Hourly vs salary job offer: Pay Basis Compare
A startup idea for people asking “Hourly or salary?” on Reddit
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Opportunity brief
5/10 opportunity see breakdown
- Signal
- 4/10
- Model
- Free tool + affiliate · Difficulty: Low
- Updated
Evidence from Reddit
- Reddit threads
- 1
- Days seen
- 1
- Peak rank
- #2
“I would be limited in terms of pay for all the extra work on a salary.”u/SignificantCup7921 on r/careerguidance
“I have been unemployed for 1 year and finally have two job offers. The main concern is that there is sometimes alot of work and overtime involved in this field. I would be limited in terms of pay for all the extra work on a salary.”u/SignificantCup7921 on r/careerguidance
First seen on Reddit · Last seen
Opportunity brief
After a year out of work, a job seeker in anti-money-laundering compliance has two offers, a $60k salary and $30 an hour through a staffing firm, and cannot tell which pays more in a field where overtime is common.
Pay Basis Compare is a calculator that converts both offers into effective hourly pay at the weekly hours the person actually expects to work and shows the break-even point.
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The problem in people's words
This problem comes from a single poster who submitted the same question twice to r/careerguidance on October 25, 2026, and it ranked #2 in that day's list. Both copies are counted as one thread in our evidence numbers.
“I have been unemployed for 1 year and finally have two job offers. The main concern is that there is sometimes alot of work and overtime involved in this field. I would be limited in terms of pay for all the extra work on a salary.”— u/SignificantCup7921 on r/careerguidance,
“Guidehouse company is 60k Protiviti(roberthalf) company is 30 hourly”— u/SignificantCup7921 on r/careerguidance,
At the time we stored the thread, neither copy had any replies, so the evidence is one person's question. The arithmetic behind it is simple: at 40 hours a week, $30 an hour comes to $62,400 a year before time off (the same worked example Calculator.net uses), close to the $60k salary. Which offer pays more depends on how many overtime hours are paid, how much paid time off and benefits each side includes, and whether the hourly role is a contract through a staffing firm.
Who has it
Job seekers holding one salaried offer and one hourly offer for similar work, typically where the hourly role comes through a staffing agency or contract firm. The anchor case is compliance work in anti-money laundering, where the poster says overtime is common and a salary would leave the extra hours unpaid.
The poster's situation, a year without work and finally two offers, means the decision is time-sensitive and the cost of choosing wrong feels high.
Existing options
| Option | Price | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Calculator.net Salary Calculator | Free to use (no price shown) | Converts hourly to annual pay and adjusts for holidays and vacation days; it does not model paid overtime against an unpaid-overtime salary. |
| Omni Calculator Salary to Hourly Calculator | Free to use (no price shown) | Converts between hourly, weekly and annual pay with editable hours per week; its guide explains 1.5x overtime but the calculator compares one rate at a time. |
| Levels.fyi Total Compensation Calculator | Free | Compares offers including bonus, equity, vesting and benefits; built around salaried tech-style offers rather than hourly overtime. |
Names and prices checked on each provider's own site on .
Each free tool converts one number into another. None takes two offers on different pay bases and asks how many hours a week you expect to work, which is the question in the thread.
The idea: what to build first
Build a single page with two columns. Hourly side: rate, overtime rule (straight time or time and a half), expected hours in a normal week and a busy week, paid holidays and leave (often none for agency contracts), and benefits. Salaried side: salary, bonus, employer health and retirement contributions, paid time off. Output: a line chart of effective hourly pay from 35 to 60 hours a week, the break-even point, and a short list of questions to ask each employer (overtime eligibility, contract length, conversion to staff, benefits through the agency).
This is a weekend build with any AI app builder: the maths is a few formulas and the chart can be plain SVG. Keep all assumptions visible and editable, and link to official overtime guidance rather than deciding anyone's eligibility.
How it makes money
Our pricing guess: a free calculator supported by affiliate links to salary data and benefits guides, plus an optional $9-19 report that values the benefits and lists the questions to ask. The free tools above set the expectation that the basic conversion costs nothing, so the paid part has to be the decision help, not the arithmetic.
The source thread contains no statement that someone would pay for this.
Validate it in a weekend
- Publish the calculator with a short guide on hourly versus salaried offers and track how many visitors fill in both columns and move the weekly-hours slider.
- Add an optional email field to save the comparison and measure how many people want the result emailed.
- Offer the paid report only to visitors whose two offers come out within 15% of each other once benefits are included, and record the conversion rate.
Risks
- Overtime rules differ by country, state and job classification; the tool can only estimate and must point to official labour guidance.
- Valuing health insurance and other benefits depends on personal circumstances, so assumptions must be editable.
- Generic salary-to-hourly converters are free and plentiful; without the break-even view and offer questions there is no reason to switch.
- Evidence is thin: one poster, no replies yet.
Score breakdown
Opportunity 5/10 how we score
- Demand 30%5.2/10
- Pain & willingness to pay 25%3/10
- Buildable with AI/no-code 25%9/10
- Easy first customers 10%4/10
- Room in the market 10%3/10
Easy to build, but free pay calculators are plentiful, with moderate demand so far. Signal score 4/10, calculated from thread count, days seen and best rank. Neither score is a forecast; see our methodology.
FAQ
How do you determine what job to accept when one offer is hourly and one is salaried?
Convert both to effective hourly pay at the hours you realistically expect to work, including busy weeks, then add paid time off and benefits. A $60k salary and $30 an hour are close at 40 hours a week, so overtime pay and benefits usually decide it.
Is $30 an hour more than a $60k salary?
At 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, $30 an hour is $62,400 a year before any unpaid time off. It pulls ahead with paid overtime and falls behind if the hourly role has no paid holidays, leave or benefits.
Are there free tools to compare hourly and salary pay?
Yes. Calculator.net and Omni Calculator convert hourly to annual pay for free, and Levels.fyi has a free total compensation calculator, but none of them compares a paid-overtime hourly offer with a salaried offer side by side.
Sources and last updated
Competitor pages checked:
- Calculator.net Salary Calculator: https://www.calculator.net/salary-calculator.html
- Omni Calculator Salary to Hourly Calculator: https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/hourly-to-salary
- Levels.fyi Total Compensation Calculator: https://www.levels.fyi/calculator/
The original threads (opens Reddit):
Appeared in the daily list: Oct 25, 2026 (#2).
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