Whether you’re negotiating a contract, checking an agency quote, or working out what a day of annual leave is worth, knowing your daily rate is one of the most practical numbers a part-time worker can have. The pro rata daily rate turns your annual or monthly salary into a per-day figure — and once you have it, all sorts of pay questions become much easier to answer.
This guide explains how to derive your daily rate from any salary figure, which divisor to use, and how part-time patterns affect the calculation.
What Is a Daily Rate?
Your daily rate is simply what you earn for one standard working day. For a full-time employee on £30,000 a year, the daily rate is roughly £115. For a part-time worker on a pro rata salary of £18,000, it’s roughly £69 — but only if the divisor reflects their actual working pattern, which is where people often go wrong.
Daily rates matter more than most people realise. They’re used to calculate:
- Pay for additional days worked beyond your normal pattern
- Deductions for unpaid leave or strike days
- The value of a day’s annual leave when you’re paid in lieu
- Agency and contractor day-rate comparisons
- Settlement figures when employment ends mid-pay-period
The Standard Formula
For a full-time employee, the conventional UK calculation is:
Daily rate = Annual gross salary ÷ 260
The divisor of 260 comes from 52 weeks × 5 working days. It excludes weekends and treats bank holidays as paid days within the salary (they’re part of the 260, not deducted from it). This is the figure most UK payroll departments use, and it’s the one employment tribunals tend to recognise.
A Worked Example
Tom works full-time as a warehouse supervisor on £27,300 a year. His daily rate is:
£27,300 ÷ 260 = £105 per day
When Tom takes two days of unpaid leave in March, payroll deducts 2 × £105 = £210 from his monthly pay. When he works an extra Saturday (outside his normal pattern) at his standard rate, he’s paid an additional £105. One number, used both ways — which is exactly how it should be.
Daily Rates for Part-Time Workers: The Pro Rata Wrinkle
Here’s where it gets interesting. A part-time worker’s daily rate should reflect what they earn per day they work — not a full-timer’s day scaled down by days they don’t work.
There are two approaches people try, and it’s worth knowing which one is correct — because the wrong one is an extremely common mistake:
Method 1 (correct): Pro rata salary ÷ your actual working days per year. If you work 3 days a week, you work 156 days a year (3 × 52). Divide your annual pro rata salary by 156.
Method 2 (the trap): Full-time daily rate × your FTE fraction. This looks sensible but gives the wrong answer, as the example below shows. The FTE fraction applies to the annual salary, not the daily rate, when working days are full-length.
Worked Example: Three Days a Week
Aisha works three days a week (0.6 FTE) as a dental receptionist. The full-time salary for her role is £24,000.
Her annual pro rata salary: £24,000 × 0.6 = £14,400
Method 1: £14,400 ÷ 156 working days = £92.31 per day. ✓
Method 2 (wrong): (£24,000 ÷ 260) × 0.6 = £92.31 × 0.6 = £55.38 per day. ✗
The £55.38 figure is the classic error. Aisha’s working days are the same length as a full-timer’s days — she works full days, just fewer of them. So her daily rate is £92.31, identical to a full-time colleague’s. The pro rata reduction shows up in how many days she works per year (156 instead of 260), not in what each day pays.
Check it backwards: £92.31 × 156 days = £14,400 — exactly her annual pro rata salary. The £55.38 figure would imply annual earnings of just £8,638, which is plainly wrong. If an employer ever quotes you a daily rate derived by multiplying the full-time daily rate by your FTE fraction, push back: unless your days are shorter, your daily rate equals the full-time daily rate.
When Days Are Shorter: True Hourly Pro Rata
The picture changes if you work shorter days rather than fewer days. Consider Ben, who works 5 hours a day, five days a week, where full-time is 7.5 hours a day. His pattern is 0.67 FTE by hours.
Here the honest calculation runs through the hourly rate:
- Full-time salary £26,000, full-time hours 37.5/week
- Hourly rate: £26,000 ÷ (37.5 × 52) = £13.33 per hour
- Ben’s daily rate: £13.33 × 5 hours = £66.67 per day
- Full-timer’s daily rate: £13.33 × 7.5 = £100 per day
Ben’s daily rate (£66.67) is lower than the full-timer’s (£100) because his days are shorter. Annual check: £66.67 × 260 days = £17,333, which matches £26,000 × 0.67 = £17,333 (allowing for rounding). The maths holds together whichever route you take, as long as you’re consistent about what a “day” means.
