Two directions, one piece of arithmetic
Underneath both directions of this calculator is the same relationship: annual pay equals your hourly rate multiplied by the hours you work in a week, multiplied by the weeks you're paid for in a year. Going from an hourly rate to a salary multiplies; going from a salary to an hourly rate divides. Where this calculator earns its keep is everything after that first multiplication: it runs the resulting gross figure through the same CRA T4127 annual payroll-deduction engine as our Take-Home Pay Calculator — federal and provincial income tax, CPP (or QPP in Quebec), and EI (or the reduced rate plus QPIP in Quebec) — so every figure in the results table is a real after-tax number for the province you pick, not a rough estimate.
Hourly → Salary: gross annual = rate × hours per year
Salary → Hourly: rate = gross annual ÷ hours per year
The number almost nobody shows you
Most hourly-to-salary tools stop at gross pay — the number that appears on a job posting, not the number that appears in your bank account. This calculator's headline follows the same convention (so it's easy to compare against a posted salary or rate), but right underneath it sits the effective hourly rate after tax: your net annual pay divided by the hours you actually work in a year. It's the same net income the take-home table already shows, expressed per hour, and it's arguably the more honest number to compare between a $30-an-hour hourly job and a $62,000 salaried offer, since gross figures alone hide how much of the difference tax eats up.
52 weeks or 50? The honest answer
Canada's employment standards set a floor under paid vacation: at least two weeks a year (rising with tenure in most provinces, and under the federal Canada Labour Code for federally regulated employers), or at minimum 4% of wages paid out as vacation pay. A salaried employee's pay keeps flowing through their vacation, so the standard, honest annualization uses all 52 weeks — that's this calculator's default. Someone paid only for the hours they actually work, with no paid vacation, is better served by a smaller number: 50 weeks approximates two unpaid weeks off, and the "additional unpaid weeks" field lets you subtract more for a layoff, unpaid leave, or a slow season, on top of whichever base assumption you pick.
The direction you're converting changes which way the choice pushes the answer. Take a flat $30-an-hour rate, 40 hours a week: at 52 weeks it annualizes to $62,400; at 50 weeks (say, two weeks of unpaid time off) it's $60,000 — fewer paid weeks means less money, full stop. Now go the other way: a fixed $62,400 salary divided by 40 hours × 52 weeks gives back the original $30.00 an hour, but divided by 40 hours × 50 weeks it implies $31.20 an hour — higher, because the identical total pay is being spread across fewer working weeks. Neither number is wrong; they answer different questions, which is exactly why this calculator makes the weeks figure something you set rather than something it assumes silently.
Worked example — $30 an hour, Ontario, 40 hours a week
Hourly rate $30.00, 40 hours a week, the default 52 weeks (paid vacation assumed), Ontario.
- Hours per year: 40 × 52 = 2,080.
- Equivalent annual salary (gross): $30.00 × 2,080 = $62,400.00.
- Running that gross figure through the 2026 T4127 method: federal tax $5,803.27, Ontario tax (incl. the Health Premium) $3,191.63, CPP $3,504.55, EI $1,017.12.
- Net annual pay: $62,400.00 − $5,803.27 − $3,191.63 − $3,504.55 − $1,017.12 = $48,883.43 — about $4,073.62 a month, or $1,880.13 every two weeks.
- Effective hourly rate after tax: $48,883.43 ÷ 2,080 = $23.50 — about 21.7% below the $30.00 gross rate.
- Average tax rate 14.4%; marginal tax rate 29.6% — the rate the next dollar earned would actually face.
Worked example — a $70,000 salary, British Columbia, 37.5-hour week
Annual salary $70,000, 37.5 hours a week, 52 weeks, British Columbia.
- Hours per year: 37.5 × 52 = 1,950.
- Equivalent hourly rate (gross): $70,000 ÷ 1,950 = $35.90.
- Net annual pay (federal tax $7,278.19, BC tax incl. its tax reduction $3,293.85, CPP $3,956.75, EI $1,123.07): $54,348.15.
- Effective hourly rate after tax: $54,348.15 ÷ 1,950 = $27.87 — average tax rate 15.1%, marginal 28.2%.
Figures above are rounded to the cent for readability; the calculator itself carries full precision throughout.
