This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure for more information.
Nowadays, it seems that prices keep going up, and salaries keep going down.
It can be difficult to maintain a comfortable living position, especially if you are unsure on how to budget efficiently on your yearly salary.
If you earn $18 an hour at your job, you may have a couple of questions. How much do you make annually, monthly, or even weekly from your hourly wage?
Is it possible to live a comfortable life off of this yearly salary?
In this article, we will be discussing and answering these questions. We will also look into budgeting plans, and how many jobs pay this salary throughout the country.
So, let’s get into it and learn an answer to the question “$18 an hour is how much a year?”
Looking for a Quick Way to Earn Extra Money Online? Try These:
Kashkick: Average users make $250 a month! KashKick.com is the newest way to make money right from your phone. Play mobile games, take surveys, or try new products. Try this super easy way to earn real money, from a trusted source. Join now!
Branded Surveys: Make money fast for simple surveys. $10 sign up bonus!
Survey Junkie: Sign up for the highest paying survey site around and start earning money with your phone. Join Survey Monkey now!
$18 An Hour is How Much Per Year?
Before we get into the details let’s answer the main question: $18 an hour is how much a year? Can you live off of this annual income?
Working Part Time
A part-time employee that works 20 hours a week at an hourly wage of $18 would expect to make $23,400 before taxes.
After income tax, $18 an hour for someone working part time is $20,473 annually.
Working Full Time at 40 Hours Per WEek
If a person works full-time – earning $18 an hour – and they work a 40-hour week, they would be receiving $122 a day, and $2,700 a month in gross income.
A rough estimate for an annual salary for a full-time worker making $18 an hour would be $37,440 before income tax is taken out.
Input the hourly wage and number of hours worked in the salary calculator tool below to find your earnings.
$18 An Hour is How Much a Year After Taxes?
If you are making 18 dollars an hour, you can expect to make $31,769 per year in net income after taxes if working full time.
How Much Does The Average American Pay In Taxes?
A percentage of your earnings will be withheld from your yearly salary for tax purposes, depending on how much money you earn at a job.
This money is used to pay for things like Medicare, federal and state taxes, and social security.
So, how much money does the tax man take from your hourly wage altogether?
The progressive tax structure in the United States makes identifying an ‘average’ taxpayer challenging. As of 2021, tax rates span from 10% to 37%, and there are seven of these.
Therefore, the average tax rate might be around 24.57 percent.
Your own personal tax rate will depend on how much you earn annually. Therefore, you would need to calculate your own tax rate depending on how much you get paid.
You can use this Salary Tax Calculator to calculate how many taxes you will be paying daily, weekly, monthly, and annually, depending on your wages and living situation.
More Reading:
- How Much is $20 an Hour per Year?
- What is $35 an Hour in Annual Income?
- How Much is $30 an Hour a Year?
- How Much Hourly is $40,000 a Year?
Set Your Savings and Investments to Automatic with Acorns
Download the Acorns app, link it to your bank account and earn money while you sleep! Acorns rounds up your spare change and moves it into an investment account for you. Download today and get a $5 bonus!
How Much Is $18 An Hour Per Day and How Much is $18 an hour a Week?
When working out an hourly salary, you may want to know how much money you will be earning throughout a whole shift daily and weekly.
$18 an hour is how much a day? How much is $18 an hour a week?
How Much is $18 an Hour for 20 Hours Per WEek Working Part Time?
In the US, part-time employees are defined – by the Bureau of Labor Statistics – as those who work fewer than 35 hours a week.
That means that these people can work anywhere between 1 hour per week to 34 hours per week to be considered a part-time worker.
So, you can work out a rough estimate of your wages by multiplying the hourly salary of $18 by the amount of hours worked by a part-time employee – the average working hours being 5 hours per shift. This will help you figure out your weekly salary.
18 multiplied by 5 equals 90. This indicates that a person earning $18 an hour working 5 hours a day will earn around $90 per shift before taxes.
Then, multiply that calculation by the amount of days worked – e.g., 5 days a week. 90 × 5 equals to 450.
So, at an average, a part-time employee making $18 an hour may earn $90 a day, and $450 per week before taxes have been deducted.
