How statutory holiday is calculated
Fixed days: days worked per week × 5.6, capped at 28 days. Fixed hours: hours worked per week × 5.6. Part of the year: multiply by the fraction of the leave year you are employed. Employers can round up but not down. Irregular hours or part-year workers: 12.07% of the hours worked in each pay period.
Why 12.07%? 5.6 weeks of holiday out of 52 weeks leaves 46.4 working weeks, and 5.6 ÷ 46.4 = 12.07%.
Worked examples
Three days a week, full leave year
3 × 5.6 = 16.8 days a year.
- Full-year entitlement
- 16.8 days
- In weeks
- 5.6 weeks
- Value of the leave
- £1,638
- Days per week
- 3
- × 5.6 weeks
- 16.8 days
- Bank holidays
- Included in this entitlement
Someone who starts a five-day job four months before the end of the leave year is entitled to 28 × 4/12 = 9.33 days, usually rounded up to 9.5 or 10.
A zero-hours worker who works 120 hours in a month accrues 120 × 12.07% = 14.48 hours of paid holiday for that month.
What changed recently
The rules for irregular-hours and part-year workers were reformed for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024: accrual at 12.07% and the option of rolled-up holiday pay replaced the old 52-week averaging for these workers. Holiday pay for the first 4 weeks must include regular overtime, commission and allowances; the remaining 1.6 weeks can be paid at basic pay.
Tips
- Find your leave year in your contract; if none is stated it starts on the date you started (or 1 October for jobs before 1998).
- Ask for holiday in writing with notice of at least twice the length of the leave you want.
- Check holiday pay includes regular overtime — a frequent underpayment.