$17 an Hour Is How Much a Year?
- Federal income tax$2,0635.8%
- FICA — Social Security + Medicare$2,7057.6%
- Take-home pay$30,59286.5%
At 40 hours a week and 52 weeks a year — 2,080 paid hours — $17 an hour is $35,360 a year. Federal income tax and FICA take about $4,768, so you keep roughly $30,592 a year, or $2,549 a month and $1,177 per biweekly check. That is before any state income tax.
The same $17, at different hours
"How much a year" depends entirely on how many hours you actually get. The table below re-runs the whole calculation for each schedule instead of scaling the 40-hour answer, because federal tax is progressive: a 30-hour week lands in a lower bracket and keeps a bigger share of each dollar. Hours above 40 are paid at 1.5× under the FLSA.
| Hours a week | Weekly gross | Annual gross | Annual after tax | Monthly after tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | $340 | $17,680 | $16,169 | $1,347 |
| 30 | $510 | $26,520 | $23,449 | $1,954 |
| 35 | $595 | $30,940 | $27,040 | $2,253 |
| 40 (full time) | $680 | $35,360 | $30,592 | $2,549 |
| 45 (incl. OT) | $808 | $41,990 | $35,919 | $2,993 |
| 50 (incl. OT) | $935 | $48,620 | $41,246 | $3,437 |
| 55 (incl. OT) | $1,063 | $55,250 | $46,573 | $3,881 |
Overtime rows assume time-and-a-half above 40 hours, which is the federal floor. A union contract, a state law or a company policy can set a higher multiplier; none of them can set a lower one.
Where the $35,360 goes
| Line | Annual | Share of gross |
|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $35,360 | 100.0% |
| Federal income tax | -$2,063 | 5.8% |
| Social Security | -$2,192 | 6.2% |
| Medicare | -$513 | 1.5% |
| Federal only state income tax | -$0 | 0.0% |
| Take-home pay | $30,592 | 86.5% |
Social Security is 6.2% of the first $184,500 of wages, so it stops mid-year for high earners and never stops at this level. Medicare is 1.5% with no cap. Federal income tax is progressive: with the $16,100 standard deduction, a single filer at this income sits in the 12.0% bracket at the margin, not at 13.5%.
State tax on $35,360: three reference states
State income tax is the one layer this page cannot settle for you, so here is the same salary in three states with very different rules — no income tax, a progressive coastal state, and a progressive state with city tax on top.
| State | State + local tax | Annual after everything | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | None | $30,592 | $2,549 |
| California | $822 | $29,769 | $2,481 |
| New York | $1,312 | $29,279 | $2,440 |
The state rows link to the nearest salary page that exists for that state (the ladder runs in $25,000 steps at the bottom and $10,000 steps higher up). City taxes (New York City, for example) are added inside the state figure.
Overtime is where hourly pay actually compounds
At $17 an hour, 40 hours pays $680 a week. Five hours of overtime pays those five hours at $25.50 each, so a 45-hour week is $808 — $128 more than the same job at 40 hours. A 50-hour week is $935, which is 37.5% more gross for 25.0% more hours.
Two catches. First, overtime is paid on hours actually worked, so a salary offer of $35,360 for the same job is not the same deal if you regularly work 45 hours — as an exempt salaried employee you would get nothing extra for those five. Second, overtime is ordinary wages for tax purposes: it pushes you up the brackets, so the 37.5% gross premium does not translate into the same percentage of take-home.
What unpaid weeks do to the yearly number
| Paid weeks | Annual gross | Annual after tax | Difference from 52 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 52 | $35,360 | $30,592 | — |
| 50 | $34,000 | $29,499 | −$1,093 |
| 48 | $32,640 | $28,406 | −$2,186 |
Hourly work has no paid vacation by default. Two weeks unpaid costs $1,093 of take-home, not $1,360 of gross — the tax you no longer owe comes back to you.
Nearby hourly rates
Questions people ask about $17 an hour
Is $17 an hour a good wage?
This page does arithmetic, not judgement. What it can tell you: $35,360 a year before tax, $30,592 after federal tax and FICA, $2,549 a month. Whether that is enough depends on rent where you live and how many hours you actually get — and hourly work has no paid time off, so the yearly figure assumes you are paid for all 52 weeks.
How many hours is "a year" at $17 an hour?
2,080 hours, from 40 hours a week times 52 weeks. That convention is why 40-hour payroll is usually quoted as 2,080 hours a year, and why a full-time salary divided by 2,080 gives the hourly equivalent.
Does $17 an hour become a different number with overtime?
Yes, and the table above shows both. Five hours of overtime a week at 1.5× adds $128 a week, or $6,630 a year before tax. Nothing in the tax code treats overtime differently — it is ordinary wages, taxed at the margin.
Why is the after-tax number different from what my paycheck shows?
Three usual reasons: your state withholds its own income tax (this page is federal-only until the state table further up), you contribute to a 401(k) or an HSA, or your W-4 asks for extra withholding. The $24,500 401(k) limit for the year matters most: pre-tax contributions cut federal taxable income but not Social Security or Medicare.
What is $17 an hour in monthly and biweekly terms?
Monthly gross is $2,947 and monthly take-home is $2,549. Biweekly gross is $1,360 and biweekly take-home is $1,177 — that is the number that matches most pay stubs, since 26 checks a year is not 24.
Sources
- IRS Publication 15 (Circular E) — federal withholding tables and FICA rates.
- Social Security Administration — annual wage base for Social Security withholding.
- US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division — FLSA overtime at 1.5× above 40 hours.
- State income tax brackets from each state's published 2026 table; the three states above are linked, and all 51 jurisdictions are in the state index.
Single filer, standard deduction, no pre-tax contributions, no credits beyond the standard deduction. Educational estimate, not tax advice.