$20 an Hour Is How Much a Year?

$20 an hour with overtime

Overtime is where an hourly job pulls ahead of a salaried one. At time and a half beyond forty hours, $20 an hour for a sixty-hour week comes to $72,800/yr instead of $41,600. Whether you are owed it depends on your exemption status, not on your job title.

And what unpaid time off costs

Hourly pay stops when you do. Every week off unpaid comes straight out of the year, so six of them bring $20 an hour down to $36,800/yr instead of $41,600.

Is $20 an hour good?

At $20 an hour, a full-time schedule pays well below the US median of $31.27 an hour, or 64% of it. Around 30% of American workers are in occupations where the typical wage is lower than this.

Worth remembering what the number used to buy: matching $20 an hour in 2021 takes $24.58 an hour today.

Median from usual weekly earnings of full-time workers, 2nd Quarter 2026. The share compares occupational medians across 134 million jobs; pay varies within every occupation, so it describes typical wages rather than individual earnings.

Where $20 an hour sits among US wages

Every bar is a five-dollar band; its height is how many people work in occupations that pay there. The purple bar is $20 an hour. Around 24% of American workers sit in that band alone. The shape is lopsided for a reason: most jobs in the country pay between $15 and $25 an hour.

How $20 an hour compares in each state

The national median hides how differently this rate lands. $20 an hour is at or above the typical wage in 1 of 51 states and below it in 50. The widest margin is 4% over the median in Mississippi; the furthest short is 55% under it in District of Columbia.

Median hourly wage across all occupations in each state, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025. Cost of living differs between these states too, so a rate that beats the local median does not automatically go further.

Jobs that pay $20 an hour

Openings where the employer stated the pay, collected from Google Jobs and refreshed daily. Postings without a stated wage are left out, because a page about pay should not guess.

• File Clerk

  $18.00–$20.16/hr

  Little Flower Children and Family Services of New York · Brooklyn, NY · via Indeed

• Organic Farm Tractor/Equipment Operator

  $20.00/hr

  Aspen Moon Farm · Longmont, CO · via Farm Jobs

• General Labor Associate – Assembly – Starting at $20.85/hr (TWN)

  $20.85/hr

  Marathon Staffing · Gardner, MA · via Jobs.appcast.io

• AHORRA MUCHO MEAT CUTTER

  $19.29/hr

  Leevers Supermarkets, Inc. · via Glassdoor

• Assistant Handyman/Assistant Handywoman

  $18.00–$22.00/hr

  Ace Handyman Services Hartford & New London · Colchester, CT · via ZipRecruiter

• Printing Press Operator

  $17.50–$21.50/hr

  POS Professional Office Services · Winter Haven, FL · via Monster

• Scaffold E&D Carpenter

  $17.75–$21.57/hr

  Sunbelt Rentals, Inc. · Elmwood, LA · via ZipRecruiter

• Dog Trainer

  $16.00–$22.00/hr

  Petco Animal Supplies, Inc. · Longmont, CO · via Monster

8 openings shown, checked Oct 29, 2026. Links go to the original posting on the site that published it.

Occupations that typically pay $20 an hour

Occupations whose national median wage lands at this rate. Half of everyone in these roles earns more than the figure shown, half earns less. 7 of 8 need no more than a high school diploma to start.

Median wages, US Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Schooling from O*NET, US Department of Labor: the level most people in the occupation start with, not a rule.

How to earn more than $20 an hour

Wages move for two reasons: the market rises, or you move. As of June 2026, people who changed employer saw pay rise 4.1% over the year, against 3.4% for people who stayed. The 0.7 point gap is what a year of staying put costs, measured on the same workers a year apart rather than on job ads.

Set against prices, the typical raise for staying was 0.1 points behind inflation. That is the number to hold a raise against: anything below the price rise is a pay cut written as an increase.

Moving does not have to mean going back to school. 7 of the 8 occupations listed above at this wage start with a high school diploma or less, and the ones a step up from here are often the same kind of work with a certification attached.

For what the next step is worth in a year, see $21 an Hour Is How Much a Year?

Wage growth from the Wage Growth Tracker, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, June 2026: median change in hourly pay for the same individuals twelve months apart, from Current Population Survey data. Price change from the Consumer Price Index over the same period.

What $20 an hour used to be worth

Prices are up 23% since 2021. Matching what $20 an hour bought back then takes $24.58 an hour today, so the same wage stretches noticeably less far than the number suggests.

Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, through June 2026. Each point compares the same month year on year, so the line is a trend rather than seasonal noise.

What people say about $20 an hour

Threads where people weigh up this exact rate: offers they were given, whether it covers their bills, what they moved on to. Opinions, not data, and worth reading as such.

• Actual Job listing: Required: Bachelor's Degree Pay: 20 hr

  r/jobs · 787 upvotes · 369 comments

• Leaving a $100k/yr career to make $20/hr as a first year Union Apprentice?

  r/careerguidance · 132 upvotes · 267 comments

• How do I improve from a 20/hr help desk job with a CS degree?

  r/careerguidance · 25 upvotes · 12 comments

• This is why I left early childhood education. Even as a program coordinator (step down from assistant director) they’re offering $17-20/hr.

  r/jobs · 15 upvotes · 5 comments