Days Off Calculator

The days off calculator estimates annual paid leave from a country benchmark, contract type, weekly hours, and any extra company days. It follows the current calculation exactly. The calculator chooses a full-time benchmark from the selected country, applies a proration factor based on contract type, adds extra company days, then converts the paid days into paid hours, weeks off at your schedule, and a share of a 260-workday year.

This page is about scheduling math, not legal advice. Paid time off rules depend on country, contract, employment status, tenure, public holidays, collective agreements, and company policy. The calculator’s value is that it makes the arithmetic transparent, especially when part-time work or employer-provided extra days make a headline annual leave figure hard to interpret.

Benchmarks used by the calculator

the calculation offers four country choices. United States uses a 10-day common employer-practice benchmark. United Kingdom uses a 28-day statutory full-time entitlement benchmark. Poland under 10 years service uses 20 days. Poland 10+ years service uses 26 days. These are the exact benchmark values in the calculation: 10, 28, 20, and 26.

The contract choice changes the proration factor. A full-time employee receives a factor of 1. A part-time employee receives weekly hours divided by 40, capped at 1. A contract worker or freelancer / self-employed receives a factor of 0 unless extra company days are entered. Extra company days are added after proration for every contract type.

Formula

For part-time employees:

$\text{proration factor} = \min\left(\frac{\text{hours per week}}{40}, 1\right)$

For full-time employees:

$\text{proration factor} = 1$

For contract workers and freelancers:

$\text{proration factor} = 0$

Paid days off are:

$\text{paid days off} = \text{full-time benchmark} \times \text{proration factor} + \text{extra company days}$

The calculator then converts days to hours:

$\text{paid hours} = \text{paid days off} \times 8$

Weeks off at your schedule are:

$\text{weeks off} = \frac{\text{paid hours}}{\text{weekly hours used for weeks}}$

For part-time workers, weekly hours used for weeks equals the part-time hours entered. For everyone else, it equals 40. The share of a standard work year is:

$\text{share of 260 workdays} = \frac{\text{paid days off}}{260} \times 100\%$

Checking a days off scenario

Use the default visible setup for a part-time example: United States, part-time employee, 20 hours per week, and 0 extra company days. The U.S. benchmark is 10 days.

$\text{proration factor} = \frac{20}{40} = 0.5 = 50\%$

$\text{paid days off} = 10 \times 0.5 + 0 = 5$

$\text{paid hours} = 5 \times 8 = 40$

$\text{weeks off} = \frac{40}{20} = 2.0$

$\text{share of 260 workdays} = \frac{5}{260} \times 100\% = 1.92\%$

The result panel would show Estimated annual paid leave: 5 days, Full-time benchmark: 10 days, Proration factor: 50%, Paid hours equivalent: 40 hr, Share of 260 workdays: 1.92%, and Weeks off at your schedule: 2.0 weeks. The note would describe the United States common employer-practice benchmark and remind users that contracts and company policies can be more generous or more restrictive.

For a United Kingdom full-time employee with no extra days, the factor is 1, paid days are 28, paid hours are 224, weeks off at a 40-hour schedule are 5.6, and the share of 260 workdays is 10.77%.

How to use the estimate

Employees can use the result to translate a policy into practical scheduling. Five paid days might sound small, but for a 20-hour-per-week worker the calculator expresses it as 40 paid hours, or about two weeks off at that schedule. Employers can use the same math to explain prorated leave consistently across full-time and part-time staff.

This calculator is also useful for workforce budgeting. Paid leave affects coverage, overtime, and the number of productive hours available. Pair it with the labor cost calculator to see how paid absent days affect actual hourly cost, the man-hours calculator to plan replacement coverage, and the salary calculator to understand compensation during paid time away. If time away is injury-related rather than regular leave, compare safety metrics with the DART rate calculator.

Assumptions and limitations

The paid-hours conversion always uses 8 hours per paid day. That is a simplifying assumption in the current calculator. A nurse on 12-hour shifts, a retail worker on 6-hour shifts, or a compressed-week employee may need a separate employer-specific conversion. The weeks-off calculation then divides those paid hours by weekly hours for part-time workers or by 40 for other contract types.

The United States option is a benchmark, not a federal requirement. The United Kingdom and Poland options are simplified benchmarks and do not capture every statutory detail, holiday interaction, carryover rule, tenure calculation, or employment category. Contracts and freelancers show zero by default because paid time away is usually priced into the contract or negotiated separately. If your agreement includes paid days, enter them as extra company days so the calculator reflects the agreement.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Labor, Vacation leave — federal context for vacation leave in the United States.
• GOV.UK, Holiday entitlement — United Kingdom holiday entitlement guidance.
• Gov.pl, Holiday leave — Polish government information on annual leave.