How do I calculate my work hours per week?

(Number of work hours per week x 52) - [(number of days of PTO + number of paid holidays) x number of work hours per day] = total hours in a year

Calculating the number of hours you work each year can help you better understand how much you make for each hour you work. You can use this information to evaluate your work-life balance and total annual salary.

We’ll walk you through calculating your annual income and hourly rate. Use this information to better understand your own productivity and how to budget for expenses.

Total working hours in 2022

There are 2,080 working hours in 2022.

However, according to the federal government’s Office of Personnel Management (OPM), hourly pay rates are calculated based on 2,087 hours per year. When considering holidays and other factors that impact the actual hours in a week, the average full-time employee works 1,801 hours per year.

The number of work hours varies greatly for independent professionals and can even be affected by how the weekends fall within a calendar year. You also have to consider the hours from a leap year and whether you do any work during holidays or weekends.

Below, we break down the typical number of workable hours per month. Use this information to calculate how many hours you work each month. Note that we haven’t taken out holidays for this calculation.

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How to calculate the working hours in a year

You’ll need to bring together several data points to calculate the number of hours you work in a year. Let’s explore each part of the equation and how you can find the information you need to run this calculation accurately.

1. Calculate weekly hours

Start by calculating the average number of hours you work in a given workweek. This might vary from one day to the next if you’re an independent professional. Try to average the number of hours.

For example, if you tend to work more hours at the beginning of the week and fewer at the end, average these together to determine your typical number of hours worked in a given week.

Depending on your work schedule, you might work an average number of hours during the week but longer hours—including some weekend hours—about once a month. If you find that you have this level of variation between your weeks, you might find it easier to calculate your average working hours by finding the average over the course of a month or a particular pay period.

For example, if one week consists of 30 hours and the next is 50 hours, you’ll add these numbers together and divide by 2 (assuming you work five days a week). So, saying you work an average of 40 hours per week will be the most accurate.

Depending on the industry and corporate structure, between 30 and 40 hours is considered full time.

2. Multiply by 52

Once you know the number of hours you typically work in a week, you can then take that number and multiply it by 52 (the number of weeks in the year) to see the average number of hours you worked over the course of the year.

Keep in mind that this number doesn’t account for holidays or vacation days.

3. Calculate paid holiday hours

Now, consider how much time you took off for paid public holidays. Depending on your position or contract, you may have received paid holidays from your employer.

The average number of paid holidays throughout the year is 10. Since 8 is the typical number of work hours per day, you would receive 80 hours of paid time off (PTO) for holidays.

You may want to look at your specific contract to see how many paid holidays your employer includes. Take the number of holidays you had off and multiply that by the number of hours you work in a day. This will give you the number of hours you had off.

You might not have paid holidays if you work as a full-time freelancer. In that case, you can skip this step.

4. Add total time off

Consider any other paid time off you took, such as vacation time or sick leave. This will also depend on whether you have access to paid vacation time as a contractor or if you work as an employee.

This will also be where you factor in any unpaid time off that you took as an independent contractor. For many independent professionals, taking a few weekdays off for a vacation means you won’t get paid for those days. You’ll want to note these hours to get a more accurate count of your total time worked.

Once you have the total number of days you took off, multiply this number by the number of hours you work in a day. If you work 9-hour days and have 12 days of vacation (paid and unpaid) during the year, for example, you have a total of 108 hours of vacation time.

5. Subtract total time off from annual hours

It’s time to put it all together. In the first and second steps, you calculated the total number of hours you would have worked during the year if you hadn’t taken any time off. In the third and fourth steps, you calculated the total number of workdays you didn’t actually work, either because of holidays, paid time off, or time off without pay.

Subtract the total number of hours you took off from the total number of hours worked. Your equation will look something like this:

(Number of hours per week x 52) - [(number of days of PTO + number of holidays) x number of hours per day] = total hours in a year

You can find your typical hourly wage once you know the number of hours you worked in the year. Simply divide the total amount of money you earned over the year by the total number of hours you worked. For example, if you earned $70,000 in the past year and worked 1,900 hours, your hourly wage would be $36.84.

The benefits of calculating how many hours you work each year

As an independent contractor, there are a number of benefits to calculating the number of hours worked in a year and the total amount you earn. You can start to break down your annual earnings and create a budget based on how much you make in a given year, month, and week.

You can also determine how much you end up making per hour and how that compares to your desired hourly wage. Even salaried employees who  have a 40-hour per week contract can find it valuable to see how many hours they actually work in a year. This helps them gauge the return they receive from their job.

This calculation can also help hourly employees who might receive overtime pay to see how this impacts their overall hourly wage. Similarly, part-time employees might want to gauge their earnings compared to when they were full-time workers to see which scenario was a better use of their time.

You’ll also find it easier to evaluate your productivity. You might need to reevaluate how you charge for projects if you find yourself working significantly more hours than planned and your hourly salary has greatly decreased. Otherwise, you might need to better strategize the amount of time you work on a project.

If you can’t work productively, you might find that you need to invest in some tools or space. If you’re working from home, you might find that dedicating an enclosed space as your office rather than trying to work in common family areas can help significantly.

Project management tools like Asana and Monday.com can also help you stay organized. Identify the chief distractions that hinder your productivity and brainstorm ways to minimize them. Find strategies to work fewer hours while still accomplishing the same amount of work. This will increase your free time and raise your hourly rate.

Knowing how many hours you spent working can help you plan, save money, and more

Knowing how many hours you work and your hourly wage can help you do a better job of budgeting and planning. It gives you a better idea of how well you use your time while at work, your level of productivity, and where you can improve to meet your professional and financial goals.

If you want to build your freelance career, there’s no better place to look than Upwork. With countless jobs posted every day and a platform that makes it easy to manage projects and engage with clients, you’ll find it significantly easier to scale your business according to your goals.

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