Pro Rata Pay: How to Prorate a Part-Time or Partial-Year Salary
"Pro rata" is a Latin phrase that means, roughly, in proportion. In pay, it means taking a full-time, full-year figure and scaling it down to match the share of the job you actually do. It comes up in two places: when someone works fewer hours than a full-time week, and when someone works only part of a year because they start or leave partway through.
Both cases use the same idea, a fraction multiplied by the full amount, but there are choices about which fraction to use. This article shows the common methods with worked examples so you can check a job advert, an offer letter or a final paycheck.
Part-time pay with full-time equivalent
Full-time equivalent, or FTE, compares your weekly hours with the hours of a full-time week at that employer. It is a number between 0 and 1.
FTE = your weekly hours ÷ full-time weekly hoursPro rata salary = full-time salary × FTE.
Worked example: the full-time salary is $52,000 for a 40-hour week and you work 24 hours. FTE is 24 ÷ 40 = 0.6, so the pro rata salary is 52,000 × 0.6 = $31,200. The hourly rate is unchanged: the full-time rate is 52,000 ÷ 2,080 = $25, and 24 hours a week for 52 weeks at $25 is also $31,200.
| Weekly hours | FTE | Pro rata share of $52,000 |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | 0.5 | $26,000 |
| 24 | 0.6 | $31,200 |
| 30 | 0.75 | $39,000 |
| 32 | 0.8 | $41,600 |
| 37.5 | 0.9375 | $48,750 |
If an advert quotes a full-time salary and says "pro rata", this is the figure you would actually receive. The salary to hourly calculator shows the equivalent hourly rate, which is a handy check that the part-time rate matches the full-time one.
Prorating leave and other benefits
Many employers scale paid leave in the same way. With 25 days of annual leave for a full-time employee, a 0.6 FTE colleague gets 25 × 0.6 = 15 days.
Counting in hours avoids confusion when days differ in length. A full-time year of 25 days at 8 hours is 200 hours of leave, and 200 × 0.6 = 120 hours. If the part-timer works three 8-hour days, that is 15 days. If they work five 4.8-hour days, taking a day off uses 4.8 hours of the allowance.
Rules on leave and holidays differ by country and contract, and some benefits do not scale. Your offer letter or employment contract is the final word.
Pay for part of a year
When a job starts or ends mid-year, the same idea applies, with a time-based fraction. There are three common choices, and they give slightly different answers:
- By months: salary × months worked ÷ 12. A start on 1 July gives 52,000 × 6 ÷ 12 = $26,000 for the rest of the year.
- By calendar days: salary × days employed ÷ days in the year. Starting on 15 March in a 365-day year gives 292 days, and 52,000 × 292 ÷ 365 = $41,600.
- By working days: salary × working days employed ÷ working days in the year, which suits roles paid for each working day.
Which method applies is a matter of the contract or payroll policy. Months are simplest but treat a part month roughly. Days are more exact. For the day counts, see our guides on counting the days between two dates and counting working days, or use the days calculator.
Why the year length matters
A year has 52 weeks and one extra day (two in a leap year), so the number of weekdays is not always 260. It is 262 in 2024, 261 in 2025 and 260 in 2028. Dividing a salary by 260 in one year and 261 in another changes the daily rate by about 0.4%.
For a day rate of a $52,000 salary, 52,000 ÷ 260 = $200.00 and 52,000 ÷ 261 = $199.23. The difference is small, but payroll rules may fix a standard divisor, so confirm which one your employer uses. Hours per month work the same way: 2,080 ÷ 12 = 173.33 on average, though any given month may contain more or fewer working hours.
Checking a pro rata offer
- Find the full-time hours the salary refers to, and your own weekly hours.
- Divide your hours by full-time hours to get FTE, and multiply the full-time salary by it.
- Check the hourly rate: pro rata pay ÷ (your weekly hours × 52) should equal the full-time hourly rate.
- Prorate leave by the same fraction and note how public holidays are treated.
- For a start or leaving date, ask whether months, calendar days or working days are used.
For comparing a part-time offer with an hourly one, see hourly versus salary pay. You can also use the percentage calculator to find a fraction of any amount.
This is general education, not employment, payroll or legal advice. Methods for proration and leave differ by employer and by country.
- Salary to Hourly Calculator: Enter what you earn, how often you are paid and how much time you really work, and the calculator returns the equivalent hourly, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly figures.
- Days Calculator: Use the days calculator to find how many days lie between two dates, or to add days to a date and see the result with its day of the week. Weekdays, weeks and months are reported too.
- Percentage Calculator: Pick the question you need answered, enter two numbers and get the result instantly. The guide below shows the formula behind each mode.
This article is general information, not professional advice. See our Disclaimer and Editorial Policy.
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