However, following tax deduction, you would expect to take home around $79 a day. This equals to just under $400 of weekly salary if you are making $18 an hour.
More reading: What is the 30/30/30/10 Budgeting Rule?
How Much is $18 an Hour in Weekly Salary for Working Full Time?
Despite the fact that most people regard 35 or 40 hours per week to be full-time, the amount of hours you are required to work depends on your employer and workplace.
It may be less in certain circumstances, but it may be greater in others.
That being said, as a rule, full-time employees tend to work between 35 and 40 hours a week.
If a full time employee was to work, at least, 8 hours a day, you would need to multiply 8 × 18. This comes to $144 per working day.
Multiply this number by 5 – assuming that the employee works 5 days a week – and the calculation goes up to $720 in weekly salary for a full time income.
Therefore, without taxes, a full time employee who works 8 hours would earn $144 per day, and $720 per working week.
After taxes, you could expect your take home pay to be roughly $122 a day: just above $600 in weekly salary for working 40 hours a week at $18 an hour.
Money Tools to Help You
- Acorns – Automatically saves and invests money for you. Get a $5 bonus.
- Empower (Personal Capital) – Dashboard for money management.
- CIT Bank – Put your money in a high yield savings account that earns
How Much a Month Is $18 An Hour?
The next step is to calculate how much your wages will be after a month of labor.
Since most people get paid monthly, it is more practical to calculate how much money you will receive in monthly salary.
Working Part Time
Again, let’s assume that a person operating part-time works 5 days a week, with 6 hours per shift. This would be a 30-hour working week.
There are usually 30 or 31 days in a full month, so for the sake of this calculation, let’s assume that you are an hourly employee getting paid on the last day of May 2022 (31 days).
If your contract required you to work Monday to Friday, and you didn’t take any time off, you would have worked a full 22 days to make your monthly salary. $108 – your daily rate – multiplied by 22 equals to $2,376. This would be your monthly salary without federal and state income taxes.
At an average, a part-time employee making $18 an hour would expect to take home around $1,700 per month.
Working Full Time
If you worked a 40-hour week, getting paid $18 an hour for 8 hours a day, a rough estimate of a gross monthly salary would be around $3,120.
However, after federal taxes (and state taxes if applicable) are deducted, that pay would lower to, roughly, $2,700.
How Much Is $18 An Hour Biweekly?
If you make $18 an hour, then you will make $1,560 biweekly before taxes.
More Reading: How Much Does it Cost to Live in a Trailer Park?
Can You Live Off Of $18 An Hour Per Year?
According to the US Census Bureau, the average yearly salary in 2019 was $35,977. Therefore, if you earn $37,440 each year, you are slightly over average as far as earnings go in the US.
From our previous calculations, a person earning $18 an hour – whether full-time or part-time – would be earning below the average amount of personal income in yearly salary.
However, regardless of whether you work part-time or full-time at $18 per hour, you will be paid well above the poverty threshold in the United States, which is $12,750 per year for a single person.
So, although a person with this yearly salary may not have the highest wages possible, they certainly aren’t earning the lowest.
More Reading: 9 Cash Envelope Categories for Budgeting
Our Favorite Quick Cash Bonus
SoFi: Get $275 in cash for opening up a SoFi checking or savings account online.
Surviving Off Of $18 An Hour Per Year
While it may not be easy, an individual that lives alone could survive off of this net annual salary. But, they may be living paycheck to paycheck.
Of course, several aspects come into play when taking into consideration a person’s personal budget, not just their yearly salary.
Monthly rent in the US, in the year 2020, was $1,164 on average, with $1,104 as the median rent.
A person receiving a monthly salary of $1,700, as a part-time employee, will only have around $500 left to survive off for the remainder of the month.
Through careful budgeting, this is definitely possible, although difficult and not fun.
An individual with a full-time job, earning $18 an hour, would have around $1,500 left to spend on basic expenses.
This is also possible, especially if the person lives alone, and only needs to provide for themselves. With a family, however, this may prove to be more difficult.
Living Comfortably Off Of $18 An Hour Per Year
Now that we know that a person can survive off of an hourly salary of $18, let’s look at whether or not they can live a comfortable life with this pay.
