Payroll & contractors
Prorated Salary Calculator for a Partial Pay Period
Work out pay for a partial period when someone starts or leaves mid-month, and see how much the calendar-day and working-day methods disagree.
| Full period pay | $6,000.00 |
|---|---|
| Calendar-day method17 of 30 days | $3,400.00 |
| Working-day method13 of 22 weekdays | $3,545.45 |
| Difference · Working days pays more | $145.45 |
No single method is legally mandated, but pick one and apply it consistently. Choosing whichever is cheaper for each individual employee is how proration turns into a discrimination claim.
Details people get wrong
- Calendar days or working days?
- There is no single legally mandated method, and the two disagree — often by hundreds of dollars for the same person and the same dates. The calendar-day method divides by every day in the period; the working-day method divides by scheduled workdays only. Whichever you choose, apply it consistently, because using whichever is cheaper per employee is where discrimination claims start.
- Why do the two methods differ so much?
- Because weekends are distributed unevenly. Starting on the 1st of a month that begins on a Saturday means the first two calendar days are unworked, so the calendar method pays for them and the working-day method does not. The gap is largest for short partial periods.
- Can I dock an exempt employee for a partial day?
- Generally no. Exempt employees must receive their full salary for any week in which they perform work, with limited exceptions. Proration is normally appropriate only for the first and last weeks of employment, not for partial days in between — improper deductions can jeopardise the exemption entirely.