Work days by year, 2022–2035
Two things change from year to year: how many Monday-to-Friday days the calendar contains, and how many federal holidays land on one of those weekdays. Both move, which is why there is no single fixed answer.
| Year | Weekdays | Holidays | Work days | Hours | Why it differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 260 | 10 | 250 | 2,000 | New Year's fell Saturday, observed Dec 31 2021 |
| 2023 | 260 | 11 | 249 | 1,992 | Fewest weekdays in the period |
| 2024 | 262 | 11 | 251 | 2,008 | Leap year with an extra weekday |
| 2025 | 261 | 11 | 250 | 2,000 | Typical year |
| 2026 | 261 | 11 | 250 | 2,000 | July 4 on Saturday, observed Friday July 3 |
| 2027 | 261 | 12 | 249 | 1,992 | Twelve observed holidays — see the note below |
| 2028 | 260 | 10 | 250 | 2,000 | Leap year, but the extra day is a Saturday |
| 2029 | 261 | 11 | 250 | 2,000 | Typical year |
| 2030 | 261 | 11 | 250 | 2,000 | Typical year |
| 2031 | 261 | 11 | 250 | 2,000 | Typical year |
| 2032 | 262 | 12 | 250 | 2,000 | Leap year |
| 2033 | 260 | 10 | 250 | 2,000 | Ten observed holidays |
| 2034 | 260 | 11 | 249 | 1,992 | Typical year |
| 2035 | 261 | 11 | 250 | 2,000 | Typical year |
A note on how these are counted
This table counts every federal holiday observed inside the calendar year. That matters at year boundaries. When January 1 falls on a Saturday, the holiday is observed on the preceding Friday, December 31 — which lands in the previous year.
That is why 2027 shows twelve holidays: its own eleven, plus New Year's Day 2028 observed on Friday, December 31, 2027. Count it the other way and 2027 gives 250 rather than 249. Neither method is wrong, but published tables rarely say which one they used, and that single choice explains much of the disagreement you will find between sources.
Why the number moves
A 365-day year is 52 weeks plus one day. Whichever weekday January 1 falls on therefore occurs 53 times that year instead of 52. In a leap year, two weekdays get the extra occurrence. If those extra days land on weekdays you gain work days; if they land on a weekend, you don't.
2028 shows this clearly. It is a leap year with 366 days, yet it has fewer weekdays than 2026, because both extra days fall across a weekend. Leap years do not automatically mean more work.
The second variable is holiday placement. Six of the eleven federal holidays are fixed to a particular Monday or Thursday and always land on a weekday. The other five are fixed to a calendar date and can fall on a weekend, in which case they shift — Saturday holidays are observed the Friday before, Sunday holidays the Monday after.
The 2,087-hour standard
Ask how many hours are in a work year and most sources answer 2,080 — 52 weeks times 40 hours. The federal government stopped using that figure in 1984, and the reason is worth understanding, because it explains why your salary and your hourly rate never quite reconcile.
2,080 assumes a year is exactly 52 weeks, or 364 days. Real years have 365 or 366. Those leftover days accumulate into extra paid workdays that the 2,080 figure ignores.
A 1981 General Accounting Office study measured the effect across a full 28-year calendar cycle — the span after which the calendar repeats. Across those 28 years:
| Weekdays in the year | Hours | Years in the 28-year cycle |
|---|---|---|
| 262 weekdays | 2,096 | 4 |
| 261 weekdays (most common) | 2,088 | 17 |
| 260 weekdays | 2,080 | 7 |
| Weighted average | 2,087.14 | 28 |
The arithmetic: (2,096 × 4) + (2,088 × 17) + (2,080 × 7), divided by 28, gives 2,087.143 hours. Rounded to 2,087, it became the divisor for federal civilian pay — made temporary by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1982 and permanent in 1986 by an amendment to 5 U.S.C. 5504(b).
So a federal hourly rate is the annual salary divided by 2,087, and the biweekly rate is that hourly figure times 80. Nobody actually works exactly 2,087 hours in any year — you work 2,080, 2,088 or 2,096 depending on the calendar. The divisor is a stable average chosen so the rate doesn't have to change annually. The Department of Veterans Affairs still uses 2,080 for certain employees under title 38, the main exception.
This also explains a payroll oddity: most years contain 26 biweekly pay dates, but occasionally 27, so the amount actually paid in a calendar year can differ slightly from the stated annual salary.
