Pro-rata salary on a job advert: work out the actual offer

FTE means full-time equivalent: a reference salary for the role at its full-time hours. A job might quote “£30,000 FTE, 0.6 FTE”, “£30,000 pro rata” or an “actual salary” that already includes the reduction. The words need the hours and weeks beside them.

At 22.5 paid hours against a 37.5-hour full-time week, the fraction is 22.5 ÷ 37.5 = 0.6. £30,000 × 0.6 gives £18,000 annual gross. If spread over twelve equal payments, monthly gross is £1,500.

If the offer already says “actual salary £18,000 for 22.5 hours”, applying 0.6 again would give £10,800 incorrectly. Ask the employer to confirm the actual amount rather than deciding from the word “pro rata” alone.

Three of five equal-length days is the same 60% fraction. Three short days out of a five-day week may not be. Use the paid hours when the day lengths differ, and check whether breaks are paid.

Full-time is an employer or contract definition. It is not always 37.5 hours. Keep the actual reference hours in the calculation: 22.5/35 and 22.5/40 produce different results from 22.5/37.5.

The pro-rata calculator retains salary pence. For example, £32,000 × 22/37.5 gives £18,773.33 at penny precision. The exact arithmetic is a check of the entered method, not proof that every contractual allowance or pay element uses that same fraction.

A term-time role can have both an hours adjustment and a paid-weeks adjustment. School weeks worked are not automatically the paid weeks: holiday pay and other contractual terms matter.

The term-time guide's worked contract uses £31,200 FTE, 22.2/37 hours and 44 confirmed paid weeks out of a 52-week reference. It produces £15,840 actual annual gross, or £1,320 in twelve equal payments. The 44 weeks are an example contract term, not a national entitlement.

Some schemes use 52.143 or another stated divisor. Keep paid weeks and divisor from the same method. Do not apply a second holiday percentage to an annual amount that already includes holiday pay. Our regular-hours pro-rata result does not establish a term-time contract's paid-weeks entitlement.

Once the annual salary is settled, a first or last month may cover only some dates. Employers use different contractual methods. The same £36,000 actual annual salary and 14–30 September 2026 employment dates illustrate the difference:

Monday–Friday pattern, no unpaid leave

Method	Working	Gross
Calendar days in month	£3,000 × 17/30	£1,700
Working days in month	£3,000 × 13/22	£1,772.73
260-day working year	£36,000 × 13/260	£1,800

The part-month calculator lets you choose the employer-confirmed method, schedule and any specifically unpaid dates. It splits a cross-month range before applying monthly divisors. It does not decide which method your employer must use.

First calculate actual gross salary, then apply tax and deductions to that amount. Allowances, tax bands, pension bases and loan thresholds do not all shrink with your hours. Working 60% of full-time hours does not necessarily leave you with 60% of full-time net pay.

Use the main calculator with actual annual gross, your tax country, pension method and loan plan. An annual estimate is useful for planning, but exact PAYE can depend on earlier pay and tax. NI and loan deductions normally use pay-period rules.

Holiday also needs its own working-pattern calculation. Check holiday in days and hours rather than multiplying an unrelated full-time leave balance by a salary fraction.

Ask: “Please confirm the FTE reference salary and hours, my paid hours, actual annual gross salary, any worked/paid-weeks adjustment, holiday treatment and the number of salary instalments. Is the figure in the offer already reduced for this role?”

When pay arrives, compare the dates covered, paid hours and basic gross line first. A payroll cut-off can put some overtime or a late change into the following run. Then check the tax code, pension and loans using the first-payslip guide.

If two job offers have different hours, combine the confirmed actual salaries with travel costs and time in the offer comparison. A larger FTE label alone does not tell you which offer provides more usable income.