Last reviewed August 2026

Methodology

How every calculator on this site is built, sourced, verified and kept current.

The core principle: show the formula, not just the answer

Most leave and pay calculators show a number and ask you to trust it. Every calculator on this site instead shows the calculation step by step — the exact formula applied, the rate or threshold used, and how the final figure was reached. If a number here looks wrong, you can see exactly why, rather than taking it on faith.

How rates and rules are sourced

Every calculator is built from the official primary source for its country — government legislation, the relevant labour authority’s published guidance, or the specific statutory instrument that sets a rate. Country-specific primary sources are listed in full on the Sources page.

Where a rate or rule is genuinely contested, uncertain, or subject to regional variation (for example, US paid sick leave, which varies enormously by state and city, or Canadian vacation pay, which is set separately by 14 different jurisdictions), the calculator says so explicitly rather than picking one answer and presenting it as universal.

What “verified” means

The date shown on each calculator (for example, “Rates verified August 2026”) is the date the specific rates and thresholds on that page were last checked against the current official source — not the date the page was first published.

Statutory rates change on different schedules in different countries — the UK, Ireland and New Zealand typically update several key figures each April; Australia’s Fair Work minimum wage and related figures usually change on 1 July; Canadian provincial rates and US state rates change on their own separate schedules throughout the year. Each calculator is reviewed against its specific update schedule, not on a single fixed sitewide date.

What every calculator explicitly discloses

Alongside the calculation itself, every calculator page includes:

Who this applies to — the eligibility conditions the calculator assumes are already met.
Special cases — genuine edge cases and scenarios the calculation doesn’t automatically handle.
What this calculator doesn’t cover — an explicit, honest list of limitations, rather than a calculator that quietly gets edge cases wrong.

This is a deliberate design choice: a calculator that discloses its own limits is more trustworthy than one that implies it has none.

Corrections

If you believe a figure, formula or rate on this site is incorrect or out of date, see our Editorial Policy for how to flag it and how corrections are handled.