$28 an Hour Is How Much a Year?
$28 an hour is $58,240 a year before taxes, assuming a standard 40-hour week and 52 working weeks. After estimated federal taxes, that's about $48,934 a year in take-home pay.
That's 93% of the US median full-time wage (≈$30/hr, BLS).
Estimate: 2026 federal brackets and standard deduction, FICA 7.65% (+0.9% Medicare over $200k/$250k), simplified state brackets. Excludes local taxes, credits, and pre-tax deductions (401(k), HSA). Not tax advice.
$28 an hour is how much a month?
$28 an hour is $4,853 a month before taxes, $2,240 per biweekly paycheck, $1,120 a week and $224 for an eight-hour day. Monthly pay is the yearly total divided by twelve rather than four weekly paychecks, so it reads slightly higher than a month of Fridays suggests.
$28 an hour with overtime
Overtime is where an hourly job pulls ahead of a salaried one. At time and a half beyond forty hours, $28 an hour for a sixty-hour week comes to $101,920/yr instead of $58,240. 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 $28 an hour down to $51,520/yr instead of $58,240.
Is $28 an hour good?
At $28 an hour, a full-time schedule pays below the US median of $31.27 an hour, or 90% of it. Around 56% of American workers are in occupations where the typical wage is lower than this.
Worth remembering what the number used to buy: matching $28 an hour in 2021 takes $34.42 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 $28 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 pink bar is $28 an hour. Around 9% 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.
$28 an hour after taxes
On $58,240 gross, a single filer taking the standard deduction pays about $4,851 in federal income tax and $4,455 in FICA (Social Security + Medicare). That leaves $48,934 a year, or $4,078 a month, at an effective federal rate near 16%. State income tax and pre-tax deductions like a 401(k) shift the final number; the calculator above models the state part.
Take-home pay by state
Gross pay stays the same. Take-home doesn't. On $58,240 gross, a single filer keeps roughly $48,934 in the nine no-income-tax states, $47,194 in California, and $44,379 in Oregon. Pick your state in the calculator above for an exact estimate.
How $28 an hour compares in each state
The national median hides how differently this rate lands. $28 an hour is at or above the typical wage in 42 of 51 states and below it in 9. The widest margin is 45% over the median in Mississippi; the furthest short is 36% 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 $28 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.
Surgical Assistant - Oral Surgery
$26.00–$32.00/hrColorado Surgical Arts · Littleton, CO · via Indeed · 2 days ago
Board Reporter
$22.00–$32.23/hrPinellas County Government · Clearwater, FL · via LinkedIn · 2 days ago
Judicial Clerk II - Part Time Term Limited
$23.08–$33.46/hrColorado Judicial Branch · Fort Collins, CO · via Indeed · 6 days ago
Operating Engineers and Other Construction Equipment Operators
$15.06–$40.46/hrTrade College · Knik-Fairview, AK · via Learn4Good · last week
Judicial Clerk II
$23.08–$33.46/hrColorado Judicial Branch · Boulder, CO · via Indeed · last week
Medical Interpreters Needed in Grand Junction, CO
$25.00–$30.00/hrFluent Language Solutions, Inc · Grand Junction, CO · via LinkedIn · last week
Audio Visual Installation Technician
$20.00–$35.00/hrCareer Site · Aurora, CO · via ZipRecruiter · last week
Surgical Dental Assistant
$25.00–$33.00/hrSouthern Colorado Periodontics · Colorado Springs, CO · via Indeed · last week
8 openings shown, checked Aug 9, 2026. Links go to the original posting on the site that published it.
Occupations that typically pay $28 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. 4 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 $28 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. 4 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 $30 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 $28 an hour used to be worth
Prices are up 23% since 2021. Matching what $28 an hour bought back then takes $34.42 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 $28 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.
- $28/hr with no degree, low stress… but I’m miserable. Stay or go?
r/careerguidance · 319 upvotes · 214 comments
- Making $28/hr full time 6K saved, no debt. Now what?
r/personalfinance · 31 upvotes · 35 comments
Compare nearby rates
Interviewing for a role at this pay level?
Recruiters expect you to know your number and to defend it. Read how to answer salary expectations without getting rejected, and let MeetAssist answer alongside you during the interview itself, invisible on screen share.
Try MeetAssist freeFAQ
$28 an hour is how much a year working full-time?+
Working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks, $28 an hour equals $58,240 a year, $4,853 a month, or $1,120 a week before taxes.
How much is $28 an hour after taxes?+
Roughly $48,934 a year ($4,078/month) after federal income tax and FICA for a single filer with the standard deduction, an effective rate of about 16%. State income tax (0% in TX, FL, WA and six other states, up to ~10% elsewhere) comes out on top; use the calculator above to pick your state.
How much is $28 an hour biweekly?+
$2,240 per biweekly paycheck before taxes ($1,120 per week).
What if I work part-time?+
At 30 hours a week it's $43,680 a year; at 20 hours it's $29,120 a year before taxes.
Should I mention my expected salary in an interview?+
Know your number before the call: recruiters routinely ask for salary expectations, and quoting a well-reasoned range beats guessing. See our guide on how to answer salary expectations without getting rejected.
Read next
- How to Negotiate Salary After a Job Offer (+ Scripts)A focused post-offer negotiation playbook: check the same job on other boards, judge when it's safe to push, and use copy-ready scripts and email temp…
- How to Answer Salary Expectations: Scripts That Won't Get You Rejected (Real Recruiter Stories)A candidate got an instant rejection for answering "what are your salary expectations?" with "what is the budget?" Here's how to deflect, anchor, or a…
- How Many Applications to Get a Job in 2026? A Real Funnel: 308 Applications, 33 Interviews, 1 OfferReal job-search funnels from 2026, backed by labor-market data: what the application-to-interview-to-offer ratio actually looks like, why it's so brut…
- Common Interview Questions: 340 Real Interviews ShowMost "common interview questions" lists are guesses. We counted 4,136 questions from 340 real interviews to show which ones actually get asked, how of…