$28 an Hour Is How Much a Year?

$28 an Hour is How Much a Year?

Making a living is hard. Living within your means is even harder. Especially if you don’t know how much you earn a year. It’s, therefore, important to convert your hourly wage to an annual salary. This way, you can better manage your money and be more financially secure in the long run.

Say, for example, you’re earning $28 an hour at your current job, or you’re being offered such a salary. Then, you need the answer to the following question:

$28 an hour is how much a year?

Well, that’s what this article is about. We will analyze the annual salary potential, as well as how much this wage nets you after taxes. We’ll also discuss monthly and weekly payrolls, so read on to learn more.

28 Dollars an Hour Is How Much a Year?

In the US, the annual salary isn’t just your hourly salary multiplied by the number of work hours. The salary you get by contract is just the gross amount before any deductions and taxes come into effect.

So, how do we calculate our actual earnings? First, obviously, we need to calculate how much 28 dollars an hour is annually. Say you’re working 40 hours a week and don’t take any unpaid time off. That would leave you with a full 52-week year, or 2,080 work hours.

Multiplying that with $28 gives us a $58,240 annual salary before taxes. This is also called total annual income.

28 Dollars an Hour is How Much a Year After Taxes?

Now, let’s see how deductions come into play at this amount. In the US, there are three types of taxes that will apply to your income: federal, state and FICA (Social Security and Medicare).

Federal income tax is a bit complicated to calculate. The government uses a progressive tax system, which means that the higher your income, the higher percentage of taxes you’ll have to pay.

First, we calculate the taxable income based on the $28 an hour annual salary. To do this, we take the aforementioned annual salary and apply the 2022 standard tax deduction for single taxpayers and married individuals filing separately of $12,950:

$58,240 – $12,950 = $45,290

Then, we take this taxable amount and compare it with the current tax brackets and rates. Our calculated salary puts us in the 22% bracket. But, it’s important to remember that you don’t actually pay 22% of the whole $45,290 amount. Instead, you’ll pay 10% on the first $10,275, then 12% on the amount over that $10,275 but below $41,775, and only then 22% for the remainder of the lump sum.

Here’s what the calculation looks like:

$10,275 x 10% = $1,027.5
$31,500 (the amount over $10,275) x 12% = $3,780
$3,515 (the amount over $41,775) x 22% = $773.3

This means that, with our 28 dollars an hour salary, the annual taxes would be $5,580.8.

As for the FICA deductions, Social Security is a mandatory retirement savings plan, while Medicare is a health insurance program. The amount you pay for these two programs depends on your salary bracket. For 2022, the Social Security tax rate is 6.2% for the first $147,000 of your annual salary. This leaves us with a $3,610 Social Security tax. And the Medicare tax rate is 1.45% of your entire salary, yielding an $844 Medicare tax.

So when FICA is deducted, you’re left with a $48,205 annual salary.

But don’t forget the state income tax. This varies greatly. Nine states — Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming — have no income taxes. The rest levy either a flat or progressive rate.

So after deducting local and state income taxes, you will take home around $41,300. But this is just a rough estimate. The final figure depends on your home state. For a more precise calculation, you can use an online paycheck calculator.

$28 an Hour is How Much a Month?

We’ve now calculated our annual salary after taxes, but what about our monthly and weekly earnings?

Your monthly gross pay is simply your annual salary divided by 12 months. Therefore, $48,205 divided by 12 gives us a $4,017 monthly salary.

As for the weekly earnings, at $28 an hour and working full time, you’re earning $1,120 a week before taxes. After taxes, though, that amount becomes around $927 a week.

$28 an Hour is How Much Biweekly?

Another way your employer might choose to pay you is every two weeks. In this case, we’ll need to calculate your bi-weekly salary.

Since that means two weeks, we simply calculate our bi-weekly salary as $48,205 divided by 26, or roughly $1,854.

28 Dollars per Hour Annually Is How Much Part-Time?

Not everyone works a 40-hour week. If you’re taking up a part-time job, you’ll mostly be working 20 hours a week.

So, the $28 an hour jobs will net you a $560 weekly salary before taxes. Your weekly income as a part-time worker will be $463.5 after taxes.

Is $28 an Hour a Good Salary?

So far, we’ve only discussed the raw numbers of your $28 hourly vs yearly pay. But, is this a good salary?

While that salary puts you slightly above the national average of $53,924 a year, you need to take into account a few factors. Some of them include the cost of living, lifestyle, and debt obligations.

If you live in a city with a high cost of living, such as San Francisco or New York, you’ll need to make more money to maintain the same standard of living as someone who lives in a cheaper city.

Finally, your debt obligations will also play a role in how much money you need to make. If you have student loans or credit card debt, you’ll need to make enough money to cover these payments.

Taking up jobs that pay $28 an hour, even the part-time ones, can help mitigate that. You can take your shot at working as a receptionist, a social media specialist, or a recruiter. Of course, with going full time there are certain benefits, including insurance and more paid holidays.

All of these factors are unique to each person, so it’s up to you to decide whether $28 an hour is a good salary for you.