public enum PayTypeList
    {

        Unknown,

        Hourly,

        Salary,
    }

PayTypeList payType = (PayTypeList)Enum.Parse(typeof(PayTypeList), "Hourly");

// Throws an ArgumentException if the string is found not to be one of the members of the enum (in this case, if you pass in a string "Weekly" instead of "Hourly", it will throw an ArgumentException)

public PayTypeList StringToYourEnumType(string Paytype)
{
	foreach (FieldInfo fi in typeof(PayTypeList).GetFields(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Static))
            {
                if (Paytype.CompareTo(fi.Name.ToString().ToLower()) == 0)
                {
                    return (PayTypeList)fi.GetValue(null);
                }
            }
            return PayTypeList.Unknown;
}

// Useage
 public enum PayTypeList
    {

        Unknown,

        Hourly,

        Salary,
    }

PayTypeList payType = ConvertStateEnumeration("Hourly");

This snippet accepts a string which is assumed to be the string version of one of the members and returns an enum object with the respective member selected.*

*Thanks to user: mcbutterbuns for improving upon my version of this snippet

Convert a string to its respective Enum member

C#