Pro rata salary calculator
A job says £30,000 pro rata and you would work three days a week. This tells you what that comes to: a year, a month, a week, and what one day is worth.
This is gross pay, before tax and National Insurance. Your take-home will be lower.
What pro rata actually means
Pro rata is Latin for "in proportion", and on a job advert it means one thing: the salary quoted is the full-time one, and you will be paid the share of it that matches the hours you work.
So "£30,000 pro rata" for a three-day week is not £30,000. Three days out of five is 60%, so it is £18,000. The advert quotes the full-time figure because that is the rate for the job; the pro rata part is the warning that you will not be working full time.
Worked example. £30,000 full time, five days a week is the standard. You work three. 3 ÷ 5 = 60%, and 60% of £30,000 is £18,000 a year, or £1,500 a month. One working day is worth about £115.
How to work out pro rata salary
Three steps, and only the first one needs anything from your contract.
- Find your share of full time. Divide the days or hours you will work by the full-time days or hours. Three days of five is 0.6. Thirty hours of 37.5 is 0.8.
- Multiply the full-time salary by that share. 0.6 × £30,000 = £18,000 a year.
- Divide by 12 for the monthly figure. £18,000 ÷ 12 = £1,500 a month, before tax.
That is the whole method. The calculator above runs the same three steps, and adds the part-year adjustment if you start mid-year.
Pro rata salary table
Common full-time salaries against a five-day week, so you can read off the answer without the calculator. All figures are a year, gross.
| Full-time salary | 1 day | 2 days | 3 days | 4 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £20,000 | £4,000 | £8,000 | £12,000 | £16,000 |
| £25,000 | £5,000 | £10,000 | £15,000 | £20,000 |
| £30,000 | £6,000 | £12,000 | £18,000 | £24,000 |
| £35,000 | £7,000 | £14,000 | £21,000 | £28,000 |
| £40,000 | £8,000 | £16,000 | £24,000 | £32,000 |
| £45,000 | £9,000 | £18,000 | £27,000 | £36,000 |
| £50,000 | £10,000 | £20,000 | £30,000 | £40,000 |
Four days a week is 0.8, so it is 80% of the full-time figure: £30,000 becomes £24,000. If your hours are uneven, use hours instead of days and the calculator above.
Days or hours, whichever your contract uses
The sum is the same either way: your share of full time, applied to the full-time salary. Use whichever your contract is written in.
- By days. Three days against a five-day week is 60%.
- By hours. 22.5 hours against a 37.5-hour week is also 60%. Hours are the better measure if your days are not all the same length.
Watch the full-time figure itself. A "full-time week" is not a fixed thing: 37.5 hours is common, but 35, 40 and 39 all exist, and the pro rata share changes with it. Twenty-two and a half hours is 60% of a 37.5-hour week but only 56.25% of a 40-hour one, which is £1,125 a year on a £30,000 salary. Use the number in your contract, not the one you assume.
0.6 FTE means the same thing. Adverts in the NHS, universities and councils often give the share as a decimal: FTE (full-time equivalent), or WTE (whole-time equivalent) in the NHS. 0.6 FTE is three days of five, or 22.5 hours of a 37.5-hour week. Put the decimal straight into step 2 above.
Every figure here is gross. Once you have your pro rata salary, Wagepage's take-home pay calculator takes tax, National Insurance and student loan off it.
Your daily and hourly rate
Useful for checking a payslip, pricing extra hours, or comparing an hourly job with a salaried one.
- Hourly rate. Full-time salary ÷ 52 ÷ full-time weekly hours. £30,000 on 37.5 hours is £15.38 an hour. The rate is the same whether you work full or part time. Part time changes how many hours you are paid for, and each hour is worth the same.
- Daily rate. Full-time salary ÷ 52 ÷ 5. £30,000 is about £115 a day.
The calculator above divides by 52 weeks. A year is really 52.14 weeks (365 ÷ 7), and some payrolls use that, which takes a few pence off: £15.34 an hour on the same salary. Your contract or payroll policy says which.
Starting part way through the year
Pro rata also gets used for a partial year: join in October and you are paid for the part of the year you are actually there. Tick the box above and it scales for that too. The two stack, so someone joining in October on three days a week gets 60% of the salary, and then only for the share of the year that is left.
