Pro-Rata Holiday Calculator

The term “pro-rata” comes from the Latin word for ‘proportional’. It’s about distributing something evenly, depending on how much effort a person puts in. So, to put it simply, pro-rata in terms of holiday entitlement means that figures are calculated from what you would have accrued if you were working full time but reduced to be proportional to the number of hours you actually worked. The proportion of holiday will depend on how much an employee works, relative to a full-time employee. For example, if they work half as much, they are entitled to half as much holiday.

A pro-rata holiday calculator is any tool that allows a part-time worker to calculate their holiday entitlement. It often takes the form of a piece of computer software that asks the user a few questions before working out the amount of leave they should receive. Many holiday calculators are found online built into websites while others can be downloaded to a PC or other electronic device.

Many full-time workers work the same fixed shifts/hours every week. This makes working out holiday entitlement easy. For most full-time staff this is simply 5.6 weeks leave and equates to 28 days.

Pro-rata workers, on the other hand, often work varying shift patterns and hours. This makes working out leave entitlement difficult, although the final calculation will still leave the employee with the equivalent of 5.6 weeks leave.

To calculate pro-rata holiday entitlement for part-time employees who work the same number of hours each day, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Work out what proportion of a full-time working week they work
2. Multiply this by the amount of holiday a full-time employee is entitled to.

For example, if a part-time employee works 3 days a week this equates to 3/5ths of a full 5-day working week. This means they’re entitled to 3/5ths of the amount of holiday a full-time employee receives. Assuming the employer offers the statutory minimum paid holiday 5.6 weeks (or 28 days) your part-time employee would be entitled to 3/5ths of 28 days, which is 16.8. While you can’t round down holiday entitlement, an employer may wish to round up to the closest full or half-day.

If an employee works days of varying lengths, holiday entitlement is often calculated in hours. This prevents issues with miscalculations and makes managing leave easier.

For these types of employees, you work out leave entitlement by multiplying the number of hours an employee works in a week by the number of weeks of holiday they are entitled to.

For example, an employee who works 22 hours per week over differing shift patterns would receive 5.6 weeks holiday multiplied by 22 hours which equates to 123.2 hours holiday per year.

Obviously, these calculations can become tricky quite quickly. This is why many employers and employees opt to use a pro-rata holiday calculator to make the job easier.

This will often depend on the calculator used, but will generally include the following:
1. Number of hours worked. This is often over a specific time period, usually a year or month. This will allow the calculator to work out the number of hours holiday entitlement the employee should receive.
2. Any shift patterns the employee works. If the employee works specific shift pattern, the holiday calculator may ask what these shift patterns are.
3. Overtime the employee works. Overtime can be used to contribute to holiday pay.

There are many benefits to using a pro-rata leave calculator. These include:
1. Ease of use. Most pro-rata holiday calculators guide users through the process of calculating leave.
2. Quick calculations. A leave calculator often gives leave calculations in seconds.
3. Fewer errors. Holiday calculators are rarely wrong with their calculations.