Hourly Wage Calculator (Stundenlohnrechner)

To work out your hourly wage from a monthly salary, divide the gross salary by the average number of hours worked per month. Because a month contains 4,33 weeks on average (52 weeks ÷ 12 months), the common formula is:

Hourly wage = monthly salary ÷ (weekly hours × 4,33)

Full-time example: 3.000 € ÷ (40 × 4,33) = 3.000 € ÷ 173,2 = 17,32 € per hour.

Part-time example: 1.800 € ÷ (25 × 4,33) = 1.800 € ÷ 108,25 = 16,63 € per hour.

The Deutsche Rentenversicherung (German pension insurance) and many collective agreements use a more precise variant that avoids rounding:

Monthly hours = weekly hours × 13 ÷ 3

At 40 weekly hours this gives exactly 173,33 hours per month (versus 173,2 with the 4,33 method). 3.000 € ÷ 173,33 = 17,31 € per hour. The difference is only a few cents, but it matters for official calculations. In the calculator above you can toggle between the 4,33 approximation and the exact method and watch the calculation update live.

If you only know your annual salary, there's no need to go via the monthly figure. Divide the gross annual salary directly by the hours worked per year:

Hourly wage = annual salary ÷ (weekly hours × 52)

Example: 48.000 € ÷ (40 × 52) = 48.000 € ÷ 2.080 = 23,08 € per hour.

Multiplying by 52 (calendar weeks per year) is mathematically clean because paid holiday and public holidays average out over the year – they are normally paid and therefore count as compensated annual working time. That's why the annual method gives practically the same result as the exact monthly method. Just remember to include any 13th-month salary or holiday bonus (Urlaubsgeld) in the annual figure if you want your full effective hourly wage.

The table below shows the gross hourly wage for a 40-hour week (173,33 monthly hours, exact method) across common monthly salaries. Use it for quick orientation – for part-time, shift patterns or different weekly hours, use the calculator above.

Mental-maths rule of thumb: at a 40-hour week, 1.000 € of monthly salary equals roughly 5,77 € of hourly wage. So you can estimate the hourly wage by multiplying the monthly salary (in thousands) by 5,77. To check how many hours actually sit behind your month, use the Arbeitszeitrechner (working-hours calculator).

The Stundenlohnrechner shows the gross hourly wage by default – pay before deductions. That's the right figure for comparing salaries or checking the minimum wage, because all statutory values are gross.

From the gross hourly wage, employees still have the following deducted:

• Income tax (Lohnsteuer) – depends on income and tax class
• Solidarity surcharge (Soli) – only on higher incomes
• Church tax (Kirchensteuer) – 8 % or 9 % of income tax, if liable
• Social security contributions – the employee's share for pension, health, long-term care and unemployment insurance, around 20–22 % combined

Depending on your situation, roughly 60–70 % of the gross remains as net. Our optional net estimate in the calculator is deliberately an approximation: you enter an estimated deduction rate and we apply it to the gross hourly wage. It does not replace a payslip.

For an exact net wage including tax class, allowances and child allowances, use the official BMF income-tax calculator from the Federal Ministry of Finance. If you regularly convert gross to net, our Brutto-Netto-Rechner (gross-net calculator) is also useful.

The absolute floor is the statutory minimum wage (Mindestlohn). It rises in two steps in 2026 and 2027 (Fifth Minimum Wage Adjustment Ordinance, MiLoV5):

Our calculator automatically flags any computed hourly wage below the 2026 minimum of 13,90 €. The exact legal basis is in the Minimum Wage Act on gesetze-im-internet.de.

For the upper reference point: according to the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the median gross hourly wage in April 2025 was around 21,48 € – half of all employees earned more, half less. The average sits higher, at roughly 26 € per hour, pulled up by very high salaries. So a "good" hourly wage for many starts above 21–22 € gross, though it depends heavily on industry, region, qualification and experience.

For Minijobs, the earnings ceiling is 603 € per month (as of 2026), which is tied to the minimum wage.

Your actual effective hourly wage is often higher than the base rate – because supplements and special payments add to it.

Tax-free supplements (§ 3b EStG): Supplements for work at unsocial hours are tax-free up to set percentages of the base wage – provided they are actually paid for night, Sunday or public-holiday work:

Note: tax-free does not always mean exempt from social contributions, and the relevant figure is the hourly base wage (capped). The exact conditions are set out in § 3b EStG.

Overtime is paid – depending on contract or collective agreement – with a supplement (often 25 %) or compensated with time off.

Special payments such as Christmas and holiday bonuses raise your calculated hourly wage over the year. Example: a 3.000 € monthly salary plus a full 13th salary equals 39.000 € per year – at 40 weekly hours that's 18,75 € per hour instead of 17,31 €. The best way to factor in special payments is the annual-salary method in the calculator above.

Self-employed people and freelancers often make the same mistake: they treat an employee's hourly wage as the benchmark for their own rate. That leads straight to underpricing. As a freelancer you generally have to charge 1.5 to 2 times the seemingly comparable employee wage – for four reasons:

1. Non-billable time: Acquisition, quotes, bookkeeping, training and admin often eat up 30–40 % of your working time. Only the rest can actually be invoiced.
2. No paid holiday, no sick pay: Around 6 weeks of holiday plus sick days must be self-funded – every day off is a day without revenue.
3. Full self-provision: There's no employer's social-security contribution. You pay for health, pension and care provision alone.
4. Business costs and tax reserve: Office, software, insurance and hardware, plus a reserve for income tax, further reduce your profit.

Example: A freelancer who wants 4.000 € net profit per month needs, depending on utilisation and cost structure, a rate of around 85–90 € net per hour – not 23 €, as the employee gross would suggest. The calculator above has a dedicated freelancer mode that factors in target profit, billable share, days off, tax reserve and business costs, and returns the required rate with a full breakdown.

Remember: on top of your net hourly rate, clients are charged 19 % VAT (Umsatzsteuer) (unless you're a Kleinunternehmer / small-business owner). Rate set? Then go straight to writing the invoice – with correct net, VAT and all mandatory details under § 14 UStG.

Exactly the same formula applies to part-time and Minijob as to full-time – you simply enter your actual weekly hours into the formula from the section "The formula: how to calculate your hourly wage". A 25-hour week at a 1.800 € monthly salary, for instance, gives 16,63 € per hour.

For a Minijob the calculation is often reversed: how many hours can I work at the 603 € ceiling (2026)? Since the 2026 minimum wage is 13,90 €:

Maximum Minijob hours = 603 € ÷ 13,90 € ≈ 43,4 hours/month

So at the minimum wage you can work around 43 hours per month (just over 10 hours per week) without exceeding the limit. If your hourly wage is higher, the permitted number of hours falls accordingly. The 603 € ceiling is dynamically tied to the minimum wage and rises with it. You'll find more calculators for the self-employed and employees in our calculator hub (Rechner).

Sometimes you know the hourly wage and want to know what it means per month or year – for example to compare a job offer with hourly pay against your current salary. Just reverse the formula:

Monthly salary = hourly wage × weekly hours × 4,33

Annual salary = hourly wage × weekly hours × 52

Example: 20 € hourly wage at 40 weekly hours = 20 € × 40 × 4,33 = 3.464 € per month, or 20 € × 40 × 52 = 41.600 € per year.

This reverse calculation is especially useful if you're paid by the hour (e.g. in temp or working-student jobs) and want to check whether the offer can match a fixed salary. The reverse mode is also in the calculator above. For pure percentage and mark-up calculations, our Prozentrechner (percentage calculator) helps too.