Term-time contracts
School support staff, and anyone else paid only for part of the year, are pro rata'd by weeks rather than days. The idea is the same: the share of a full year you are paid for, applied to the full-time salary.
Worked example. Say a contract pays for 39 working weeks plus 5 weeks of holiday, 44 weeks in all. 44 ÷ 52.14 = 84.4%. On a £24,000 full-time salary that is £20,253 a year, usually paid in 12 equal monthly amounts.
The number of paid weeks is the part that varies. It depends on how your employer counts holiday for term-time staff, so take the figure from your contract.
Holiday may work differently too. gov.uk defines a part-year worker as someone with weeks in the year where they do not need to work and are not paid. For leave years beginning after 31 March 2024, their holiday can be accrued at 12.07% of the hours they work. If your salary is spread over 12 equal monthly payments, you are paid in every week, so that definition may not fit you. Check your contract, or gov.uk's holiday entitlement guidance.
Term-time and part-time stack. Work 0.8 of the hours for 44 paid weeks and you get 0.8 × 84.4%, about 67.5% of the full-time salary.
Is my pro rata pay right? A quick check
Take your gross monthly pay from a payslip, multiply by 12, and divide by the full-time salary. The answer should match your share of full time.
£1,500 a month × 12 = £18,000. £18,000 ÷ £30,000 = 0.6, which is three days of five. If you work three days and the check gives you 0.55, ask payroll which full-time hours they are using: a mismatch in the full-time week is the usual cause.
Use a normal month for this. A month with overtime, back pay or a bonus will throw it.
This is gross pay
The figure here is your salary before tax, National Insurance, pension and anything else comes out. Your take-home will be lower.
Take-home is deliberately a separate step. Getting it right needs your tax code, your pension contributions, whether you have a student loan and which plan, and the current bands. Use the take-home calculator linked above, or HMRC's own estimator.
Pro rata holiday is a different sum
Part-time work scales your holiday as well as your pay, but the arithmetic is not the same, because statutory holiday is capped at 28 days. Our holiday entitlement calculator handles that one.
Bank holidays are the part that goes wrong
This is where part-time pay and part-time leave quietly become unfair, and it usually happens by accident rather than design.
There are eight bank holidays in England and Wales, and most fall on a Monday. Someone working Monday to Wednesday gets nearly all of them as free days off. Someone working Wednesday to Friday gets almost none. Same contract, same hours, very different year.
The fix employers use. Convert bank holidays into a pro rata allowance in hours rather than treating them as days. A full-timer gets 8 bank holidays, so a 3-day-a-week worker gets 8 × 3/5, which is 4.8 days added to their entitlement, and they book them whenever they like. Which weekday you happen to work stops mattering.
If your contract says holiday is "20 days plus bank holidays" and you work Tuesday to Thursday, it is worth asking how the bank holidays are actually being counted.
Your right to pro rata pay
Pro rata pay has a legal basis, with conditions. The Part-time Workers Regulations 2000 define a "pro rata principle": a part-timer gets at least the share of pay and benefits that their weekly hours bear to a comparable full-timer's.
Regulation 5 gives the right not to be treated less favourably than that full-timer. It applies when the worse treatment is because you work part time, and the employer cannot justify it on objective grounds. The pro rata principle is used to judge that unless it is inappropriate for the benefit in question.
That covers more than salary. gov.uk's own example: if a full-timer gets a £1,000 Christmas bonus and you work half their hours, you should get £500.
Overtime works differently. Regulation 5 allows an employer to pay a part-timer the ordinary rate for extra hours, with no overtime premium, until their total hours go past what the full-timer is required to work. On a three-day, 22.5-hour week, three extra hours takes you to 25.5, still under a 37.5-hour full-time week, so they can be paid at the normal rate. Hours beyond 37.5 would earn whatever premium full-timers get.
That is a summary of the rules. For advice on your own case, or if you think you are being paid less than the pro rata principle allows, Acas is free.
What pro rata does not scale
Not everything divides down neatly with your hours, and the exceptions are where part-time work is either better or worse than the headline suggests.
- The personal allowance does not scale. You still get the full £12,570 tax-free, so a part-time salary is taxed proportionately more lightly than the same rate full-time.
