Understanding the number of workdays in a year is an important part of managing time, planning a business, accounting for payroll, and getting personal work done. Perhaps you are a human resources manager planning and scheduling employee shifts, a freelancer calculating your billable hours, or simply trying to plan a trip away from your employment in the first year, having the knowledge of how many workdays are there in a year allows you to be confident in your decisions.
The article will provide insight into the things taken into consideration when counting the number of workdays in a year, how to calculate approximately, and look at the differences between countries, leap years, types of work and industries. We will also briefly discuss why this calculation is much more than a number; it is a key to efficient and success in modern life.
What Is a Workday?
A workday is typically defined as any day on which employees are scheduled to be working. Most often this means Monday through Friday – excluding weekends and official public holidays. As you would expect the meaning of a workday is variable depending upon situations such as:
Country or region
Type of employment
Industry (e.g.. retail, healthcare, manufacturing)
Company policy
Labor law, union agreements
For example, within the technology workplace, workers may be on a flexible work schedule (e.g., compressed) and in the service industry, workers may work weekends or evenings where their workdays do not fall within the traditional Monday through Friday workweek.
However, despite these variations, the generally accepted standard of a five day workweek (Monday through Friday) is often considered as a baseline for calculation purposes.
Total Number of Days in a Year
To evaluate workdays, we can start with the total number of days in a calendar year.
Regular year – 365 days
How Many Weekends in a Year?
In a ‘typical’ year, there are
52 weeks
and 2 weekend days each week (Saturday and Sunday).
52 x 2 = 104 weekend days
There are instances that exist where sometimes -depending on what day of the week the year starts- a year can have a partial 53rd week. For example, if January 1 is a Friday (in a non-leap year), the same year could have 53 Fridays, which means there would also be an extra weekend day.
This minor variance can impact the number of workdays in the given year, but while the number of weekend days is still counted as 104.
Note about public holidays and their impact on workdays
Public holidays are non-working days which are prescribed by governments and Institutions. The amount of public holidays differ greatly from country to country, and sometimes region to region within a country.
Some examples of public holidays according to countries:
United States: 10-11 federal holidays
Canada: 9-12 statutory holidays (established or observed, depending on the province)
Calculating Workdays in a Year: A Pragmatic Approach
Now we will estimate workdays in the United States for a typical, non-leap year by making some assumptions about the work week (five days) and public holidays (eleven).
Workdays calculation
Number of days in a year: 365
Number of weekend days (Saturday/Sunday): 104
Number of public holidays: 11
Workdays calculation
Workday = Total days – weekend days – public holidays
365 – 104 (104 weekend days) – 11 (11 public holidays) = 250 workdays
So in our assumed non-leap year there will be somewhere around 250 workdays for United States workers, this can vary slightly based on how the days fall in the week (if the holidays fall on a weekend).
Workdays in a Leap Year
In a leap year, there is one extra day, February 29. If that falls on a weekday, it potentially adds one to the already total workdays in the year.
Lol example for a leap year:
Total days = 366
Industry-Specific Work Schedules
Some industries operate differently from the Monday through Friday schedule including:
Retail and hospitality: Employees typically work weekends and public holidays;
Healthcare and emergency services: Employees work 24/7 on a rotating shift work schedule;
Transportation and logistics: Employees may work on various schedules from week to week; The “work day” may also differ for these sectors, and often employees will have individual work contracts, or union contracts that can define their work day.
Flexible and Compressed Workweeks
Today more and more workplaces allow employees to be employed on “non-traditional” work schedules including:
4-day work week: employee works (10 hours/day) 4 days;
remote work: work is intertwined with personal time;
flexible time: employee has the ability to set their own schedule anywhere within (x) hours.
There is sometimes fewer work days in a year, but the way to think about it are the structure and experience of what a work day is.
Importance of Knowing Workdays per Year
Knowing how many of work days there are in a year is important for all sorts of reasons:
In the case of employers:
budgeting costs for wages and payroll;
determining when to schedule shifts and holidays;
planning for project deadlines;
estimating productivity or ROI;
In the case of employees:
estimating income over the year, and paid time away from work;
planning for holidays and vacation;
managing work-life balance;
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I work weekends?
If you are scheduled to work weekends, you will need to adjust the way you calculate workdays on your specific schedule. For example, 6 days of work would equal around 312 workdays each year.
Are paid vacation days considered workdays?
No, when calculating the days you are actually expected to show up for work, vacation days are generally not included in workdays.
Do holidays always decrease workdays?
Yes, holidays decrease workdays, as long as they fall on weekdays. If they happen to fall on weekends and your company does not give a substitute day off, then they don’t decrease your workdays
Closing Thoughts
Typically, you can expect the number of workdays in a year to fall anywhere between 248 and 262, depending upon your weekends off, holidays and leap years. For example, in the USA, the number of workdays in a non-leap year would usually be around 250 and in a leap year, you would have around 251 workdays.
However, this number can vary greatly from country, industry, or individual employment situation — If workdays mean anything at all. Understanding this number is important in more ways than one, it can be used effectively for planning and management.
