About the Cost in Work Hours Calculator
This calculator answers a simple question before you buy something: how many hours of my life does this cost? It converts a price into hours, workdays and weeks of work using your real hourly wage — pay after tax, minus the costs of going to work such as commuting, parking and work lunches — rather than your headline pay rate.
It works for hourly workers and salaried employees alike (salary is converted to an hourly rate from your weekly hours). For recurring costs like a subscription, car payment or daily takeaway, choose how often you pay and it also shows the hours of work the habit takes every year.
Use an effective tax rate that covers income tax and payroll taxes together; if you are unsure, your last payslip’s take-home pay divided by gross pay gives a good estimate. The result is an estimate for decision-making, not a payroll figure.
With the default inputs, the hours of work is 64. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the cost in work hours calculator
- 1Enter the price and whether it is a one-time or recurring cost.
- 2Choose hourly or salary and enter your pay.
- 3Enter your weekly hours and effective tax rate.
- 4Add weekly work-related costs such as commuting and lunches.
- 5Read the hours, workdays and weeks the purchase really costs.
Formula and method
Your gross hourly wage is either your hourly rate or your annual salary divided by 52 weeks × weekly hours. Taxes are removed using your effective tax rate, and the weekly cost of working — commuting, parking, lunches, work clothes — is spread over the hours you work, giving the real amount you keep for each hour on the job.
Dividing a price by that real hourly wage gives the hours of work it costs. Workdays assume a five-day week (weekly hours ÷ 5 per day). For recurring expenses, the hours are multiplied by how many times a year you pay; a yearly cost is counted once.
- Gross hourly
- Pay per hour before tax (salary ÷ (52 × weekly hours))
- Tax%
- Effective combined tax rate on your pay
- Work costs
- Weekly costs you only have because you work
- Real hourly
- What you actually keep per hour worked
Worked examples
$1,200 laptop at $25 an hour
At $25 an hour with 20% tax you keep $20, and $50 of weekly work costs over 40 hours takes another $1.25, leaving $18.75. A $1,200 laptop therefore costs 64 hours — eight full workdays.
$15 weekly takeaway on a $75,000 salary
$75,000 over 2,080 hours is $36.06 gross, or $27.04 after 25% tax. Each $15 meal costs about 33 minutes of work, and buying it every week takes nearly 29 hours of work a year.
$1,000 monthly car payment, part-time job
$18 an hour less 15% tax is $15.30, and $30 of weekly costs over 30 hours takes $1 more, leaving $14.30. Each $1,000 payment costs almost 70 hours of work, and a year of payments costs about 839 hours.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate how many hours I need to work for something?+
Divide the price by what you actually keep per hour: your hourly pay after tax, minus work-related costs per hour. A $300 item at a real wage of $15 per hour costs 20 hours of work.
What is my real hourly wage?+
It is your pay per hour after income and payroll taxes and after the costs you incur only because you work, such as commuting, parking and lunches. It is usually far lower than the rate on your contract.
How do I convert a salary to an hourly rate?+
Divide your annual salary by 52 weeks and by the hours you work each week. A $60,000 salary at 40 hours a week is $60,000 ÷ 2,080 ≈ $28.85 per hour before tax.
Where does the idea of pricing things in hours come from?+
It was popularised by the book “Your Money or Your Life” by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez, which calls it converting money into “life energy”. Seeing prices as hours of work makes trade-offs more concrete.
Should I include commuting time as well as cost?+
For a stricter view, yes: add unpaid commute hours to your weekly hours worked. That lowers your real hourly wage further and shows the true time cost of working.