A term time only salary is not the full-time rate with a few weeks knocked off. It is the full-time rate multiplied by the weeks you are actually paid for, and the weeks you are paid for are the weeks you work PLUS your paid holiday. On the statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks, a 39-week contract is paid for 44.6 weeks of the year, which is 0.85534 of a full year: a £24,000 full-time salary becomes £20,528.16, and after Income Tax and National Insurance for 2026/27 that keeps £18,299.88, or £1,524.99 a month spread over twelve pay dates.
The fraction, and why holiday is inside it
The arithmetic is (weeks worked + holiday entitlement) divided by 52.143, because a year is 52.143 weeks and not 52. A term time only worker on 39 weeks with the statutory 5.6 weeks of paid leave is paid for 44.6 of those, so the fraction is 0.85534. Leave the holiday out and you get 39 divided by 52.143, or 0.74794, and a contract written that way is paying you for no holiday at all, which is not lawful. GOV.UK puts the floor plainly: workers are entitled to at least 28 days' paid annual leave a year, the equivalent of 5.6 weeks, capped at 28 days however many days a week you work. Some school and council contracts are more generous than the floor and count 6 or 7 weeks; read the number in your own contract before you trust any calculator, including this one.
The same contract at the common week counts
On a £24,000 full-time salary and the statutory 5.6 weeks: a 38-week contract pays £20,067.89 gross and £17,968.48 after tax and NI; 39 weeks pays £20,528.16 and £18,299.88; 40 weeks pays £20,988.44; 41 weeks pays £21,448.71; and a 44-week contract pays £22,829.53 gross, £19,956.86 net. One week of term is worth about £460 gross and about £332 in your pocket at this salary, which is the number to hold in your head when a school offers to add an INSET week or two. On a £30,000 full-time salary the same 39-week contract pays £25,660.20 gross and £21,994.94 net.
Part-time hours as well as term-time weeks
Many term time only contracts are also part-time, and the two fractions multiply rather than add. A teaching assistant on a £24,000 full-time equivalent working 30 hours against a 37.5-hour week and 39 weeks of the year is paid 0.8 of 0.85534, which is 0.68427: £16,422.53 gross. Apply the hours fraction first or the weeks fraction first and you get the same figure, but apply only one of them and you are out by thousands. If your contract states an annual salary already described as 'actual' or 'pro rata', the fractions have been applied for you and you should not apply them again.
Why your monthly pay does not look like a twelfth of term
Almost every term time only contract pays the annual figure in twelve equal monthly instalments, so you are paid in August even though you did not work in August: the pay for the weeks you do work has been spread across the year. That is why your payslip does not change between term and holiday, and why leaving part-way through a year can produce an unexpected adjustment in the final pay run. It also means the tax is right: PAYE assumes twelve even payments and gives you a twelfth of the Personal Allowance each month, so a smooth salary is taxed smoothly.
What changed for irregular-hours and part-year workers
If you are a genuine part-year worker with no fixed hours rather than a salaried term time employee, the rules for accruing leave changed. For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024 the government reinstated accrual at 12.07% of the hours worked in a pay period for irregular hours and part-year workers, and allowed rolled-up holiday pay for them, because 5.6 weeks of leave is 12.07% of the 46.4 working weeks of a year. A salaried term time only employee with fixed weeks is normally not in that group, and keeps the weeks-based fraction above. Which of the two you are is a question about your contract, not about the arithmetic.
Questions people ask about term time salary calculator
Is a term time only salary the same as a pro rata salary?
It is one kind of pro rata. Pro rata means a share of the full-time rate; a term time only contract takes the share by WEEKS of the year, while a part-time contract takes it by HOURS of the week. A contract can be both, and then the two shares multiply.
How many weeks should my contract be paid for?
Weeks worked plus paid holiday. On the statutory minimum that is your term weeks plus 5.6. A 39-week contract is 44.6 paid weeks, or 0.85534 of the year. If your employer offers more than the statutory 5.6 weeks, use their figure.
Why divide by 52.143 rather than 52?
There are 365 days in a year, which is 52.143 weeks, not 52. Dividing by 52 quietly overpays the fraction by about 0.3%, which on a £24,000 full-time salary is about £59 a year. It is small, but it is the difference between two calculators that both claim to be right.
Does term time only pay change my tax code?
No. The tax code is about your allowances, not your hours. What changes is the figure it is applied to: on £20,528.16 the 2026/27 deduction is £1,591.74 of Income Tax and £636.70 of National Insurance, an effective rate of 10.85%, against 13.34% on the full-time £24,000.