SW Labs

$15 an Hour Is How Much a Year?

$31,200a year · $15.00 an hour, 40 hours a week

Adjust weeks, unpaid leave and paid holidays

53 in some payroll calendars

Reduces hours paid

Days paid but not worked

Gross pay by period, from 2,080 paid hours a year
PeriodAmount
Hourly$15.00
Daily$120
Weekly$600
Biweekly$1,200
Semi-monthly$1,300
Monthly$2,600
Yearly$31,200
The same rate on other common working weeks
Hours a weekWeeklyMonthlyYearly
40$600$2,600$31,200
37.5$562.50$2,437.50$29,250
35$525$2,275$27,300
30$450$1,950$23,400
20$300$1,300$15,600

$15 an hour is $31,200 a year before tax, based on a 40-hour week and 52 paid weeks — 2,080 hours in total. The same rate comes to $2,600 a month, $1,200 every two weeks, $1,300 twice a month, and $600 a week.

Part-time hours at $15 an hour

Rates in this range often come with a schedule rather than a contract, and the hours decide the year more than the rate does. At 40 hours a week $15 an hour is $31,200; at 30 hours it is $23,400, and at 20 it is $15,600.

That is why the hours-a-week table matters more here than the headline. A shift pattern that averages 28 hours instead of the 40 an offer implies changes the annual figure by thousands, and nothing about the hourly rate signals it.

How $15 an hour compares

  • It is 2.1x the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, which is $16,120 more a year at the same hours.
  • It is below the US median, at 48% of the median full-time wage.
  • It is under Washington’s minimum wage of $17.13, the highest state floor in the country, so this rate would not be legal there.

Federal minimum wage $7.25, in effect since July 2009 (U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division). Median earnings from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Usual Weekly Earnings, second quarter 2026 — median usual weekly earnings of full-time wage and salary workers. The hourly equivalent of $31.28 is that weekly figure over 40 hours, which is a derivation rather than a separately published median hourly wage. Highest state minimum: Washington, effective 1 January 2026.

How this is worked out

The default assumes 40 hours a week over 52 weeks, which is 2,080 paid hours a year. Yearly pay is the hourly rate multiplied by those hours; monthly is the year split twelve ways.

Biweekly and semi-monthly are not the same thing. Biweekly means every two weeks, which is 26 pay periods a year. Semi-monthly means twice a month, which is 24. That is why those two rows differ above, and why two months of the year carry a third biweekly cheque.

Every figure here is gross — before income tax, payroll tax and deductions.

Common questions

How much is $15 an hour a month?

$15 an hour is $2,600 a month before tax, at 40 hours a week. That is the yearly total of $31,200 divided by twelve, not four weekly cheques — a month averages about 4.33 weeks, so four weeks of pay at $600 comes to less than a month's share.

What is $15 an hour after taxes?

Every figure on this page is gross, before income tax, payroll tax and deductions. Take-home from $31,200 depends on your state, filing status, pre-tax deductions and local taxes, and those move the result by thousands — so no single after-tax number would be true for most readers. Social Security and Medicare alone take 7.65% of wages from an employee before any income tax applies.

Is $15 an hour a living wage?

That depends entirely on where you live and who depends on the income; $31,200 a year goes a long way in some metros and does not cover rent in others. What can be said precisely is that $15 an hour is 48% of the US median full-time wage.

How much is $15 an hour part-time?

At 30 hours a week $15 an hour is $23,400 a year, and at 20 hours it is $15,600. The hours matter more than the rate here: a schedule averaging 28 hours instead of the 40 an offer implies changes the annual figure by thousands.

Is $15 an hour more than $15 an hour?

$15 an hour is exactly $15 an hour, which is $31,200 a year at 40 hours a week.