Gross Pay Calculator
Add up regular hours, overtime, and bonuses to find your total gross pay for a pay period — before any taxes are taken out.
What counts toward gross pay
Gross pay is everything you earn in a pay period before any money is withheld — it's the starting number on your pay stub. For hourly employees, this means regular hours at your base rate, plus any overtime (typically 1.5× your rate for hours beyond 40/week), plus any bonuses or commissions earned that period.
Gross pay is different from net pay (take-home pay), which is what's left after federal tax, state tax, Social Security, Medicare, and any other deductions. Use our Net Pay Calculator to go from gross to net.
Frequently asked questions
Why your gross pay can vary period to period
Unlike a fixed salary, gross pay for hourly employees naturally fluctuates with the number of hours actually worked, any overtime, and one-off bonuses or commissions. This makes budgeting trickier than for salaried employees with a consistent paycheck. Tracking your gross pay calculation each period — rather than assuming a flat average — helps you spot payroll errors early (like overtime hours that weren't paid at 1.5x) and gives you an accurate number to plan around when income varies seasonally or by workload.
Checking your pay stub against this calculator
If the gross pay on your actual pay stub doesn't match what this calculator shows, a few things are worth checking: did you work a different number of regular or overtime hours than entered here, does your employer use a different overtime multiplier than 1.5x for certain shifts (some union contracts or state rules use 2x for specific situations), and were any bonuses or commissions paid in that period that you didn't include? Catching a mismatch early is the easiest way to flag a payroll error before it compounds across multiple pay periods.
Gross pay and job offer comparisons
When comparing two job offers, always compare on a gross pay basis first — base salary or hourly rate, plus typical overtime and bonus structure — before factoring in taxes, since tax treatment depends on where you live and your personal filing situation rather than the job itself. Once you've identified which offer has the higher gross pay, run both through our Paycheck Calculator or Net Pay Calculator to see how take-home pay compares once taxes are applied.