Unfortunately, you cannot live a comfortable life on this pay, according to a new survey performed by Go Banking Rates, which takes into consideration rising housing costs as well as basic living expenses.
To comfortably make ends meet in this country and have enough pocket money for less essential stuff, you will need to be earning a gross annual salary of anything from $58,321 per year to $136,437 per year.
On 18 dollars an hour, you may need to adopt some frugal living tips.
Can You Buy A House Making $18 An Hour?
This is a difficult question to answer accurately, as there are many aspects that come into play when working out how much money you need to buy a house.
You could be able to purchase a modest-sized home with this wage if you buy in a low-cost neighborhood, if you spend/save sensibly, and providing you have a debt-to-income ratio of 43% or less.
Click here to learn the 6 steps to buying a home.
How To Live Off Of An $18 Hourly Salary
Being responsible with money is a valuable skill to have, and one that you should learn if you haven’t already.
If you live alone, you already have an advantage: you only have yourself to look out for, therefore you are fully in control of your finances.
By sticking to a low-cost food/essentials plan, and living on less than you earn, you will be able to live comfortably while, potentially, being able to save for the future.
It may also help to have a roommate, if you live alone. Renting alone can be costly in this day and age, so splitting the cost with another individual who is also wanting to save money makes sense.
A Sample Budget For An $18 Hourly Salary
If you earn $2,647 per month from a full-time job that pays $18 per hour, creating a financial plan to organize your funds may be beneficial.
A great way to do this is to organize your paycheck using a 70/20/10 budget: 70% of income gets spent on monthly costs and basic expenses (including leisure), 20% is placed aside for the future, and 10% is used to pay off debt.
Monthly Costs (70%)
Rent/Mortgage: $950
Utilities: $150
Transportation: $225
Food and Groceries: $300
Leisure/Entertainment: $222
TOTAL: $1,847
Savings (20%)
TOTAL: $530
Debt Repayment (10%)
TOTAL: $270
Another option to determine how much you should save from your yearly salary is to use the 50/30/20 rule which you can learn about here.
Ways to make more money if $18 an hour isn’t enough to Live OFf Of
If $18 an hour just isn’t enough money each week to make it, here are a few side hustles you can start to earn additional income:
Rent something out:
- Rent a spare bedroom out to a roomate or on AirBnb (earning passive income like this is ideal!)
- Rent space out in your garage
- Rent your car on Turo
Get paid for your opinion:
Drive in your free time to make extra with these companies:
There are many creative ways to make extra money and supplement the $18 an hour you make is it isn’t enough yearly salary to make it.
What Jobs Pay $18 An Hour?
Now that we know the answer to the question $18 an hour is how much a year, let’s find out what kind of jobs pay $18 an hour!
The majority of $18-an-hour occupations, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, do not require prior experience or formal education.
It is crucial to remember, though, that most places do require a high school diploma to be considered for employment.
Here are some careers that offer a rough $18-per-hour salary:
- Animal Control Worker ($18.07)
- Optician ($18.19)
- Motorcycle Mechanic ($18.19)
- Healthcare Support Worker ($18.49)
- Pipe Layer ($18.66)
- Camera Repair Technician ($18.69)
- Quality Control Inspector ($18.82)
- Audio Equipment Installer or Repairer ($18.99)
Final Thoughts on $18 Hr Salary
To sum it up, an individual who works 40 hours per week for an $18-per-hour wage will make an annual salary of $37,440, which is $28,080 after taxes.
This salary is higher than the national minimum wage, and if the person is competent at budgeting, they should be able to live well on it.
However, since it is significantly less than the average annual income, it may be difficult if the earner is not a natural money manager.
By adapting to a frugal lifestyle, and creating a budget plan for your everyday needs, you should be able to manage on a wage of $18 an hour.
We hope you found this article useful.
Check out this article on how much $15 an hour is a year
Next smart money posts:
Psychological Reasons for Overspending
How to Save Up for a House While Renting
7 Tips for Guilt Free Shopping
21 Free Printable Budget Templates
40 Cheapest Foods to Buy When You’re Broke
The 60-30-10 Rule of Budgeting
How Much is $30 per Hour a Year?