Working Hours in a Year Calculator

A standard full-time employee in the United States works about 2,080 hours per year (40 hours/week × 52 weeks). After subtracting ~11 federal holidays and 10 days of vacation at 8 hours each, net working hours drop to roughly 1,912. The calculator above lets you model your exact schedule, holidays, and PTO.

For alternating schedules, we add Week 1 hours and Week 2 hours to get one cycle, then multiply by 26 (there are 26 two-week cycles in a year). Formula: (Week 1 days × Week 1 hrs/day) + (Week 2 days × Week 2 hrs/day) = cycle hours. Cycle hours × 26 = gross annual hours. Holidays and vacation are then subtracted using the average hours-per-day across the two weeks.

A 9/80 schedule compresses 80 hours of work into 9 days across a 2-week cycle. Employees work four 9-hour days plus one 8-hour day in Week 1 (44 hrs), then four 9-hour days in Week 2 (36 hrs), with one Friday off every other week. Gross annual hours are the same as a standard 40-hour workweek — 2,080 — but the shorter day counts give an extra 26 days off per year.

The Pitman schedule (also called 3-4) uses 12-hour shifts rotating 3 days one week and 4 days the next. One cycle = (3 × 12) + (4 × 12) = 84 hours. Gross annual hours = 84 × 26 = 2,184. It’s popular in healthcare, emergency services, and manufacturing because it gives every other weekend off while matching a 42-hour average week.

A 4×10 schedule works 4 days per week × 10 hours per day = 40 hours/week. Gross annual hours = 40 × 52 = 2,080. After 11 holidays and 10 vacation days at 10 hours each (210 hours), net annual hours are about 1,870. The calculator automatically uses the correct average hours per day for each schedule.

When asking “how many hours do I actually work?”, you should subtract paid holidays and vacation. This tool subtracts both by default using your average hours per day. If you want gross annual hours (hours paid including holidays), set both holidays and vacation to 0 — or use the “Gross hours” tile in the summary.

A year has 52 weeks, which equals exactly 26 two-week cycles. For alternating schedules, each “cycle” is 2 weeks, so we multiply hours-per-cycle by 26 cycles to get annual hours. For standard (non-alternating) schedules, we multiply hours-per-week by 52.

On a standard 40-hour work week there are 173.33 work hours in a month (40 × 52 ÷ 12). Most people assume 4 weeks × 40 = 160 hours, but a month is actually 4.333 weeks on average, so the correct monthly average is 173.33 hours. For 35 hrs/week it’s 151.67, for 30 hrs/week it’s 130 (the ACA monthly threshold), and for 20 hrs/week it’s 86.67.

Because a year has 52 weeks but only 12 months, each month averages 52 ÷ 12 = 4.333 weeks, not 4. Using 4 weeks underestimates monthly hours by about 13.33 hours on a 40-hour schedule. Payroll, salary-to-hourly conversions, and the IRS / ACA all use the 173.33 figure (or 130 hours for 30 hrs/week) because it matches the real number of weeks in a month.

In US federal compensation and most payroll systems, 2,080 hours per year (40 hrs/week × 52 weeks) is the canonical full-time benchmark. Salaried annual-to-hourly conversions use this value by default. Net hours after typical holidays and vacation are closer to 1,800–1,920 depending on employer PTO policy.