$42 an Hour Is How Much a Year?
- Federal income tax$10,38911.9%
- FICA — Social Security + Medicare$6,6837.6%
- Take-home pay$70,28880.5%
At 40 hours a week and 52 weeks a year — 2,080 paid hours — $42 an hour is $87,360 a year. Federal income tax and FICA take about $17,072, so you keep roughly $70,288 a year, or $5,857 a month and $2,703 per biweekly check. That is before any state income tax.
The same $42, 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 | $840 | $43,680 | $37,277 | $3,106 |
| 30 | $1,260 | $65,520 | $54,825 | $4,569 |
| 35 | $1,470 | $76,440 | $62,606 | $5,217 |
| 40 (full time) | $1,680 | $87,360 | $70,288 | $5,857 |
| 45 (incl. OT) | $1,995 | $103,740 | $81,811 | $6,818 |
| 50 (incl. OT) | $2,310 | $120,120 | $93,334 | $7,778 |
| 55 (incl. OT) | $2,625 | $136,500 | $104,564 | $8,714 |
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 $87,360 goes
| Line | Annual | Share of gross |
|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $87,360 | 100.0% |
| Federal income tax | -$10,389 | 11.9% |
| Social Security | -$5,416 | 6.2% |
| Medicare | -$1,267 | 1.5% |
| Federal only state income tax | -$0 | 0.0% |
| Take-home pay | $70,288 | 80.5% |
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 22.0% bracket at the margin, not at 19.5%.
State tax on $87,360: 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 | $70,288 | $5,857 |
| California | $4,871 | $65,417 | $5,451 |
| New York | $4,120 | $66,167 | $5,514 |
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 $42 an hour, 40 hours pays $1,680 a week. Five hours of overtime pays those five hours at $63.00 each, so a 45-hour week is $1,995 — $315 more than the same job at 40 hours. A 50-hour week is $2,310, 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 $87,360 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 | $87,360 | $70,288 | — |
| 50 | $84,000 | $67,924 | −$2,364 |
| 48 | $80,640 | $65,560 | −$4,728 |
Hourly work has no paid vacation by default. Two weeks unpaid costs $2,364 of take-home, not $3,360 of gross — the tax you no longer owe comes back to you.
Nearby hourly rates
Questions people ask about $42 an hour
Is $42 an hour a good wage?
This page does arithmetic, not judgement. What it can tell you: $87,360 a year before tax, $70,288 after federal tax and FICA, $5,857 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 $42 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 $42 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 $315 a week, or $16,380 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 $42 an hour in monthly and biweekly terms?
Monthly gross is $7,280 and monthly take-home is $5,857. Biweekly gross is $3,360 and biweekly take-home is $2,703 — 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.