The statutory minimum: 5.6 weeks
Almost every worker in Great Britain, including part-time, agency and zero-hours workers, is entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday each leave year under the Working Time Regulations 1998. That is 4 weeks under regulation 13 plus 1.6 weeks of additional leave under regulation 13A, subject to a cap of 28 days.
| Days worked per week | Statutory holiday |
|---|---|
| 5, 6 or 7 | 28 days (the cap) |
| 4 | 22.4 days |
| 3 | 16.8 days |
| 2 | 11.2 days |
| 1 | 5.6 days |
If you work the same hours each day, entitlement in hours is simply 5.6 times your weekly hours. Someone working 3 days of 7.5 hours (22.5 hours a week) gets 16.8 days, or 126 hours. Where you work more than 5 days a week, the cap keeps hours at 28 days' worth.
Bank holidays
There is no legal right to paid time off on bank holidays in addition to the 5.6 weeks. Employers can count bank holidays as part of statutory leave, and many do. England and Wales have 8 bank holidays in both 2026 and 2027. Scotland has 10 in 2026, including a one-off bank holiday on 15 June, and Northern Ireland has 10. A full-time worker whose 28 days include the 8 English bank holidays has 20 days left to book. Contracts often give more, so check yours.
Starting or leaving part-way through the leave year
The leave year is set in your contract. If it is not, it starts on the day you started work. When you join part-way through, you are entitled to the part of the year that remains. The gov.uk method gives one-twelfth of the annual entitlement for each month left, counting the month you start in, and rounds up to the next half day. During your first year, your employer can limit the leave you take to what has built up so far, one-twelfth at the start of each month.
When you leave, holiday is pro-rated to the proportion of the leave year that has passed by your leaving date. Your employer must pay you for any statutory holiday built up and not taken. This is the only time statutory leave can be replaced by a payment.
Worked examples
- Starter. Leave year 1 January to 31 December 2026, 5 days a week, starting 1 June 2026. Seven months remain (June to December), so 28 × 7/12 = 16.33 days, rounded up to 16.5 days;
- Leaver. Leave year 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, 5 days of 7.5 hours, leaving on 30 September 2026. 183 of the 365 days have passed, so 28 × 183/365 = 14.04 days, shown as 14.1 days or 105.3 hours, less any holiday already taken;
- Irregular hours. A casual worker paid weekly works 30, 22.5, 41 and 18 hours in four weeks. They accrue 4, 3, 5 and 2 hours: 14 hours in total.
Irregular-hours and part-year workers
For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, regulation 15B sets a separate method for irregular-hours workers (whose hours in a pay period often or always change) and part-year workers (who have periods of at least a week in the leave year when they are not required to work and are not paid, such as some term-time staff). Holiday builds up on the last day of each pay period at 12.07% of the hours actually worked in that period.
Each pay period's figure is rounded to the nearest hour: less than 30 minutes is ignored and 30 minutes or more counts as a full hour. Working 30 hours in a week gives 30 × 12.07% = 3.621, which rounds to 4 hours. Accrual stops at 28 days in a leave year. During sick leave or family leave, these workers continue to accrue holiday based on their average hours over the previous 52 weeks.
Employers can also choose rolled-up holiday pay for these workers, adding holiday pay to each payment instead of paying it when leave is taken.
Holiday pay
Each week of statutory leave is paid at a week's pay. For regular-hours workers, the first 4 weeks must be paid at the normal rate, including regular overtime and commission, and the remaining 1.6 weeks at least at the basic rate. Irregular-hours and part-year workers must be paid at their normal rate for all of their leave, based on average pay over the previous 52 paid weeks. From 6 April 2026, employers must keep records of annual leave and holiday pay for at least 6 years.
What this calculator does not cover
- Northern Ireland. Holiday there is governed by the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, which this calculator does not apply;
- Shift patterns and compressed hours. Uneven shifts need converting to an average number of days or hours per week first;
- Carry-over. Leave carried forward because of sickness, family leave or an employer's failure to allow it;
- Leave already taken. Subtract this yourself to see what is left;
- Contractual leave. Anything above the statutory minimum follows your contract.
Getting it right
Holiday accrual and holiday pay for variable-hours staff are among the most common payroll errors, and underpayments can be claimed at a tribunal. Our payroll management service calculates leave and holiday pay correctly, including for irregular-hours staff. For leavers being made redundant, see our redundancy pay calculator.