Pro-Rata Leave
Also known as: pro rata holiday, prorated leave
Pro-rata leave is entitlement scaled to the proportion of the year worked or hours contracted — used for part-timers and mid-year joiners.
Pro-rata leave is annual-leave entitlement adjusted in proportion to how much of the leave year an employee works or the hours they're contracted for. A part-time employee working three days a week, or a full-timer who joins in July, receives a fraction of the full allowance rather than the whole thing.
Pro-rating keeps entitlement fair and is one of the most error-prone calculations to do by hand, because it combines start dates, contracted hours, and rounding rules.
Formula
Pro-rated days = annual entitlement × (months remaining in leave year ÷ 12), or × (days worked ÷ days in leave year) for precision.
Example
A full-time allowance is 24 days. Someone joining on 1 July (6 months left) gets 24 × 6/12 = 12 days for the remainder of the leave year.
Frequently asked questions
- How do you calculate pro-rata holiday for a part-time worker?
- Multiply the full-time entitlement by the employee's contracted hours divided by full-time hours. For 25 days full-time and someone working 3 of 5 days: 25 × 3/5 = 15 days. Try our free annual-leave calculator to do it instantly.
Related terms
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