Work hours & pay
Daily rate calculator
Turn a yearly salary into a day rate, or a day rate into a yearly figure, from the days you work in a year.
A typical full-time year is about 230 working days after weekends, public holidays and paid leave.
How a daily rate is worked out
A daily rate is a salary spread over the days you are actually available to work, not the 365 days on the calendar. The formula is simply day rate = annual salary ÷ working days per year. Reverse the direction and it becomes annual = day rate × working days. Choosing the right number of days is the part people get wrong: start from 260 weekdays, then subtract public holidays and paid annual leave to land near 230 for a standard full-time job.
Take a £60,000 salary over 230 working days. Dividing gives £260.87 a day. That same figure covers a five-day week of £1,304.35 and a monthly salary of £5,000. If instead you know your day rate is £260.87 and want the yearly equivalent, multiplying by 230 returns £60,000.
| Annual salary | Working days | Day rate |
|---|---|---|
| £30,000 | 230 | £130.43 |
| £45,000 | 230 | £195.65 |
| £60,000 | 230 | £260.87 |
| £75,000 | 230 | £326.09 |
| £100,000 | 230 | £434.78 |
Choosing the right day count
The fewer days you divide by, the higher the day rate, so be honest about availability. A permanent employee is usually paid for holidays and sick days, so dividing a salary by 260 understates the true cost of a day. A contractor who is not paid for time off should divide by the days they can actually invoice, often 220 to 230 after four to five weeks of unpaid leave and bank holidays.
This calculator compares like with like: a salary converted to a day rate here is the pay only, before employer pension, national insurance or benefits. When a contractor compares a day rate against a permanent salary, those extras typically add another 20 to 30 per cent on top, which is why contract day rates look higher than a simple division suggests. Use the day rate for budgeting and quotes, but add the on-costs separately when you compare a contract offer with a staff job. A quick sense check helps: a $260 day rate on 230 days is $60,000, so if a client quotes $300 a day the implied annual equivalent is $69,000 before you adjust for the benefits a permanent role would include. Keeping the day count and the on-costs explicit stops you from quietly underselling a day of your time.
Frequently asked questions
How many working days are in a year?
There are about 260 weekdays in a year. After roughly eight public holidays and four to five weeks of annual leave, a full-time employee works close to 230 days, which is the default here.
Is a day rate the same as a daily salary?
The number is the same, but a contractor day rate usually has to cover time off, pension and sick pay that a salary includes separately, so it should be set higher than a straight salary division.
Should I divide my salary by 365?
No. Divide by the days you actually work, not calendar days. Dividing by 365 would count weekends and holidays and give a day rate far below what one working day is really worth.