The 11 federal holidays
Federal holidays are set by statute at 5 U.S.C. 6103. There have been eleven since Juneteenth was added in June 2021 — a detail several published work-day tables still miss, which makes their counts a day high in most years.
| Holiday | Statutory date | Can it move? |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | January 1 | Yes — shifts off weekends |
| Martin Luther King Jr. Day | Third Monday in January | No — always Monday |
| Washington's Birthday | Third Monday in February | No — always Monday |
| Memorial Day | Last Monday in May | No — always Monday |
| Juneteenth | June 19 | Yes — shifts off weekends |
| Independence Day | July 4 | Yes — shifts off weekends |
| Labor Day | First Monday in September | No — always Monday |
| Columbus Day | Second Monday in October | No — always Monday |
| Veterans Day | November 11 | Yes — shifts off weekends |
| Thanksgiving | Fourth Thursday in November | No — always Thursday |
| Christmas Day | December 25 | Yes — shifts off weekends |
Private employers are not required to observe any of them
The Fair Labor Standards Act does not require paid holidays, holiday pay, or time off for holidays. The Department of Labor's own reference guide lists vacation, holiday, severance and sick pay among the things the Act does not require. These are matters of employment agreement and, in some cases, state law.
In practice most private employers observe around six to eight of the eleven — typically New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. If that's your situation, set the holiday count in the calculator accordingly rather than using the federal figure.
Three different definitions of "full-time"
There is no single federal definition of full-time employment, which is why sources disagree about the annual hours of a full-time job. Three separate thresholds are in regular use, each belonging to a different framework:
| Hours/week | Framework | What it actually governs |
|---|---|---|
| 30 | IRS — Affordable Care Act | Whether a large employer must offer health coverage. Also expressed as 130 hours a month. |
| 35 | Bureau of Labor Statistics | A statistical convention for classifying workers in surveys. No legal force whatsoever. |
| 40 | FLSA — Department of Labor | The point past which overtime pay is owed to non-exempt workers. It does not define full-time. |
Someone working 35 hours a week is full-time by two of these standards and nowhere near the overtime threshold of the third. When a document says "full-time," it is worth knowing which one it means.
Worth noting too: the FLSA sets no limit on hours. An employer can require a non-exempt employee to work 60 hours in a week, provided the hours past 40 are paid at the overtime rate.
What people actually work
Legal thresholds describe obligations, not behaviour. The Bureau of Labor Statistics measures the latter through the American Time Use Survey, a time-diary survey of Americans aged 15 and over. On days they worked, its 2023 results put full-time wage and salary workers at 8.50 hours, part-time workers at 5.64, and self-employed full-time workers at 8.86.
Note the framing: hours per day on days worked, not an average across all days. It is not directly comparable to an annual hours figure, but it does show that the eight-hour day remains a reasonable planning assumption.
Common misconceptions
| The claim | What's actually true |
|---|---|
| A year has 260 work days | Weekdays range from 260 to 262. After federal holidays, work days land between 249 and 251. |
| A work year is 2,080 hours | 2,080 is 52 × 40 and ignores the extra days in a real calendar year. The federal standard has been 2,087 since 1986. |
| Leap years mean more work days | Only if the extra day falls on a weekday. 2028 is a leap year with fewer weekdays than 2026. |
| Employers must give holidays off | Federal law requires no paid holidays at all for private employers. |
| Full-time means 40 hours | Three federal thresholds exist — 30, 35 and 40 — each for a different purpose. |
| You work exactly 2,087 hours | It's a 28-year weighted average used as a stable pay divisor. Any individual year is 2,080, 2,088 or 2,096. |
Sources
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management — Computing Hourly Rates of Pay Using the 2,087-Hour Divisor. Statutory basis, the 28-year cycle, and the pay computation method.
- 5 U.S.C. 5504(b) — the divisor, made permanent by the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985.
- 5 U.S.C. 6103 — the eleven federal holidays and the weekend observance rules. Juneteenth added by Public Law 117-17, June 2021.
- U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division — Handy Reference Guide to the Fair Labor Standards Act, revised November 2023. The 40-hour threshold, the workweek definition, and what the Act does not require.
- Internal Revenue Service — Identifying Full-Time Employees, ACA Employer Shared Responsibility. The 30-hour and 130-hour thresholds.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics — American Time Use Survey, 2023 Results. Average hours on days worked.
Weekday and holiday counts on this page are computed from the statutory holiday rules rather than copied from another table. You can check any year yourself in the calculator above, which shows every observed date it used.