- Pension contributions usually do scale, since they are a percentage of actual pay. But auto-enrolment has an earnings trigger, so dropping hours far enough can take you out of it entirely.
- Fixed benefits often do not scale. Private medical cover, a season ticket loan or a training budget are commonly given in full or not at all, and that is a contract question rather than a legal one.
- Statutory rights do not scale. Notice periods, redundancy pay eligibility and unfair dismissal protection all run on length of service, not hours worked.
Compressed hours are not part-time
Working your full week in four longer days is a compressed week, not a pro rata arrangement. Full pay, full holiday entitlement, just fewer and longer days.
It matters for leave. If you work four 9.5-hour days, a week off costs you four days rather than five, so entitlement is best tracked in hours rather than days. Employers who count compressed-hours leave in days usually shortchange the worker without realising.
Related guides: Your rights in a part-time job: a guide for UK students · Employing a nanny or home carer: your legal duties as an employer
Common questions
What does pro rata mean?
In proportion. On a job advert it means the salary quoted is the full-time rate, and you will be paid the share of it matching the hours you work. £30,000 pro rata for a three-day week is £18,000.
How do I calculate pro rata salary?
Divide your days or hours by the full-time days or hours, then multiply the full-time salary by that share. Three days out of five is 60%, so 60% of £30,000 is £18,000. The calculator above does it, including the monthly figure and what one day is worth.
Is £30,000 pro rata the same as £30,000?
No, and this is the bit that catches people. £30,000 pro rata is what you would get if you worked full time. Working part time, you get the matching share of it. If the job is genuinely full time, then pro rata makes no difference and you get the full £30,000.
Does this show my take-home pay?
No. This is gross pay, before tax, National Insurance and pension. Take-home depends on your tax code, pension, and any student loan, so use HMRC's estimator for that figure.
What if I start part way through the year?
Tick the box above and give the dates. You are paid for the share of the year you are there, and that stacks with the part-time share: three days a week from October gets 60% of the salary, for the part of the year that is left.
Is pro rata holiday worked out the same way?
Similar, but not identical, because statutory holiday is capped at 28 days no matter how many days you work. Use the holiday entitlement calculator for that.
How do bank holidays work if I am part-time?
They should be converted to a pro rata allowance rather than left to fall where they may. Most bank holidays are Mondays, so a Monday-to-Wednesday worker gets nearly all of them free and a Wednesday-to-Friday worker gets almost none. A 3-day-a-week worker should get 8 x 3/5, which is 4.8 days added to their entitlement to book as they choose.
Does everything scale down pro rata?
No. The personal allowance does not, so £12,570 stays tax-free and part-time pay is taxed proportionately more lightly. Statutory rights like notice and redundancy run on length of service rather than hours. Fixed benefits such as medical cover are often all or nothing, which is a contract question.
What does 0.6 FTE mean?
Full-time equivalent. 0.6 FTE is 60% of full time: three days of a five-day week, or 22.5 hours of 37.5. Multiply the full-time salary by 0.6 to get the pro rata salary. The NHS calls the same thing WTE, whole-time equivalent.
How do I work out my hourly rate from a pro rata salary?
Divide the full-time salary by 52, then by the full-time weekly hours. £30,000 on a 37.5-hour week is £15.38 an hour, or £15.34 if your payroll uses 52.14 weeks. Part time changes how many hours you are paid for. The hourly rate stays the same.
How is pro rata worked out for term-time contracts?
By paid weeks rather than days. Divide the weeks your contract pays, including holiday, by 52.14, then apply that share to the full-time salary. 44 paid weeks is 84.4%, so £24,000 full time becomes £20,253. The number of paid weeks varies by employer, so take it from your contract.
Do part-time workers get overtime pay?
Not always at a premium. The Part-time Workers Regulations 2000 let an employer pay the ordinary rate for extra hours until your total passes the full-time hours. Above that, you should get whatever overtime rate full-timers get.
Are compressed hours the same as part-time?
No. Compressing a full week into four longer days is full pay and full entitlement, just fewer days. It matters for leave: a week off costs four days rather than five, so entitlement should be tracked in hours. Counting it in days usually shortchanges the worker.