How Many Work Hours in a Year

Wondering how many work hours in a year? There are 52 weeks in a year, making between 2080 and 2096 work hours per year and between 260 and 262 total workdays if working the average 40-hour week (in the United States.)

What You Need to Know

A full-time work year is equal to the sum of the hours worked in one week multiplied by the number of weeks in a year (52) and then deducted for any hours missed due to vacation days and holidays. There are 52 weeks in a year and roughly speaking, the average work hours of a full-time employee is 40 hours (in the United States). This information is used to compute the number of hours in a work year, which is 2080 hours (52 weeks x 40 hours).

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How Many Work Hours in a Year

Knowing how many work hours in a year will help you evaluate your prospective compensation while looking for a new job.

Consider the following scenario: you come across a job listing with a wage of $17 per hour.

What does $17 an hour translate to over the course of a year? You can easily determine this if you know how many hours you worked in a given year.

However, because every year is different in the total number of hours, you must have a bit more information to figure out the calculation of how many work hours in a year.

Knowing this information can also be useful if you are just getting started with a budget.

In this scenario, chances are good that you have never looked at your money coming in and going out in a technical way.

For example, you probably haven’t had a reason to dig into your work hours and figure out how to make your money work for you or go further without a budget.

You may also be unaware of the actual hours you work for your annual salary, how many hours of overtime pay you work each pay period, or if there is a difference in pay between salaried employees and employees working for an hourly wage

Would you like to attract more money into your life? Here is your golden ticket to bring your financial goals to reality: 265 Money Affirmations to Bring Wealth into Your Life Today

How Many Work Weeks in a Year

Generally speaking, there are 52 weeks in a year and the average work hours of a full-time employee is 40 hours.

You can use this information to compute the number of hours in a work year, which is 2080 hours (52 weeks x 40 hours).

Estimating in this same method, the number of workdays in a year is 260 days (52 weeks x 5 weekdays).

Weeks in a year: 52

Working days in a year: 260

Working hours in a year: 2080

However, these numbers are merely a best-guess estimate based on generalized calculations.

If you prefer to get down to the specifics, the following information is according to the official calendar.

Weeks in a year: 52.143 (365/7)

Weeks in a leap year: 52.286 (366/7)

And depending on how you count them, there are actually between 260 and 262 working days in a year, and between 2080 and 2096 work hours in a year, depending on how you count them.

*Note: The U.S. Federal government calculates annual salaries based on a work year of 2,087 hours.

Take, for example, the year 2021 as a starting point for clarification.

Workdays and Working Hours for the year 2021

A total of 261 days and 2088 hours was spent working during the calendar year 2021. Even though the year is passed, I left the table for comparison purposes.

How Many Work Hours in the Year 2021

In summary, there were 261 working days and 2088 working hours in the year 2021.

Do you agree that figuring how many work hours in a year down to the exact number is complicated, and potentially a waste of time?

For a fairly accurate calculation (typically within a few hundred dollars difference), the recommendation is to stick with the general figure of 2080 work hours in a year.

This widely accepted number will get you close to the actual work hours in a year.

And remember, if you want to get a calculation down to the exact number, you will have to figure out how many hours are actually worked every single year because the number varies by a few hours from year to year.

If you still prefer to get the exact work hours rather than the average working hours, you can find the information below for the next couple of years

Curious if how much money you make is comparable to others in a similar job? Find out how you stack up in the post What is Considered a Good Hourly Wage Today

Workdays and Working Hours for the Year 2022

A total of 260 days and 2080 hours will be spent working in the calendar year 2022.

How Many Work Hours in the Year 2022

To summarize, there are a total of 260 days and 2080 work hours in 2022.

Workdays and Working Hours for the Year 2023

A total of 260 days and 2080 hours will be spent working in the calendar year 2023.

How Many Work Hours in a Year 2023

To summarize, there are a total of 260 days and 2080 work hours in 2023.

How Many Work Hours in a Year Minus Holidays

In reality, how accurate are the numbers we have figured for actual work hours?

Generally speaking, they are accurate to calculate pay.