What this does not model
This calculator assumes every hour is paid at the single rate you enter, spread evenly across the weeks you set. It does not model overtime pay or shift premiums — overtime thresholds and rates vary by province and by federal versus provincial coverage, and shift, weekend or on-call premiums are set entirely by individual employers, so there is no single formula to apply. It also leaves out bonuses and commission (which CRA withholds using a different "bonus method"), employer benefits, self-employment CPP (where you pay both the employee and employer halves), and any credits or deductions beyond the basics that the Take-Home Pay Calculator's own notes list. Treat every figure here as a starting point for a conversation, an offer comparison, or a budget — not as a substitute for an actual pay stub or notice of assessment.
Why after-tax hourly pay differs so much between provinces
The same hourly rate does not go as far in every province, because each one sets its own income tax brackets and basic personal amount on top of the federal system, and several layer on rules unique to them: Ontario's surtax and Health Premium, British Columbia's low-income tax reduction, and Quebec's fully separate tax system with QPP and QPIP replacing CPP and EI. At $30 an hour, 40 hours a week, 52 weeks, the effective after-tax hourly rate can differ by a dollar or more between provinces at otherwise identical inputs — small per hour, but real money over a full year. If you want the line-by-line reason why, the Take-Home Pay Calculator breaks out federal tax, provincial tax, CPP and EI separately for any province.
FAQ
Why doesn't rate times 2,080 hours match what I actually take home?
Multiplying an hourly rate by 2,080 hours (40 hours a week for 52 weeks) only gives your gross pay, the amount before deductions. What actually lands in your account is reduced by federal income tax, provincial or territorial income tax, CPP (or QPP in Quebec), and EI (plus QPIP in Quebec). This calculator runs your converted salary through the same 2026 payroll-deduction formulas as our Take-Home Pay Calculator, so the annual, monthly and per-hour figures it shows are all after-tax, not just the multiplication.
Should I use 52 weeks or 50 weeks a year?
Use 52 if your pay continues through any vacation you take, which is true for almost every salaried employee, since Canadian employment standards require paid vacation of at least two weeks a year (or at least 4% vacation pay), under laws like Ontario's Employment Standards Act and the Canada Labour Code for federally regulated employers. Use 50, or add the extra weeks as unpaid, if you are paid only for the weeks you actually work, which is common for casual, contract or some hourly arrangements. The choice changes both directions of this calculator: converting an hourly rate to a salary with fewer paid weeks lowers the equivalent salary, while dividing a fixed salary by fewer weeks raises the equivalent hourly rate, because the same total pay is being spread across less time.
Does this calculator include overtime pay or shift premiums?
No. Overtime rules vary by province, by whether you are covered by provincial or federal employment standards, and often by collective agreement or employer policy, typically time-and-a-half after 44 or 48 hours a week, though the threshold and the rate both differ by jurisdiction. Shift premiums, weekend differentials and on-call pay are set entirely by individual employers. This calculator assumes every hour is paid at the single rate you enter; add overtime or premium pay to your hourly rate yourself, or use it only for your regular hours, for a more accurate figure.
Why is my after-tax hourly rate so much lower than my gross hourly rate?
The gap is every deduction that comes off your pay before it reaches you: income tax (federal and provincial), CPP or QPP, and EI or QPIP. Canada's tax brackets are progressive, so the gap grows faster than income does, since a higher hourly rate loses proportionally more to tax, not just more in dollar terms. This calculator's effective hourly rate after tax answers the question a raw hourly-to-annual conversion cannot: what an hour of your work is actually worth once every deduction is out.
Why does the same hourly rate give such different take-home pay in different provinces?
Each province and territory sets its own income tax brackets and basic personal amount, and a few add rules no other province has: Ontario's health premium and surtax, British Columbia's tax reduction, and Quebec's entirely separate tax system with QPP and QPIP instead of CPP and EI. Two people earning the identical $30 an hour in Alberta and Quebec can see a difference of more than $2,500 a year in net pay, entirely from where they live. Our Take-Home Pay Calculator breaks down exactly which line differs and by how much for any province.
How is the average tax rate different from the marginal tax rate shown here?
Average tax rate is your total federal-plus-provincial income tax divided by your gross pay, the overall share of every dollar that goes to tax. Marginal tax rate is what happens to your very next dollar, which is almost always higher, because Canada's brackets tax only the income inside each band at that band's rate. If you're deciding whether extra hours or a raise are worth it, the marginal rate is the more relevant number: it is what a raise's last dollar keeps, not what your whole paycheque keeps on average.
This page is general information based on published 2026 federal and provincial payroll formulas and Canadian employment-standards minimums, not tax, legal or employment advice. Your own pay may differ — talk to a licensed accountant or your employer's HR team about your specific situation.