Prorated Salary Calculator

Take a $60,000 salary paid monthly ($5,000.00 a month) and an employee who starts on Thursday, October 15, 2026. October has 31 calendar days and 22 weekdays, one of them Columbus Day (October 12). The employee is on the payroll for 17 calendar days and 12 weekdays.

Calendar daysdivide the period's pay by every day in it, so weekends count. It is simple and the daily value changes with the length of the month. Working days count Monday to Friday, which matches a normal salaried schedule; each day is worth more in a month with fewer weekdays. Hours worked uses an annual hourly equivalent (salary ÷ 2,080 for a 40-hour week, or salary ÷ 260 per day), so a day is worth the same all year. The spread here is $129.87 between the lowest and highest result, which is why the method belongs in your written pay policy.

Exempt status depends on paying a predetermined salary that does not drop because of the quality or quantity of work. Under 29 CFR 541.602(a)(1), an exempt employee must receive the full salary for any week in which they perform any work, regardless of the number of days or hours worked, and no deduction is allowed when the employer has no work available. The exceptions in 541.602(b) are narrow:

• The first and last week of employment: pay a proportionate part of the salary for the time actually worked, as an hourly or daily equivalent (b)(6).
• Full-day absences for personal reasons other than sickness or disability (b)(1).
• Full-day absences for sickness or disability under a bona fide plan, such as before benefits start or after they run out (b)(2).
• Offsets for jury fees, witness fees or military pay received for the week (b)(3).
• Penalties for violating safety rules of major significance (b)(4).
• Unpaid disciplinary suspensions of one or more full days under a written policy (b)(5).
• Unpaid FMLA leave, where even partial days may be deducted (b)(7).

A half-day personal absence cannot be deducted, except under the FMLA. Deductions may use the hourly or daily equivalent of the weekly salary or any other amount proportional to the time missed (541.602(c)). Non-exempt salaried employees are a different case: they must be paid at least minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime above 40 hours in a workweek.

Split the period at the effective date and prorate each part at its own salary, with the same method for both. A raise from $60,000 to $72,000 effective Friday, October 16, 2026 on a monthly payroll:

• Working days: October 1 to 15 has 11, October 16 to 31 has 11. $5,000 × 11 ÷ 22 + $6,000 × 11 ÷ 22 = $5,500.00.
• Calendar days: 15 and 16 days. $5,000 × 15 ÷ 31 + $6,000 × 16 ÷ 31 = $5,516.13.

If the raise is approved after payroll runs, the difference is paid later as retroactive pay, which IRS Publication 15 treats as supplemental wages. The pay raise calculator shows what the new salary means per paycheck.

Federal law sets no deadline for a final paycheck. The U.S. Department of Labor says employers are not required by federal law to pay former employees immediately, and that some states require it. California is the strictest common example: a discharged employee must be paid all wages, including accrued vacation, at the time of termination (Labor Code 201), and an employee who quits without 72 hours' notice must be paid within 72 hours (Labor Code 202). Many other states allow the next regular payday.

Find your state's rule through the DOL's table of state labor departments before the employee's last day. Prorate the final period with the same method you use for new hires, and add any accrued PTO your state or policy requires you to pay out; the PTO accrual calculator gives the balance.

The methods give different answers for the same dates, and none of them is the legally required one for private employers. What matters is that the pay policy names the method and payroll applies it to everyone, every time. A few choices to settle in writing:

• Calendar days, working days or hours, and the annual hours used (2,080 for a 40-hour week).
• Whether paid holidays inside the dates count as days paid.
• Whether the daily or hourly rate is rounded before multiplying. Rounding first can move the result by a few cents: $60,000 ÷ 2,080 rounded to $28.85 × 24 hours is $692.40, against $692.31 at full precision.
• How to handle years with an extra payday. Depending on the weekday of payday, some years have 27 biweekly or 53 weekly paydays; dividing the salary by 26 or 52 in those years pays slightly more than the annual figure.

Run the prorated gross through the paycheck calculator to see withholding and take-home pay.