Understanding Salary Calculation and Weekly Off in Relation to the Divide by 26 Method

Hi Seniors,

I need your valuable guidance as to whether weekly off is a paid leave or not. If so, why do we calculate the salary divided by 26 instead of 30? If the 26 formula is correct, according to this formula, the weekly off would not be a paid leave.

Regards,
Ashish Jain

Weekly off is a perquisite required by law to be provided by the employer at their cost. It does not form part of the salary, just like rent-free accommodation, Leave Travel Concession, etc.

On the other hand, salary or wage is paid as consideration for work. Hence, division by 26 is logical.

How many working days in a week entitle workmen to a weekly day off?

Thank you.

Weekly off is a paid holiday required by law to be given for every 6 days of work. However, in order to make the working easier, the cost of the weekly off is absorbed in weekly days when computing the per day rate. So, you take the month and divide by 26 and multiply by the number of days actually worked. If the person was absent on days other than the weekly off, it would be computed as LWP. But the days of the weekly off would be automatically included due to division by 26. This is a standard formula that was originally prescribed by the Supreme Court and then adopted under other laws like minimum wages.

A week as per the Factories Act begins on Sunday or a weekly holiday. After availing the weekly holiday, a worker works for the next six days. In other words, an employee avails the perquisite of a weekly holiday on the first day of the week to work on the remaining six days unless absence on any is treated as leave by the employer.

Dear Mr. Ashis Jain,

Under the Minimum Wages category (for workers working on a contract basis), the minimum wages declared by State/Central governments include wages and allowances for the day of the weekly off. Hence, it is divided by 26 instead of 30. Indirectly, Sundays are paid holidays.

I hope I have cleared your doubt.

Good day.

Dear Mr. PL Kanthan,

Absent means unauthorized leave. We are talking about monthly/fortnightly/weekly paid employees. It may not be treated as leave with or without wages. However, it is clear in the Act that a worker should work six/all working days in the week to get a weekly off, but it is against natural justice. By seeing it, what should be done.

According to Mr. Cnsejero 3, if the weekly off falls on the 1st day of the week and one remains absent for the whole month, he should be paid one day's salary for the weekly off. I think this is right because we pay the weekly off after the week has expired.

Dear All,

Still, my doubt remains uncleared. Suppose the month has 30 days. If we divide by 26, then how can the employer provide weekly paid leave? With 30 days, subtracting 4 weekly off days leaves 26.

Please clarify with an example.

Dear Mr. Anand,

Payment for the weekly offs is already included in the wages for other days, therefore no separate payment is required for the weekly off.

Weekly holiday is a paid holiday. It is not a leave. Your question is why we are dividing by 26. When we are calculating the wages for leave without pay, then divide the salary by 30 or 31. When we are calculating the wages per day for the purpose of overtime or Annual leave with wages, then calculate by dividing by 26. This is as per the normal procedure in terms of the Payment of Wages Act.

Adoni Suresh
Labour Laws Consultant

Dear Ashish,

Weekly off is a paid holiday and not leave. This is as per the Act and Supreme Court judgement that all employees, whether monthly, fortnightly, or daily, are entitled to a weekly off. In the case of monthly paid employees, an employee works for 26 days only and receives the salary for the full month. For monthly paid employees, the per-day salary is calculated by dividing the wages by the number of days in a month. To provide the benefits of a weekly off to workers other than the monthly paid employees, wages are divided by 26 standard days.

Jainashish,

The working comes like this:

Say your salary is ₹26000. The daily rate therefore is ₹1000 (26000/26). If you worked all month with no LWP, you get full month pay. If you were LWP for 2 days, you would lose pay for 2x1000 = 2000 and get a salary of ₹24000.

You will deduct only for those days the employee is absent and on leave without pay. If he is on paid leave, weekly off, or paid holiday (e.g. National and festival holidays), then he will be counted as present for the above purpose, not absent.

Someone could say you will divide by the number of actual working days, etc., but that would create variable rates and confusion in the minds of the workers as to whether the money received is accurately computed. Therefore, the Supreme Court probably came up with the formula of dividing by a standard 26-day work month.

Hope that clears your doubt.

