What Is a Prorated Salary?
A prorated salary is the part of a full salary you actually earn when you work less than the complete pay period. Proration is common when an employee starts or leaves partway through a month, takes unpaid leave, switches from part-time to full-time, or has a salary change mid-cycle. Instead of paying the whole agreed amount, the employer scales it down by the fraction of the period that was worked.
How to Use This Calculator
Enter three values: your annual salary (the full agreed yearly amount, or the amount for the period you are prorating), the number of days worked in the period, and the total days in the period. The calculator multiplies the salary by the ratio of days worked to total days and shows the prorated figure plus the percentage of the period worked.
The Formula Explained
The math is a simple proportion:
$$\text{Prorated Salary} = \text{Annual Salary} \times \frac{\text{Days Worked}}{\text{Total Days}}$$
The fraction \(\frac{\text{Days Worked}}{\text{Total Days}}\) represents how much of the period was completed. Multiplying the salary by that fraction gives the proportional pay. You can use any consistent "period": a full year (use 365 days), a month (use 30 or the calendar days in that month), or a specific pay cycle.
Worked Example
Suppose your annual salary is $60,000 and you started a new job on the 16th of a 30-day month, working 15 of the 30 days. The fraction is \(\frac{15}{30} = 0.5\), so the prorated pay for that period is $$60{,}000 \times 0.5 = \$30{,}000$$ if proration is against the annual figure — or, if you set the salary field to the monthly amount, \(\$2{,}500 \times 0.5 = \$1{,}250\) monthly. Always make sure the salary figure and the period match.
FAQ
Should I use 365 days or working days? Either works as long as days worked and total days use the same basis. For calendar proration use 365 (or month length); for business-day proration count only working days in both fields.
Does this include taxes? No. The result is gross prorated salary before any tax, benefits, or deductions.
Can total days be a full year? Yes. Put 365 as the total and the number of calendar days you worked to prorate an annual salary directly.
