Holiday Entitlement Calculator

How the holiday entitlement calculator works

1. 1

   Choose the working pattern that matches your contract

   Use regular days if you work a set number of days each week, regular hours if you want the answer in hours, or irregular hours if your hours change from week to week or you only work part of the year.

2. 2

   Enter the days or hours you work each week

   For fixed patterns, enter the days per week you are contracted to work and, if you want an hours answer, the total hours you work in a normal week. The calculator derives your average working day from those two figures.

3. 3

   Set the part of the leave year you are calculating

   If you joined or left partway through the leave year, set the number of months you are covering. The calculator pro-rates the annual figure and rounds the part-year result up to the nearest half day.

4. 4

   Read your entitlement in days or hours

   The result shows the full-year entitlement, the entitlement for the period you selected, and for irregular-hours workers the hours accrued from the hours you entered for the pay period.

The holiday entitlement formula

Annual entitlement = days worked per week x 5.6 weeks, capped at 28 days Irregular hours or part-year = hours worked in the pay period x 12.07%

• •The 28-day cap means workers who do more than five days a week do not gain extra statutory holiday, although a contract can always be more generous.
• •Part-year entitlement is the annual figure multiplied by the fraction of the leave year worked, then rounded up to the nearest half day.
• •The 12.07% accrual rate applies to irregular-hours and part-year workers for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024.
• •This tool calculates entitlement, not holiday pay. The amount you are paid for each day of holiday is a separate calculation.

Worked example: three days a week, joining halfway through the leave year

Priya works three days a week, 22.5 hours in total, and joins her employer exactly six months into the company's leave year. Her contract gives the statutory minimum.

Statutory weeks

5.6 weeks

Days worked per week

3

Full-year entitlement

16.8 days

Months of the leave year worked

6

Entitlement for the period, rounded up to the nearest half day

8.5 days

Priya is entitled to 8.5 days of paid statutory holiday for her first six months, from a full-year entitlement of 16.8 days.

Statutory holiday entitlement by working pattern

Statutory minimum entitlement for each pattern. Many contracts give more than the minimum, and bank holidays can be counted as part of the 5.6 weeks.

Source: UK Government, UK Government

Who qualifies, and what the entitlement does not include

Almost all workers qualify, from the first day of work

Statutory paid holiday applies to workers as well as employees, including agency workers and most people on zero-hours contracts. Entitlement starts building up as soon as work starts.

The entitlement is capped at 28 days

Statutory holiday is 5.6 weeks but no more than 28 days, so someone working six days a week still receives 28 days unless their contract is more generous than the statutory minimum.

Bank holidays are not automatically extra

There is no statutory right to paid leave on bank holidays. An employer can include the eight bank holidays in England and Wales within the 5.6 weeks, so check whether your contract says holiday is inclusive or exclusive of them.

Irregular-hours and part-year workers use accrual instead

For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours worked in each pay period rather than receiving a fixed annual number of days.

Frequently asked questions

Does the 5.6 weeks include bank holidays?

It can. There is no separate statutory right to paid leave on bank holidays, so an employer is allowed to count them as part of your 5.6 weeks' statutory entitlement. Your contract should state whether your holiday allowance is inclusive or exclusive of bank holidays, and it is worth checking before you book leave because the two arrangements give very different amounts of discretionary time off.

How much holiday do part-time workers get?

Part-time workers get the same 5.6 weeks, but measured against their own working pattern rather than a full-time one. Someone working three days a week is entitled to 16.8 days, and someone working two days a week is entitled to 11.2 days. Because the entitlement is expressed in weeks, part-time workers are not disadvantaged compared with full-time colleagues on the statutory minimum.

Why is statutory holiday capped at 28 days?

The statutory entitlement is 5.6 weeks up to a maximum of 28 days. For anyone working five days a week the two figures are the same, but for a six-day week 5.6 weeks would come to 33.6 days, so the cap holds the statutory minimum at 28 days. An employer can always offer more than the statutory minimum through the contract of employment.

How does the 12.07% accrual rate for irregular hours work?

For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, irregular-hours and part-year workers build up holiday at 12.07% of the hours they actually work in each pay period. If you work 68 hours in a month you accrue roughly 8 hours of paid holiday for that month. The percentage reflects 5.6 weeks of holiday as a proportion of the 46.4 working weeks left in the year.

Does this calculator also work out holiday pay?

No. This tool calculates how much holiday you are entitled to, not what each day of that holiday is worth. Holiday pay depends on your pay pattern and, for workers with variable pay, on an average of earnings over a reference period. Irregular-hours and part-year workers may instead receive rolled-up holiday pay, which is a separate calculation again.