$20 an Hour Is How Much a Year?

How $20 an hour becomes $41,600 a year

The math is simple: $20 × 40 hours × 52 weeks = $41,600. This assumes a standard 2,080-hour full-time year with no unpaid time off. Part-time at 30 hours a week? That is $20 × 30 × 52 = 31,200 a year — set your real hours in the calculator above for your exact number.

What about overtime and take-home pay?

Five overtime hours a week at time-and-a-half adds 150 weekly, or 7,800 a year on top of the base $41,600. And remember: $41,600 is gross pay. After federal and state taxes, most workers take home roughly 65–80%, so plan your budget on an estimated net of 29,120–33,280 rather than the headline figure.

Weekly, biweekly and monthly pay at 35, 40 and 45 hours

Full time is not always 40 hours. At $20 an hour, 35 hours a week pays $700 a week and $36,400 a year; 40 hours pays $800 a week and $41,600 a year; 45 hours pays $900 a week and $46,800 a year. The table below lists the weekly, biweekly, monthly and annual pay for each schedule, all gross before taxes.

Monthly pay is the weekly figure times 52 weeks divided by 12 months, so it is not exactly four weeks of pay: $800 a week is $3,466.67 a month, not $3,200. If your employer pays biweekly, each cheque is two weeks of pay — $1,600 at 40 hours a week.

After-tax pay in three states

Federal tax on $41,600 for a single filer in 2026 is $2,812: taxable income is $41,600 minus the $16,100 standard deduction, which is $25,500, taxed at 10% on the first $12,400 ($1,240) and 12% on the remaining $13,100 ($1,572). State tax then changes the take-home: California adds $770.30, New York adds $1,649.80, and Texas adds nothing, because Texas has no state income tax. The table below shows the total tax and the after-tax pay for each state.

These are income-tax-only estimates for a single filer taking the 2026 standard deduction with no other deductions or credits. They leave out Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, so real take-home pay is lower. For taxable income under $100,000 the IRS uses a Tax Table rather than the bracket formula, so the exact figure can differ by a few dollars. New York figures are state tax only — New York City tax is extra. Sources: IRS News Release IR-2025-103 (https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-releases-tax-inflation-adjustments-for-tax-year-2026-including-amendments-from-the-one-big-beautiful-bill); California Franchise Tax Board, Tax News, October 2026 (https://www.ftb.ca.gov/about-ftb/newsroom/tax-news/2026/10.html); New York Department of Taxation and Finance, Form IT-2105-I (https://www.tax.ny.gov/pdf/current_forms/it/it2105i.pdf); Texas Comptroller (https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/industry/2025/small-biz-info/). Checked 12 November 2026.

Overtime: what five extra hours a week are worth

At $20 an hour, time-and-a-half is $30 an hour. A week with 40 regular hours and 5 overtime hours pays $800 for the regular hours plus $150 for the overtime, $950 in total — $150 more than a regular week. Kept up every week for a year, that is $7,800 extra, taking the year from $41,600 to $49,400 before taxes.

Overtime is usually paid only on hours over 40 in a week under US federal rules, and some states and employers set their own daily or weekly thresholds. Check your contract and your state's rules before counting on overtime pay — the examples above assume the standard 40-hour week.