UK Holiday Pay Calculator

Workers are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid holiday per year, capped at 28 days. That equals 28 days for someone working 5 days a week, and it stays at 28 days if you work 6 or 7 days a week — the 5.6 weeks is never worth more than 28 days of statutory leave. Bank holidays may be counted within the 5.6 weeks. Part-time workers receive a pro-rata entitlement based on the number of days they work per week.

Part-time holiday entitlement is calculated by multiplying your days worked per week by 5.6. For example, if you work 3 days per week, your entitlement is 3 x 5.6 = 16.8 days per year. Your employer may round this up to 17 days. The entitlement is pro-rata and must be proportional to full-time workers, and like everyone else it is capped at 28 days.

The 12.07% method applies to irregular-hours and part-year workers (including most zero-hours workers) for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. At the end of each pay period, 12.07% of the hours you actually worked in that period is added to your holiday entitlement. The percentage comes from dividing 5.6 weeks of holiday by the remaining 46.4 working weeks in a year (5.6 / 46.4 = 0.1207 or 12.07%). Accrued leave is still capped at 28 days a year.

Your employer can choose to include bank holidays as part of your 28-day (5.6 weeks) statutory entitlement. Many employers give bank holidays off in addition to the 28 days, but this is not a legal requirement. Check your contract to see how your employer handles bank holidays.

When you leave your job, you are entitled to be paid for any holiday you have accrued but not taken. The calculation is: (days entitled for the year x proportion of year worked) minus days already taken. If you have taken more holiday than accrued, your employer may be able to deduct the overpayment from your final pay.

Yes, your employer can refuse a holiday request, but they must give you notice equal to the length of the holiday you requested. For example, to refuse a 5-day request, they must give you 5 days notice. They cannot refuse all holiday requests — you must be able to take your full entitlement during the holiday year.

The first 4 weeks of statutory holiday (from the EU Working Time Directive) can be carried over if you were unable to take it due to sickness or maternity/paternity leave. The additional 1.6 weeks (UK-specific) can only be carried over if your employer agrees or your contract allows it. Many employers have a use-it-or-lose-it policy.

If your hours are broadly regular but your pay varies (because of overtime, commission or regular bonuses), holiday pay is based on your average pay over a 52-week reference period, ignoring any weeks in which no pay was earned and looking back up to 104 weeks to find 52 paid weeks. The 52-week reference period is not the rule for everyone: for irregular-hours and part-year workers, the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023 replaced it for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024 with accrual at 12.07% of the hours worked in each pay period. Those 2023 Regulations displaced the effect of Harpur Trust v Brazel (2022) for that group, so that case can no longer be relied on as the current rule for irregular-hours and part-year workers.

Yes, agency workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave from day one of an assignment. Some agencies include holiday pay in the hourly rate, known as rolled-up holiday pay. This is permitted only for irregular-hours and part-year workers, and only for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. Where it is used, the uplift must be at least 12.07% of all pay for work done and it must be itemised separately on your payslip. For everyone else, rolled-up holiday pay remains unlawful and holiday must be paid when the leave is taken.

A holiday year is the 12-month period during which your annual leave entitlement applies. It is set by your employer or contract and can start on any date (e.g. 1 January, 1 April, or your start date anniversary). If your contract does not specify, it defaults to 1 October for workers who started before 1 October 1998, or their start date for those who started after.