Sample values shown: the current month, Saturday and Sunday off, Central Government holidays and a salary of Rs 60,000. Change them to get your own number.
How to count working days in India
Working days are the days an employee is expected to report for work in a period. Payroll teams use the number to work out per day pay and loss of pay, attendance teams use it as the base for absenteeism, and managers use it for deadlines written as "within 15 working days". The count depends on two things your employer decides: the weekly off pattern and the holiday list.
Days actually worked = Working days − Leave days taken
End date after N working days = Step forward one day at a time from the start date, counting only days that are neither a weekly off nor a holiday, until the count reaches N
The three inputs that change the answer
Most offices give Saturday and Sunday off. Factories, shops and many field teams work six days with Sunday off. Banks close on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays under an RBI announcement effective 1 September 2015, and some companies follow the same pattern. A Saturday is the 2nd Saturday when it falls on dates 8 to 14, and the 4th when it falls on dates 22 to 28.
India has three national holidays: Republic Day (26 January), Independence Day (15 August) and Gandhi Jayanti (2 October). Beyond those, each employer publishes its own list. Central Government offices follow the closed holidays that the Department of Personnel and Training notifies every year. Private employers set theirs under state rules and company policy, so they are not bound by the Central Government list.
When a holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday that is already off, it does not reduce the working day count a second time. In 2026, Independence Day falls on a Saturday and Diwali on a Sunday. In 2027, Independence Day, Milad-un-Nabi and Guru Nanak's Birthday fall on Sundays. The calculator lists these separately so you can see why the count did not drop.
For a pay period (1 to 30 November) both ends count. For a deadline ("15 working days from the date of this notice") the count usually starts the next day. Untick "Count the start date as day 1" for the second case. Read the wording of the letter or policy that sets the deadline.
Worked example: December 2026
December 2026 starts on a Tuesday and has 31 days. On a Monday to Friday week, the weekend days are 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26 and 27 December, which is 8 days, leaving 23 weekdays. Christmas Day (Friday, 25 December) is a closed holiday, so the month has 22 working days. With Sunday and the 2nd and 4th Saturdays off, only 6 days are weekly offs (four Sundays plus 12 and 26 December), so the month has 25 weekdays, less Christmas, which is 24 working days.
Across the whole of FY 2026-27 (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027), a Monday to Friday week with the Central Government (Delhi) closed holidays gives 365 days, minus 104 weekend days, minus 14 holidays that fall on weekdays, which is 247 working days. Two of the 16 holidays in that window (Independence Day on Saturday, 15 August 2026 and Diwali on Sunday, 8 November 2026) fall on weekends and do not reduce the count.
Central Government closed holidays for 2026 and 2027
These are the holidays the calculator uses when you pick the Central Government preset. They apply to Central Government administrative offices in Delhi and New Delhi. Holidays tied to the moon (Id-ul-Fitr, Id-ul-Zuha, Muharram and Milad-un-Nabi) can move by a day once the moon is sighted, and offices outside Delhi follow a slightly different list.
| Holiday | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Republic Day | Mon, 26 Jan | Tue, 26 Jan |
| Holi | Wed, 4 Mar | Tue, 23 Mar |
| Id-ul-Fitr | Sat, 21 Mar | Wed, 10 Mar |
| Ram Navami | Thu, 26 Mar | Thu, 15 Apr |
| Mahavir Jayanti | Tue, 31 Mar | Mon, 19 Apr |
| Good Friday | Fri, 3 Apr | Fri, 26 Mar |
| Buddha Purnima | Fri, 1 May | Thu, 20 May |
| Id-ul-Zuha (Bakrid) | Wed, 27 May | Mon, 17 May |
| Muharram | Fri, 26 Jun | Wed, 16 Jun |
| Independence Day | Sat, 15 Aug | Sun, 15 Aug |
| Milad-un-Nabi (Id-e-Milad) | Wed, 26 Aug | Sun, 15 Aug |
| Janmashtami (Vaishnav) | Fri, 4 Sep | Wed, 25 Aug |
| Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday | Fri, 2 Oct | Sat, 2 Oct |
| Dussehra | Tue, 20 Oct | Sat, 9 Oct |
| Diwali (Deepavali) | Sun, 8 Nov | Fri, 29 Oct |
| Guru Nanak's Birthday | Tue, 24 Nov | Sun, 14 Nov |
| Christmas Day | Fri, 25 Dec | Sat, 25 Dec |
Source: DoPT Office Memorandum F.No. 12/2/2023-JCA dated 3 July 2025 (for 2026) and 16 July 2026 (for 2027). For dates outside 2026 and 2027, the preset falls back to the three national holidays and the result tells you so.