Daily Rate Conversion Table
The table below shows daily rates for common full-time salaries using the standard 260-day divisor. Part-time workers on full-length days use the same daily rate as the full-time figure for their role’s salary band.
| Full-time annual salary | Daily rate (÷ 260) |
|---|---|
| £20,000 | £76.92 |
| £22,500 | £86.54 |
| £25,000 | £96.15 |
| £27,500 | £105.77 |
| £30,000 | £115.38 |
| £35,000 | £134.62 |
| £40,000 | £153.85 |
| £45,000 | £173.08 |
| £50,000 | £192.31 |
If your days are shorter than full-time, multiply the table figure by your daily hours fraction. A six-hour day against a 7.5-hour full-time day uses a 0.8 fraction: £115.38 × 0.8 = £92.30 per day on a £30,000 full-time salary.
For an instant answer without the manual arithmetic, our free pro rata salary calculator converts your salary into daily, weekly, monthly, and hourly figures in one go.
Which Divisor Should You Use? 260, 261, or 262?
You’ll occasionally see employers use 261 or 262 instead of 260. These come from dividing 365 days by 7 (52.14 weeks × 5 days = 260.7, rounded variously). In practice:
- 260 is the standard and most widely recognised
- 261 sometimes appears in public sector calculations
- 262 is rare but exists
The difference is tiny — on a £30,000 salary, 260 gives £115.38 while 261 gives £114.94, a 44p difference per day. What matters far more is that your employer uses the same divisor for additions (extra days paid) and deductions (unpaid leave). If they pay extra days at ÷260 but deduct leave at ÷220, that’s worth challenging — the divisor should be symmetrical.
Using Your Daily Rate in Practice
Checking Agency or Contractor Quotes
Agencies often quote day rates. To compare a £120/day agency offer with a permanent part-time role, annualise it: £120 × your working days per year. For a three-day week: £120 × 156 = £18,720. But remember the agency figure has no holiday pay, sick pay, or pension built in — the permanent role’s true value is higher than the raw salary suggests.
Unpaid Leave Deductions
If your contract allows unpaid leave, each day is typically deducted at your daily rate. Knowing the figure in advance means no surprises on your payslip. For salaried staff, the deduction should equal what an extra day would pay — ask payroll which divisor they use if the numbers look off.
Payment in Lieu of Notice or Holiday
When employment ends, untaken holiday is usually paid at the daily rate. If you’re leaving a part-time role with 4 days of holiday owing and your daily rate is £92.31, you’re due £369.23. Having calculated this yourself beforehand means you can check the final payslip with confidence.
Other date-based calculations: joining mid-month · leaving mid-month · partial month · start and end dates · days worked · starting mid-year · notice pay · redundancy pay
Frequently Asked Questions
Is my daily rate lower because I work part-time?
Not if you work full-length days. A part-timer working three full days a week has the same daily rate as a full-time colleague on the same salary band — the pro rata reduction applies to the number of days worked per year, not the value of each day. Your daily rate is only lower if your working days are shorter than full-time days.
Should bank holidays be deducted from the 260 days?
No. The 260-day divisor already treats bank holidays as paid days within your salary. They’re part of the deal, not extra. Only deduct them if your contract specifically says bank holidays are unpaid and handled separately — which is unusual for salaried roles.
My employer uses 365 days as the divisor — is that right?
Using 365 (calendar days) instead of 260 (working days) dramatically lowers the daily rate and is not standard practice for salaried employees. It can be legitimate for casual or zero-hours arrangements paid by the day, but for a salaried part-time role, challenge it — the convention is working days, not calendar days.
How do I work out my daily rate from an hourly wage?
Multiply your hourly rate by the number of hours in your working day. At £13.50 an hour over a 7.5-hour day, your daily rate is £101.25. This is the most reliable method when your hours don’t fit neat full-time/part-time patterns.
Work Out Your Numbers in Seconds
Daily rates are simple once you know which divisor applies and whether your days are full-length or shortened. If you’d rather not do the division yourself — or you want to sanity-check a figure your employer has given you — try our free pro rata salary calculator. Enter your salary and working pattern and it breaks everything down into annual, monthly, weekly, daily, and hourly figures instantly.