Business days calculator

How business days are counted

A business day, or working day, is a day the business is open. In the United States that usually means Monday to Friday, less federal holidays.

Business days = calendar days − weekend days − holidays on weekdays − other days off

Monday, November 2 to Friday, November 6, 2026 is 5 calendar days and 5 business days. Stretch it to Sunday, November 8 and it is 7 calendar days but still 5 business days. Thanksgiving week, Monday, November 23 to Friday, November 27, is 4, because Thanksgiving Day takes out the Thursday.

Two settings change the answer, so check them. The start and end dates are both counted unless you untick them: a deadline "10 business days from today" usually leaves today out. And adding days never counts the start date, so 1 business day after a Friday is the Monday.

Other countries keep other weekends. Press the days your week has off, for example Friday and Saturday, and add your own holidays as extra days off.

Federal holidays 2026

Eleven holidays, all on weekdays once Independence Day moves to Friday, July 3. With 261 weekdays in the year, that leaves 250 working days.

Federal holidays 2027

Four holidays land on a weekend in 2027 and move to a weekday. One of them belongs to the next year: New Year's Day 2028 is a Saturday, so it is observed on Friday, December 31, 2027. That gives 2027 twelve weekday holidays and 249 working days.

When a holiday falls on a weekend

Federal law lists eleven legal public holidays (5 U.S.C. 6103(a)). For federal employees on a Monday-to-Friday week (the rule is written for federal pay and leave):

• A holiday on a Saturday is observed on the Friday before (5 U.S.C. 6103(b)(1)).
• A holiday on a Sunday is observed on the Monday after (Executive Order 11582, section 3(a)).

The calculator uses those rules for every year from 1978 on, and its results match OPM's published schedules for 2020 to 2030. Juneteenth is counted from 2021, the year it became a federal holiday.

Some days are left out on purpose. Inauguration Day, every fourth January 20, is a holiday only for federal employees in and around Washington, D.C. (5 U.S.C. 6103(c)). A president sometimes gives federal employees an extra day off by executive order, such as Christmas Eve; those days are announced one at a time and are not in the law. State holidays vary by state. Add any of these as extra days off.

Banks follow the Federal Reserve's calendar, which keeps the Reserve Banks open on the Friday before a Saturday holiday: July 3, 2026, and June 18, December 24 and December 31, 2027 are federal holidays but bank business days. To count bank days, keep federal holidays on and use the Federal Reserve's list instead for those dates.

Private employers do not have to close on federal holidays or pay extra for working them. See the holiday pay calculator for what federal law does and does not require.

Working days in each month

From working days to working hours

Multiply business days by the hours in a workday. At 8 hours a day, 2026 has 250 × 8 = 2,000 working hours once federal holidays are off, and 261 × 8 = 2,088 hours of weekdays in all.

Many payroll systems divide a salary by 2,080 hours (40 × 52 weeks) instead, which treats paid holidays as paid time. The salary to hourly calculator shows both, and the PTO calculator turns hours worked into paid time off.

Questions

Sources

1. 5 U.S.C. 6103, Holidays (GovInfo)
2. U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Federal Holidays (2020 to 2030 schedules)
3. Executive Order 11582, Observance of holidays by Government agencies (National Archives)
4. Federal Reserve, K.8 Holidays Observed by the Federal Reserve System

Not legal, tax or payroll advice. Check court, contract and filing deadlines against the rule that sets them.

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