Calculating Vacation Pay: A Simple Guide

Depending on your employer's policies, you might see your vacation pay shown separately on your pay stub. Your vacation pay is generally going to be at the same rate as your regular pay, so calculating it uses the same process as a regular payroll calculation. If for some reason the pay is at a different rate, you will need to get that rate before beginning the calculation process.

Step 1

Determine your hourly wage rate (if you don't know it) by dividing your annual salary by the number of work hours in your work year. A 40-hour workweek yields 2,080 work hours annually; a 35-hour workweek has 1,820 hours. For a $40,000 salary and a 40-hour workweek, the hourly wage comes to $19.23.

Step 2

Determine your vacation time by either adding up the days off you are awarded or that you take off and multiplying that number by the number of hours in your regular workday. Some employers award vacation time in hours instead of days, in which case you can just use that number.

Step 3

Multiply your hourly wage (or your vacation wage, if it differs from your hourly wage) by the number of vacation hours. For example, an hourly wage of $19.23 multiplied by 80 hours of vacation time yields $1,538.40 in vacation pay.