What the labour codes say about working days
The four labour codes have been in force since 21 November 2025. Under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, Section 25 caps work at eight hours a day, and Section 26 says no worker shall be allowed to work for more than six days in any week. Where a government exemption takes away a weekly holiday, the worker gets the same number of compensatory holidays within that month or the next two months. The PIB factsheet on the Code restates the limit as 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week.
So a six day week with one weekly off is the legal outer limit for workers covered by the Code, and the calculator's "No weekly off" option is meant for counting calendar days, not for planning rosters. Weekly hours shown in the result use 8 hours per working day as a reference, not a legal requirement for your role.
Using working days for payroll
The per day rate decides how much is deducted for loss of pay or paid for a part month. Indian employers use different divisors: the calendar days in the month, a fixed 30, a fixed 26, or the working days in the month. The divisor comes from your appointment letter or payroll policy, so the calculator shows all four side by side when you enter a salary. To turn absent days into a deduction, use the loss of pay calculator; for a joining or exit month, use the pro rata salary calculator.
Which calculator do I need?
- Working days calculator: you want the number of working days in a period, or the date N working days away.
- Notice period calculator: you have resigned and want your last working day.
- Absenteeism rate calculator: you know the working days and absent days and want the absence rate for a team.
Frequently asked questions
How do I calculate working days between two dates?
Count the calendar days from the start date to the end date (both included), subtract the weekly off days that fall in the range, then subtract the public holidays that fall on a day that would otherwise be a working day. A holiday that lands on a Sunday is not subtracted twice. The calculator does all three steps and lists every holiday it removed.
How many working days are there in a month in India?
It depends on the weekly off pattern and the holidays in that month. A month usually has 20 to 23 working days on a Monday to Friday week, 23 to 27 on a Monday to Saturday week, and somewhere in between when the 2nd and 4th Saturdays are off. Pick the month, your weekly off pattern and your holiday list to get the exact number.
Which holidays does the calculator include?
You can choose no holidays, only the three national holidays (Republic Day on 26 January, Independence Day on 15 August and Gandhi Jayanti on 2 October), or the 17 closed holidays that DoPT notified for Central Government offices in Delhi for 2026 and 2027. You can also paste your own company holiday list, one date per line.
Are the 2nd and 4th Saturdays holidays for everyone?
No. Banks have observed the 2nd and 4th Saturdays as holidays since 1 September 2015 under an RBI announcement, and many offices copy that pattern, but private employers decide their own weekly off. Choose the pattern your company follows in the weekly off field.
Is the start date included in the count?
Yes, by default both the start date and the end date are counted, which is how payroll and attendance periods are usually read (1 to 30 November is 30 calendar days). Untick the option if you want to start counting from the day after the start date, for example for a deadline that runs from a notice date.
How many days a week can an employee be made to work under the labour codes?
Under Section 26 of the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020, no worker shall be allowed to work for more than six days in any week, and Section 25 caps daily work at eight hours. The four labour codes have been in force since 21 November 2025.
How do I use working days to work out a per day salary?
Divide the monthly salary by the divisor your company policy uses. Some employers divide by the calendar days in the month, some by a fixed 26 or 30, and some by the working days in the month. Enter a monthly salary in the calculator to see all four figures side by side, then use the one your payroll policy names.
Can I find the date that is a number of working days away?
Yes. Switch to the Add working days mode, enter a start date and the number of working days, and the calculator steps forward through the calendar, skipping weekly offs and holidays, to give you the end date. This helps with deadlines written in working days, such as some notice periods and service levels.
Sources
- DoPT O.M. F.No. 12/2/2023-JCA dated 03.07.2025: closed holidays in Central Government offices at Delhi/New Delhi during 2026 (text of the order)
- Directorate of Forest Education, Government of India: list of gazetted holidays 2026 (cross check)
- DoPT O.M. F.No. 12/2/2023-JCA dated 16.07.2026: gazetted holidays in Central Government offices at Delhi/New Delhi during 2027 (text of the order)
- People Matters: Central Government holiday list 2027 (cross check, and note on private employers)
- Reserve Bank of India press release, 28 August 2015: banks to observe 2nd and 4th Saturdays as holidays from 1 September 2015
- Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (Sections 25 and 26 on working hours and weekly holidays)
- PIB factsheet: Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code (8 hours a day, 48 hours a week)
- PIB: Government makes the four Labour Codes effective (21 November 2025)
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Disclaimer: The Central Government holiday preset covers administrative offices in Delhi and New Delhi for 2026 and 2027, as notified by DoPT and checked in November 2026. Moon based holidays may shift by a day. Your employer's own holiday calendar and weekly off policy decide your actual working days. Nothing here is legal advice.