How to Calculate Salary Per Month

How to Calculate Salary Per Month
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Jobs rarely pay by the month, but most of your bills such as a mortgage, credit card bills and utilities are due every month. Calculating your monthly salary is an important step in managing your household cash flow from one month to the next. Whether you know your hourly, weekly, bi-weekly or annual pay, you can convert this amount into a monthly salary. Once you know your monthly salary, you can use this amount to make a budget or spending plan in which you spend no more than the amount you earn each month.

Look up exactly how much you make per hour, week, two weeks or year. You can look this up on your most recent paycheck, check your employment contract, or ask your employer. For these calculations, you want the pre-tax amount, which is your gross salary.

Multiply your hourly pay by the number of hours you work per week to convert it into a weekly salary. If your weekly hours fluctuate, estimate the average number of hours per week for this calculation. For example, if you work 40 hours per week at $13.72 per hour, you earn $549.60 per week.

Multiply your weekly pay by 52 to find your annual salary. If you are paid bi-weekly, multiply this bi-weekly amount by 26 to find your annual salary. In the above example, $549.60 times 52 gives you $28,579.20 per year.

Divide your annual salary by 12 to calculate your salary per month. For example, divide $28,579.20 by 12 to calculate a salary of $2,381.60 per month.

Tips

  • As a shortcut for people paid every two weeks, multiply your bi-weekly salary by 2.1667 to calculate your monthly salary. Your actual paychecks may be less than your monthly salary because of deductions from your paychecks. These may include retirement account contributions, health insurance premiums and taxes. At the very least, you will have Social Security and Medicare taxes taken out of your salary, which add up to 7.65 percent of your taxable income, as of 2010. If you also have Federal taxes deducted from your paychecks, this amount will be anywhere from 10 to 35 percent of your taxable income, depending on how much you earn. Your state tax percentage varies, depending on the state in which you reside.