However, the calculations are missing several important factors that need to be taken into consideration.

It’s important to remember that some full-time employees (and part-time employees occasionally) also receive benefits. Examples include:

• Paid vacation days (paid time off or PTO)
• Paid holidays
• Sick leave

All or some of these benefits can be included in an employee’s yearly pay for hourly employees or salaried employees.

Consider the following scenario.

At your current job your benefits include:

• 10 paid holiday hours (10 x 8 = 80 hours total)
• 10 days of paid time off (PTO) (10 x 8 = 80 hours total)
• 7 days of sick leave (7 x 8 = 56 hours)

To summarize, this leaves 1864 total work hours for the yearly salary you earn. (2080 hours – 80 hours – 80 hours – 56 hours = 1864 hours)

Consequently, you get paid for approximately 2080 hours, but the actual number of hours you worked throughout the year is 1,864 hours. This is a nice perk that actually increases the employee’s per hour rate.

When looking at how many work hours in a year we actually put in at our job, it is no wonder it can seem like there is little time left for activities we enjoy in our personal life.

And for the people that work a full-time position and don’t have the benefit of paid national holidays and other vacation time, overtime hours, or other benefits have even less personal time throughout the year.

Even though 365 days in the year sounds like a lot of time (that is approximately 8,760 hours) would be available outside of work hours, this is far from reality.

To keep things in perspective as you figure out how many work hours in a year you put in at your job, it can help to calculate the number of hours you aren’t at work.

Keep in mind to get a rough figure that is near accurate, don’t forget to include the time you sleep.

After figuring out how many hours you work and sleep in a year, the time left is your personal time.

How much time do we actually have to ourselves?

Here are some approximate calculations:

260 workdays multiplied by 11 hours per day (includes 3 hours to pack lunches, get dressed, get children ready for daycare or school, the commute to work, and 1 hour for lunch) equals 2860 hours used up by employment.

Add in the recommended 8 hours of sleep per day x 365 days per year = 2920 for sleeping

Calculations and results:

8,760 hours each year – 2860 work hours – 2920 sleeping hours = 2980 hours left to make the best of our time for personal care, family, and friends.

These numbers don’t even include responsibilities such as:

• Cooking
• Cleaning
• Helping with homework and other parent responsibilities
• Grocery shopping
• Paying bills
• Life in general

It sure doesn’t leave much for personal time, fun family time, and self-care!

The point is, when you think about how many hours you work in a year, don’t forget to put equal focus on the other important things in your life.

We all have the same number of hours in a year, what is different is the way we choose to use the time for hours worked and in our personal life.

On a side note, after you have the calculations completed, a great way to use them is to plan out your financial future.

Set financial goals by starting a budget, following it, and enjoying the benefit of less stress in your life so you can fully enjoy each day!

A budget will also help you keep your spending in check when combined with the breakdown of how many hours you work each week, month, and year.

For example, before you make a purchase figure in your mind how many hours you have to work to pay for the item. Then take it one step farther and remove the dollar amount to get the number of hours it takes from your life to buy that item.

For example, if you make $13 an hour and find a new sofa on sale for $1,400 that seems like the best deal of the century, do the calculation for how many hours it takes out of your life to buy this sofa.

In this example, you would spend about 108 hours of your life working to pay for the sofa.

For a smaller purchase example, such as a meal out that costs $60 for two of you. At $13 an hour, you have to work almost 5 hours to pay for this meal.

Is it worth it to you? Maybe. Maybe not.

This activity really helps to make better money decisions.

Take a pause and consider your options before making a purchase or spending your hard-earned money.

And one more note about budgeting . . .

Starting a budget will make a huge difference in your life no matter how much money you make.

If you feel like your financial goals are going in the right direction and don’t have a budget, that’s great!

However, just think about how much a budget could put even more of your hard-earned money back into your pocket!

The free Budgeting Basics eBook is the perfect resource to get your money under control or fine-tune it in a specific area.

If you need ideas for creating your budget, hop over to 20 free printable budget templates to get you started.

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Sources used in this post

• Recommended hours of sleep

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