Is $30 an Hour Good?

$30 an hour is $62,400 a year at 40 hours a week across all 52 weeks. After federal tax and FICA, in a state with no income tax, that deposits about $52,318 — roughly $4,360 a month.

That is above the US median personal income. So the short answer is yes, comfortably. The longer answer is that the rate alone cannot tell you.

The arithmetic first

	Amount
$30 × 40 hours × 52 weeks	$62,400
Federal income tax	−$5,308
Social Security (6.2%)	−$3,869
Medicare (1.45%)	−$905
Take-home (no state tax)	$52,318

An effective rate of 16.2% — well below the 22% bracket the salary sits in, because brackets are progressive and only the top slice is taxed at 22%.

Convert your own rate with the salary calculator, or see the full deduction breakdown in the paycheck calculator.

The four things the rate does not tell you

1. Paid weeks. The $62,400 assumes you are paid for all 52. If two weeks are unpaid, you earn $60,000 and your effective rate across the year is still $30 — but you are earning $2,400 less than a salaried colleague on the same headline figure. Contractors face a much larger version: allowing for holiday, sickness and gaps between contracts, a contract rate usually needs to be 20–30% higher to match a salary.

2. Where you live. State income tax is the difference between $52,318 and roughly $48,000:

State	Take-home
Texas, Florida, Washington (none)	$52,318
Pennsylvania (3.07% flat)	$50,403
Illinois (4.95% flat)	$49,230
California (~6% effective)	$48,574

But states without income tax recover it through property and sales taxes, and housing costs swamp the difference. A $4,000 tax saving means nothing against a $12,000 rent difference.

3. Overtime. At time and a half, ten overtime hours a week adds $23,400 a year — turning $62,400 into $85,800. If the role has reliable overtime, the base rate understates it substantially. If it has mandatory overtime, the hourly rate overstates what your time is worth.

4. Benefits. Employer health insurance is worth $6,000–$20,000 a year in the US. A 401(k) match is free money — a 4% match on $62,400 is $2,496 you do not get at all if the job has none. A $30 hourly role with good benefits beats a $35 role without them, and neither number shows it.

Is it good where you are?

$62,400 is above the US median personal income and below the median household income, which matters if you are the only earner.

The more useful comparison is local. $30 an hour goes a long way in most of the Midwest and South and is tight in San Francisco, Seattle or Boston. A rough test: multiply your monthly take-home by 0.3 for a rent budget — here, about $1,308. If that does not rent a reasonable place where you live, the rate is not good there, whatever the national comparison says.

The version of this question worth asking

"Is $30 an hour good" is usually really "should I take this job". For that, compare total compensation: base pay, realistic overtime, employer health contribution, retirement match, paid time off, and the commute.

Two offers at $30 and $33 an hour are not ranked by the rate if the first has a 5% match and full health cover and the second has neither. Run both through the salary calculator on the same basis, then add the benefits by hand — the gap frequently reverses.