Dear Banerjee sir,

Assuming the employee's salary is Rs. 26,000 per month, which means Rs. 1,000 per day. However, the employee was absent from Saturday to Monday. Hence, his 3 days' salary should be deducted as per the leave policy. In that absence, Sunday was also included (weekly off).

Please clarify whether his 3 days' salary will be deducted, including the weekly off, i.e., 1000*3 = Rs. 3,000/-. Is this correct?

Dear Sir,

When we divide by 26, it means we have added payment for the weekly off in the payment for working days, i.e., for working 26 days, you get a salary for the full month amounting to Rs. 26,000.

Now, for your specific question about leave from Saturday to Monday, when you are dividing by 26, it means you are not making payment for Sunday (the weekly off). Hence, no payment is made for Sunday, and thus, no deduction arises. Furthermore, Saturday and Monday are working days for which payment is made if duty is performed. If no duty is performed on Saturday and Monday, then no payment is made. Therefore, salary for only two days is not to be made.

To be more precise, the person has performed duty only for 26-2=24 days for which salary is paid. Thus, your observation is incorrect. It is too much to consider Sunday for deduction and not for payment. In fact, Sunday is a free day, neither payable nor deductible. In this system of calculations, public and declared holidays are to be treated as working days and paid.

I hope I am able to clarify.

Thanks,

V K Gupta

Mr. Jainashis,

Your supposition of 30 days in a month is irrelevant. Why not think about other months having 28 or 31 days? In that case, would you apply some other formula than 26 days, i.e., 24 or 27 days, to make calculations for different months?

The figure 26 is taken as the average number of days of a month for all the months of a year. As an executive, your convenience and simplification of work are also taken care of in the statutory laws and rules. Otherwise, you would have been feeling difficulty in applying different formulas in calculations every month.

Dear Mr. Dhingra,

The system of dividing the monthly salary by 26 is applicable where daily-rated employees are kept, and they are paid for actual working days, even for working on Sundays, weekly offs, etc.

The Haryana Government, while declaring the daily minimum rate, calculates by dividing the monthly minimum wages by 26.

Thanks,
V K Gupta

Dear All,

Is there any rule or section governed by any law that states that salary should be divided by 26? If yes, please let me know the same.

Thank you.

Jainashish,

First, there is a Supreme Court decision made long ago; you can search on Google. I think it was in connection with gratuity computation. It then became a practice to use the same rule for the computation of per day wages.

Second, almost every state notification on minimum wages gives this specific formula at the end. It specifies that you need to multiply/divide by 26 to move from daily to monthly or vice versa.

Third, please check your standing orders to see if anything is specified with reference to the computation of daily salaries.

Dear Mr. V.K. Gupta,

Thank you for the information. However, I am curious about the context in which you provided that information in relation to my response.

Please let me know if you need further clarification or have any additional details to share.

Best regards,
[Your Name]

Dear VK Gupta Ji,

In your thread on the 14th, you mentioned that when we divide by 26, it means we have added the payment of the weekly off to working days.

If an employee is absent for 5 days, let's say from Friday to Tuesday, as per the rule, the employee is entitled to avail the weekly off if he/she has worked for 6 days in the week. As he/she is absent for 5 days and the 6th day is the weekly off, the employee will not be eligible for the weekly off. Hence, we should deduct the weekly off payment from his/her salary, which we have included in the working days.

Your view, please.

If you divide ₹26000 by 30 days of the month and by 26 days of the computation, you will see a difference of ₹133.33. This difference is being added to each working day's pay. Correspondingly, it means for every day absent, the worker loses ₹133 more than his actual pay for that day. So, don't worry, by being absent for 6 days, he has effectively lost his weekly off.

It's a legal fiction that is now accepted as the base. Some individual workers may gain a minute amount in a certain month, but given the reduction in workload, it's worth it.

It is a very simple matter. When monthly-rated employees are paid their salary, it should be divided by the calendar month of the succeeding month where the salary is due. Monthly-rated employees are eligible for weekly days off with wages after working for 6 days or 48 hours in a week. In case of leave without pay, the same formula should be adopted for the purpose of payment of salary or wages. Daily-rated workers or seasonal workers are eligible to receive wages for the actual number of working days worked, where weekly offs are not applicable. This is the difference between monthly-rated and daily-rated employees.

Adoni Suguresh
Labour Laws Consultant