Working Days in January 2027

How January working days are counted

Start with the weekdays. January has 31 days, which is four full weeks plus three extra days, so it has 21, 22 or 23 weekdays (Monday to Friday) depending on the weekday of January 1. January 2027 begins on a Friday and has 21.

Then subtract the US federal holidays that land on a weekday:

• New Year's Day (Friday, January 1, 2027). When January 1 falls on a Sunday, the holiday is observed on Monday, January 2. When it falls on a Saturday, federal employees get Friday, December 31 of the previous year off, so no January weekday is lost.
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the third Monday in January (Monday, January 18, 2027), which is always a weekday.

Inauguration Day (January 20 every four years, next on Saturday, January 20, 2029) is a holiday only for federal employees in Washington, D.C., and nearby counties and cities in Maryland and Virginia, so it is not subtracted. Banks that follow the Federal Reserve schedule close on both federal holidays; when January 1 is a Saturday, they stay open the Friday before. Private employers are not required to give federal holidays off, and many stay open on MLK Day, so your own count may be higher.

Working hours in January

To find working hours, multiply your working days by the length of your working day. At 8 hours a day, a January with 20 working days has 160 working hours. The table covers every count January can produce.

For part-time or shift schedules, count the days you actually work and multiply by your shift length. If your employer pays for holidays, your paid hours for the month will be higher than the hours you work.

UK working days in January

In England and Wales, New Year's Day is the only bank holiday in January. When January 1 falls on a weekend, the bank holiday moves to the following Monday, so England and Wales always lose exactly one January weekday. Northern Ireland has the same January holiday.

Scotland also has a bank holiday on January 2, moved to a weekday when needed, so Scotland has one working day fewer than the England and Wales figure. In Canada, New Year's Day is the only federal statutory holiday in January, while Australia also has Australia Day on January 26, or the following Monday when it falls on a weekend. The January bank holidays page lists the dates by country.

Working days in January 2020–2040

US counts subtract New Year's Day (when observed in January) and MLK Day; UK counts are for England and Wales.

The counts depend only on the weekday of January 1, so years that start on the same weekday have identical figures. When January 1 is a Saturday, as in 2022 and 2028, the US loses only MLK Day because the New Year holiday is observed in December.

Counting business days between two dates

Decide first whether the count includes both end dates. Spreadsheet functions such as NETWORKDAYS are inclusive, so a Monday to the following Friday is 5 business days. Many contract and legal deadlines start counting on the day after an event, which gives 4 for the same span. When a notice says "within 10 business days," check which convention applies.

To count by hand, list the dates, cross out Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and count what remains. The January 2027 calendar shows each week at a glance.

NETWORKDAYS formulas in Excel and Google Sheets

Excel and Google Sheets use the same syntax. Enter your holiday dates in a range, for example H2:H3 holding January 1 and the MLK Day date, then use:

• =NETWORKDAYS(DATE(2027,1,1), DATE(2027,1,31), H2:H3) returns the working days in January 2027, counting both the start and end dates. Holidays in the range that fall on a weekend are ignored automatically.
• =NETWORKDAYS.INTL(start, end, 7, H2:H3) uses a Friday–Saturday weekend. Weekend code 1 is the standard Saturday–Sunday, and a seven-character string such as "0000011" marks the days off, starting from Monday.
• =WORKDAY(start, 10, H2:H3) returns the date 10 business days after the start date, skipping weekends and listed holidays.

Leaving out the holiday range counts every Monday to Friday, which gives the 21 weekdays in January 2027.

Payroll: paydays and five-Friday months

With 31 days, January always has three days of the week that occur five times: the weekday of January 1 and the two days after it. If January 1 is a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, January has five Fridays, which means five weekly paydays for staff paid on Fridays and a larger monthly total. The January 2027 calendar page shows which weekdays occur five times this year.

Biweekly payrolls have three January paydays only when the first one falls on January 1, 2 or 3. Semi-monthly payrolls on the 15th and the last day always have two; when a payday lands on a weekend or holiday, employers commonly pay on the previous business day.

Related

• Bank holidays
• MLK Day
• New Year's Day
• Week numbers
• Tax deadlines
• January 2027 calendar