Pro rata pay

If you're applying for a part-time job the salary is likely to be advertised as 'pro rata', but what does it mean and how does it affect your workplace rights?

It's a bit of a mind-bender.

What does pro rata mean?

Pro rata is the latin for ‘proportionally’ or a ‘proportion of’. It means that the salary quoted is what a full timer would receive for the same job. Your salary will be calculated according to what proportion of a full-time job your hours make up. For example, if the salary is quoted at £18,000 pro rata (based on a full time week of 40 hours) and you are working 30 hours per week, you will be paid an annual salary of £13,500.

How does it affect my rights at work?

If you’re being paid pro rata you still have all the statutory and contractual terms and conditions that your full-time colleagues will have, such as pensions, holidays, maternity pay and parental leave, but you will only get them in the same proportion as you work. For example, if a full timer works 40 hours per week and you work 20 hours per week you will get half the pay, half the hours worth of holiday and so on.

How much will I earn?

To calculate what your pay will be you need to get the following information:

• Where you will be placed on the salary scale so that you have a salary of reference;
• The number of hours the company considers as full time;
• How many hours a week you will be working;
• How many weeks a year you will be working.

Now follow the five calculation steps:

1. Divide the full time annual salary by 52
2. Divide that answer by the full time number of hours (this will give you the hourly rate)
3. Multiply the hourly rate by the number of hours you work each week (this will give you a weekly salary)
4. Multiply this by 52 or the number of weeks worked (this will give you an annual salary)
5. Divide this by 12 if you want to know your monthly salary