How Many Workdays in a Year? 

Working days are the days of the week on which employees work. Understanding the number of workdays in a year is essential to calculate both compensation and its breakdown. That’s true whether you’re an hourly employee who needs to calculate the annual wage based on the days worked or a salaried employee trying to understand the breakdown of your yearly salary.

However, the number of working days each year is subject to change, and several factors contribute to the fluctuation in this number. So, read our comprehensive blog to thoroughly understand the number of workdays in a year, what factors influence this number to change each year and how you can calculate this number.

How Many Workdays in a Year?

The average number of workdays in any year is between 249 and 251 after excluding holidays and weekends, if you consider a traditional 5-day workweek. However, this variation depends on the number of weekends occurring in any year and whether that year is a leap year.

To calculate the total workdays in any particular year, you first need to figure out the total number of days in that year. Then deduct the number of weekends, federal holidays, and vacation days from that total number of days. 

Here’s the formula to calculate the total number of workdays in a year:

Calculating the Workdays in a Year: Factors to Consider

Several factors influence the number of workdays in a year. If you are an employer, HR professional, contractor, freelancer, or gig worker, here are a few ones that you can consider looking into:

Weekends

Most businesses follow a 5-day workweek schedule and keep Saturdays and Sundays off. Thus, the calculation must account for the total number of Saturdays and Sundays in any year.

However, suppose you have a non-traditional workweek, such as a four-day workweek, six-day workweek or rotating shifts. Then such aspects need to be worked on separately as per the number of days off provided. 

Paid Time Off

As per the employee-employer agreement, employees are entitled to certain paid time offs, including sick days, vacation days, or emergency leaves. The number of paid time offs impacts the workdays in any year. When calculating the total number of workdays, employers need to deduct the number of paid time offs that employees are entitled to, even though these are paid.

Work Schedules

Gone are the days when the traditional Monday to Friday and 9 to 5 schedule used to be the only norm. Today, many employers provide flexible work schedules to their employees to restore their work-life balance and improve their productivity. These work schedules should also be considered when calculating the total workdays. 

Here are a few examples of non-traditional work schedules:   

Compressed Workweek

In this schedule, employees work the same number of hours each week as they are supposed to, but the total workweek hours are squeezed into fewer workdays. 4/10 and 9/80 are the most common examples of such work schedules.

Shift Work

Many industries use roster scheduling and shift work to ensure 24X7 coverage. Such schedules may include the day, evening, and graveyard shifts, and the length of each shift can differ based on the organization’s needs. 

Federal Holidays

Whether it’s a public holiday, religious holiday, or bank holiday, all federal holidays need to be accounted for in the calculation of workdays. Also, most holidays are fixed and fall on the same date each year. However, the dates for a few holidays may change from year to year.  

Here’s the latest list of the federal holidays in the USA, as per the US government’s website. 

In addition to these holidays, there’s provision for another holiday, Inauguration Day, which occurs every four years on January 20 after the presidential election. 

If one of these holidays falls on a Saturday, the preceding Friday is treated as a holiday. Whereas if one of these holidays falls on a Sunday, then the immediate next business day, i.e. Monday is treated as a holiday for leave purposes. 

Note: Federal employees are generally entitled to paid time off for federal holidays, which is 11 paid days off per year. However, the number of paid days off given to private employees may differ, as stated in the employer-employee agreement. Also, the standard workweek varies based on the industry and time offs as per the federal & local regulations. So, you also need to take that into account. 

Example of Workdays Calculator

Calculating the total number of workdays in a year can feel overwhelming, especially when considering weekends, holidays, and vacation days. To simplify the process, here’s a straightforward example of how to break it down based on the formula that we had shared earlier and the factors we have discussed above: 

Note: Keep in mind that this is just a general calculation of workdays in a year based on standard work weeks and Federal holidays.  

Significance of Calculating the Total Number of Workdays in a Year 

For Employees 

Helps Calculate Annual Income 

Hourly workers are compensated based on the number of hours they work each day. Understanding the number of workdays in a year can help them get a better picture of their annual compensation and plan their finances better. 

Hourly employees: Those who earn wages based on the hours worked can use the total number of workdays to calculate their annual compensation. 

Salaried employees: Employees with fixed salaries can use the concept of working days to understand the breakdown of their pay package per annum. 

Thus, correctly understanding employees’ earnings each month and year will help them make an effective budget and a realistic savings plan. It can also help them assess whether they can apply for loans.

Plan Vacation Days

Clarifying the total workdays and the weekends in any upcoming year helps employees plan their vacation dates accordingly. By ascertaining when they’ll have weekends and holidays, they can preplan their vacations to get the most of their time off and choose the dates that best suit their needs. 

In fact, knowing the workdays can help them better manage personal commitments, family time and other non-work-related activities.

Helps Calculate Overtime Earnings

If the employee is required to frequently work overtime, they’ll most likely work overtime every other day. Knowing the total workdays in a year helps them calculate the amount of money they can earn in a year based on the overtime rate.

For Employers 

Create Timelines and Schedule Important Events 

Businesses need to set timelines and deadlines for client projects, important deliverables, and other important business events. By knowing the number of workdays in a year, project managers can set accurate project timelines, ensure timely delivery and stay on top of important deliverables. 

Set Targets and Milestones 

Knowing the number of workdays a year, managers and employers can set realistic annual targets. Moreover, they can manage workloads for their employees and assess their productivity levels accordingly. 

Understand the Cash Flow 

Accounting professionals need to ensure that businesses have adequate cash flow, that is, how much money is moving in and out of business. With this insight, they can gauge the company’s financial health and whether they can manage monthly payroll and other operating costs easily. Accurately calculating the number of workweeks in a year helps accounting managers ensure that the company accounts have enough cash flow to keep up with the payroll schedule. 

Bottom Line 

The idea of the number of working days in a year helps employees calculate their annual compensation, understand the breakdown of their yearly package, and plan their budget. On the other hand, it helps employers schedule year-wise targets, examine cash flow, and calculate accurate payroll for their hourly employees. While this number of total workdays may change from one year to the next, with the calculation explained above, you can easily find out how to calculate the workdays in any year. 

Also, if you are an employer, who needs to keep track of the total number of workdays in a year, as well as the number of days employees worked out of those days, you can leverage any efficient time and attendance software, such as Deltek | Replicon. It captures the total number of hours and days employees worked along with the overtime hours to streamline the payroll processing and understand the productivity trends of employees.