch a lot further in Midwestern or Southern states like Ohio and Tennessee that have a lower cost of living. Contrariwise, it would be really tough to manage on a $35,000 salary without supplemental income of some kind in more expensive regions like the Northeast and the West coast

How To Increase Your Income

If you’re making a $35,000 a year salary, you may be searching for ways to increase your income or hourly wage. Often, it’s most efficient to ask for a raise at your main place of employment or take a higher-paying job with a new employer.

But if neither of those strategies are realistic options right now, you might explore passive investments and income streams that put more money in your pocket without taking more of your time. While your $35,000 income may not leave a ton of wiggle room, you could start investing even small amounts in stocks, including dividend stocks.

Working more is another option. Over the long term, this is a less-optimum way to increase your income. But it can help you make ends meet and reach your goals. This can sometimes be in the form of overtime or taking on a side hustle in your free time such as freelancing or gigging through a carshare or food delivery platform.

The Bottom Line

A $35,000 salary would bring in about $16.77 per hour if you work full-time. You can adjust that hourly rate if you work part-time, and vacation time will also be a factor. Other benefits like health care or flexible work arrangements could make a job paying this salary more worthwhile.

While this isn’t a terribly high hourly rate, and taxes will drop it even lower, there are ways to increase your income. Working towards a higher-paying job or setting up passive income opportunities could help you set up a more comfortable financial future.

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