Holiday entitlement calculator

Almost every worker is entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday a year. For someone who works 5 days a week, that is 28 days.

The legal minimum is capped at 28 days, so a person who works 6 days a week is still entitled to 28 days by law. An employer can choose to give more.

Source: GOV.UK, Holiday entitlement

Multiply the number of days they work each week by 5.6. Someone who works 3 days a week gets at least 16.8 days (3 × 5.6), and someone who works 4 days gets at least 22.4 days.

If full-time staff get more than the legal minimum, part-time staff must get the same extra on a pro rata basis, because part-time workers can’t be treated less favourably.

Sources: Acas, How much holiday someone gets, GOV.UK, Holiday entitlement

They can be. There is no legal right to paid time off on bank holidays, and an employer can count them as part of the 5.6 weeks. Other employers give them on top. The contract or written statement should say which applies.

Part-time staff get the same pro rata entitlement whichever days they work. If you close on bank holidays, count the ones that fall on each person’s working days as used leave, and let them book the rest of their entitlement as normal. Acas’s guidance has a worked example.

Sources: GOV.UK, Holiday entitlement, Acas, Bank holidays and Christmas

For leave years that start 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. It is added on the last day of the pay period.

Part hours are rounded to the nearest hour: under 30 minutes rounds down, and 30 minutes or more rounds up. For example, 30 hours worked in a weekly pay period gives 4 hours’ holiday (30 × 12.07% = 3.62 hours).

Sources: GOV.UK, Calculate leave entitlement, Acas, Irregular hours and part-year workers

An irregular-hours worker is someone whose paid hours in each pay period are wholly or mostly variable under their contract. This usually includes zero-hours, casual and bank staff.

A part-year worker is contracted to work only part of the year, with periods of at least a week when they aren’t required to work and aren’t paid, such as some term-time or seasonal staff. Someone on a fixed rota, even one that changes from week to week in a set pattern, is not an irregular-hours worker.

Source: Acas, Irregular hours and part-year workers

It is 5.6 weeks of holiday divided by the 46.4 weeks left to work in a 52-week year (5.6 ÷ 46.4 = 12.07%).

It only covers the legal minimum. If a contract gives more holiday, Acas says the employer needs to adjust the percentage.

Source: Acas, Irregular hours and part-year workers

Only for irregular-hours and part-year workers, and only for leave years that start on or after 1 April 2024. Holiday pay is then paid at the same time as their wages, at a rate of at least 12.07% of their pay for work done in each pay period, and shown as a separate item on the payslip.

They get no extra pay when they actually take the holiday, and you must still make sure they can take it. For regular-hours workers, full-time or part-time, holiday pay can’t be included in the hourly rate.

Sources: GOV.UK, Holiday pay, Acas, Rolled-up holiday pay

They get a share of the full year, based on how much of the leave year is left. In the first year, leave builds up at one-twelfth of the yearly amount each month, and someone who starts part-way through a month earns that month’s twelfth from their first day.

Part days in the first year are rounded up to the nearest half day. On 28 days a year, one month is 2.33 days, which rounds up to 2.5. An employer can choose to pro-rate the first month by days instead.

Sources: GOV.UK, Calculate leave entitlement, Acas, How much holiday someone gets

Work out the holiday they have built up in the leave year up to their last day, take away what they have already used, and pay the rest in their final pay. This is the only time statutory leave can be replaced with pay, and it applies even if they are dismissed for gross misconduct.

If they have taken more holiday than they built up, you can only take the difference from their final pay if this was agreed in writing beforehand, sometimes called a payback clause.

Sources: GOV.UK, Taking holiday before leaving a job, Acas, Asking for and taking holiday

Normally, statutory holiday should be taken in the leave year. Where a contract, workforce agreement or collective agreement allows it, someone who gets 28 days can carry over up to 8 days. Holiday that couldn’t be taken because of statutory leave, such as maternity leave, must be allowed to carry over.

Someone on long-term sick leave can carry over up to 4 weeks (20 days on a 5-day week), or up to 28 days if they are an irregular-hours or part-year worker, and must use it within 18 months of the end of the leave year it was built up in. Leave can also be carried over, up to 4 weeks, if the employer didn’t let the worker take it, didn’t encourage them to, or didn’t warn them it would be lost.

Sources: GOV.UK, Calculate leave entitlement, Acas, Carrying over holiday

Yes. Holiday keeps building up during sick leave and during statutory leave such as maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave. It also builds up during a probation period.

A worker who is off sick can ask to take holiday at the same time.

Sources: Acas, How much holiday someone gets, GOV.UK, Holiday entitlement

A worker gets a week’s pay for each week of statutory leave. For regular-hours workers, at least 4 of the 5.6 weeks must be paid at their normal rate, which includes commission, regular overtime and payments linked to length of service or professional qualifications. The other 1.6 weeks can be paid at the basic rate.

For irregular-hours and part-year workers, all leave is paid at the normal rate, based on their average pay over the previous 52 weeks in which they were paid.

Sources: GOV.UK, Holiday pay, Acas, Holiday pay for irregular hours and part-year workers

Yes. Since 6 April 2026, employers must keep records of annual leave and holiday pay, including leave carried over, for at least 6 years from the date they were made.

You can choose how you keep them, but you may be fined if you can’t show that you keep them.

Sources: GOV.UK, Holiday pay, Acas, Irregular hours and part-year workers

At the moment, unpaid statutory holiday pay is mainly enforced by workers themselves, through an employment tribunal. For problems that arise on or after 1 October 2026, the time limit for most tribunal claims is 6 months, up from 3.

The Fair Work Agency was set up on 7 April 2026, and the Government has said it will enforce statutory holiday pay from 2027. A consultation on how this will work closed on 22 September 2026, and the Government’s response is awaited.

Sources: business.gov.uk, Employment tribunal time limits, GOV.UK, Holiday pay compliance and enforcement consultation

By law, a worker should ask for holiday at least twice as many days in advance as the leave they want, so 20 days’ notice for 10 days off. An employer can refuse or cancel holiday, but must say so at least as many days in advance as the leave requested, and should have a good business reason.

An employer can also make staff take holiday on set dates, for example a Christmas shutdown, by giving at least twice as many calendar days’ notice as the leave to be taken. A contract or other relevant agreement can set different notice periods. An employer can’t stop a worker taking any holiday at all.

Sources: Acas, Asking for and taking holiday, Acas, Bank holidays and Christmas

No. This calculator follows the Working Time Regulations 1998, which cover England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own regulations and guidance, so employers there should check nidirect.

Sources: legislation.gov.uk, Working Time Regulations 1998, nidirect, Holiday entitlements

No to both. It is an independent, free MadyHR.ai tool that follows published GOV.UK and Acas guidance to work out the statutory minimum. It is not GOV.UK or Acas software and is not endorsed by any government body. A contract can give more than the minimum, and the contract then decides.

No. The calculator is web-based only and runs entirely in your browser. Names, dates and figures you enter are not sent to our servers, stored or used for analytics. If you use the Copy link button, your answers are written into the link you copy and nowhere else.