Can You Continue to exist $21 Dollars an Hour? Is It a Good Pay?

TL;DR: If you happen to just got here for the short answer to 21 dollars an hour is how much a 12 months? Answer: $43,680 before taxes.

Possibly you’ve just come across a job listing or been offered a job that pays $21 an hour, and it’s time to crunch the numbers.

21 dollars an hour is how much a 12 months? What about per 30 days, week, and day?

How much might you be left with after taxes? Is $21 an hour different if you happen to’re a freelancer vs. a W-2 worker for an organization?

Let’s dive into these questions and more details about how well you could be doing with a $21/hr job.

How Much is $21 and Hour per 12 months, Month, Week or Day?

Let’s assume you’re working full-time, meaning 8 hours a day, 5 days every week, 52 weeks a 12 months (including paid vacation time).

We are able to use some easy multiplication to calculate how $21/hr adds up over every time period:

• Day by day: $21 x 8 hours = $ 168 a day
• Weekly: $168 a day x 5 days = $840 every week
• Monthly: $840 every week x 4.33 (the common variety of weeks per 30 days) = $3,637 a month
• Yearly: $840 every week x 52 weeks = $43,680 a 12 months

These are all of the gross figures, meaning they’re what you earn before taxes are taken out.

Your specific tax rates will vary depending on where you reside, whether you’re filing jointly or singly, what deductions you qualify for, and so forth.

25% is mostly a superb ballpark figure to estimate for federal and state taxes.

Using that 25% number, we are able to multiply our previous figures by the remaining 75% to determine about how much take-home pay you may expect after taxes whenever you earn $21 an hour:

• Day by day: $168 x 75% = $126 take home
• Weekly: $840 x 75% = $630 take home
• Monthly: $3637 x 75% = $2,728 take home per 30 days
• Yearly: $43680 x 75% = $32,760 after taxes a 12 months

You should utilize a tax calculator to more specifically estimate how much to expect in taxes.

Note that if you happen to’re earning $21/hr as a freelancer, you’ll pay much more, because you’re answerable for all of your FICA taxes as a substitute of getting those covered by an employer.

Personally, I often put aside more like 1/3 of my income for this reason.

Is $22 an hour an honest, livable wage?

The reply here is each easy and sophisticated: it depends. 

The largest factor is solely where you reside. If you happen to’re a digital nomad living in Thailand and making $21 US, you may live in luxury in a penthouse apartment.

If you happen to live in Boise, ID you may probably afford a mortgage on an honest house.

But when you’re in a city like Chicago or San Francisco, $21 an hour will probably get you a closet with six roommates. 

Let’s take a look at an example monthly budget for somebody making $21 an hour.

Since housing is considered one of the largest expenses, we’ll start there, using the rule of thumb that you just shouldn’t spend greater than 30% of your gross monthly income on housing.

We’ll also budget in 15% on savings—you may at all times save greater than this if you happen to’re able, but consider saving and investing as a priority, not only “whatever I actually have left after my spending.”

That’s money you’re paying to your future self to make your life higher!

Net Monthly Income: $2728 

Depending on where you reside, this type of budget may appear extremely doable, or it would feel like there’s not much wiggle room.

Affording every part and managing to avoid wasting will probably be lots easier if you could have a dual-income household.

Two individuals who each work full-time and earn $21 dollars an hour have a net take-home of $5,456, which is a fairly solid amount for living well in most places!

Seeking to stretch that $21 an hour wage so far as you may so you may live well and bump up your savings rate?

It’s totally possible if you happen to’re determined enough! Try these 72 tricks to get monetary savings. 

If you happen to can only strip your budget down up to now and you may’t discover a job paying greater than $21 an hour, consider supplementing your work with side gigs on nights or weekends.

This will be so simple as doing surveys on Swagbucks when you watch TV, or walking dogs through Rover on Saturday mornings, and even starting your individual business. Try 114 side hustle ideas here!