How is pro rata salary calculated in the UK?
"Pro rata" is Latin for "in proportion" — a pro rata salary is simply a full-time salary scaled to the proportion of full-time hours or days you actually work. The standard UK formula is pro rata salary = full-time salary × (your hours or days ÷ full-time hours or days). Most UK employers use a 5-day, 37.5-hour week as the full-time baseline, though some sectors (manufacturing, hospitality, some public-sector roles) use a 40-hour week. Holiday entitlement, sick pay, and pension contributions also scale pro rata — a three-day-per-week worker gets three-fifths of statutory holiday and three-fifths of any employer pension match. Some benefits don't scale: a company car, private medical insurance, or fixed annual stipend usually remains a flat benefit regardless of hours. If you're a contractor working part-time, see our IR35 inside vs outside calculator for the contractor-specific version.
Term-time only contracts and pro rata pay
Term-time workers — mostly in schools and educational support — typically work 39 weeks plus their statutory paid holiday entitlement. The standard pro-rata formula for term-time roles is (term weeks + paid holiday weeks) ÷ 52, multiplied by the full-time-equivalent salary. Statutory minimum holiday for term-time staff is usually 6.6 weeks: 5.6 weeks statutory minimum × (39/52) plus the same multiplier applied to the eight English bank holidays, rounded. Different employers use different methodologies — some pay over 52 weeks (averaging the term-time figure across the year), others pay only during the 45.6 working+holiday weeks. Always check your contract: this pro-rata model gives the gross annual salary, but how it's spread across pay periods is a separate decision.
Pro rata vs hourly rate — what's the difference?
Pro rata is a salary expressed as a proportion of the full-time annual figure; hourly rate is pay per hour worked. Both can describe the same role from different angles. Pro rata is more common in salaried and professional roles where the working pattern is fixed; hourly rate is more common in shift-based or zero-hours roles where hours vary week to week. The two figures are mathematically equivalent if you assume a fixed working pattern. Use our salary-to-hourly calculator to convert between annual and hourly figures.