UK Holiday Entitlement Calculator
Work out your statutory annual leave entitlement, whether you work a regular fixed pattern or irregular hours, including a start date or leaving date part way through the leave year and the pay owed for untaken holiday when you leave. Free, instant, and calculated entirely in your browser; no email or phone number required.
Annual Holiday Entitlement
28.0 days/year
estimate only
Workers with a regular fixed pattern build up 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday per year (their days worked per week × 5.6), capped at 28 days for anyone working 5 or more days a week. Workers with irregular hours or part-year contracts instead accrue holiday as they work, at 12.07% of hours worked in a pay period. That rate comes directly from the 5.6-week statutory entitlement divided by the 46.4 weeks left in a year after taking it (52 − 5.6 = 46.4, and 5.6 / 46.4 ≈ 12.07%). This is an estimate of the statutory minimum; your contract may provide more, and your employer makes the binding calculation.
How Holiday Entitlement Works
Workers with a regular, fixed working pattern build up statutory holiday at 5.6 weeks per year: their number of working days per week multiplied by 5.6, capped at 28 days for anyone working 5 or more days a week. A worker on a standard 5-day week gets the full 28 days; someone working 3 days a week gets a proportionally smaller entitlement.
Workers with irregular hours or part-year contracts, such as casual or zero-hours workers, instead accrue holiday as they actually work, at 12.07% of the hours worked in each pay period. See gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights for the official rules, and the full holiday entitlement guide for holiday pay calculations, carrying leave over, and what happens on termination.
Starting or Leaving Part Way Through the Year
If you start a job part way through the leave year, the Working Time Regulations 1998 give you the share of the year's entitlement that matches the share of the leave year left (regulation 13(5)). The gov.uk calculator, which this tool follows, uses the first-year accrual method instead: one-twelfth of the yearly entitlement for each month, counted from the month you start, with a fraction of a day rounded up to a half or whole day (regulation 15A). That gives a slightly higher figure, and gov.uk says an employer may pro-rate the first month, so your employer's figure can be a little lower. If you leave part way through the year, your entitlement is the share of the leave year you were employed (if you start and leave in the same year, gov.uk measures the share of the 12 months from your start date), and unless your contract or a workforce agreement sets the payment, you are paid for holiday you built up but did not take: the entitlement, times the proportion of the leave year that has passed, minus the days already taken (regulation 14). Regulation 14 has no rounding; the gov.uk calculator rounds up to one decimal place, and rounding down would pay less than the statutory amount.
| Situation (5 days a week, leave year from 1 April 2026) | Working | Holiday (gov.uk method) |
|---|---|---|
| Start on 10 June 2026 | 28 × 10/12 = 23.33, rounded up to the half day (regulation 13(5) share of the year left: 22.63) | 23.5 days |
| Start on 15 November 2026 | 28 × 5/12 = 11.67, rounded up | 12 days |
| Leave on 30 September 2026 | 28 × 183/365 days = 14.04 | 14.1 days |
| Start 10 June 2026, leave 20 January 2027 | 28 × 225 days / 365 (the 12 months from the start date) = 17.26 | 17.3 days |
| 3 days a week, leave on 30 September 2026 | 16.8 × 183/365 days = 8.42 | 8.5 days |
Pay for untaken holiday. Someone leaving on 30 September 2026 who has taken 10 days and earns £500 a week over 5 days has 14.0384 − 10 = 4.0384 days owed (about 4.04), at a day's pay of £100, so about £403.84 before tax. If you are on fixed pay for regular hours, a week's pay is simply your normal weekly pay. If your pay varies, it is averaged over the last 52 weeks in which you were paid, and for 4 of the 5.6 weeks it includes regular overtime and commission. If you have taken more holiday than you built up, your employer can only take the difference back if your contract or a written agreement allows it.
Where this applies. The calculator follows the Working Time Regulations 1998, which cover England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016 and has not adopted the 12.07% method for irregular-hours and part-year workers, so the irregular-hours mode does not apply there. The calculator does not cover holiday carried over from an earlier year, contractual holiday above the statutory minimum, or leave built up during long-term sickness or family leave.
Where the 12.07% Accrual Rate Comes From
The 12.07% figure is not an arbitrary round number; it is derived directly from the statutory 5.6-week annual leave entitlement. A working year has 52 weeks. Take away the 5.6 weeks a worker is entitled to as paid leave, and 46.4 weeks are left as working weeks. Dividing the leave entitlement by the working weeks (5.6 ÷ 46.4) gives approximately 12.07%, which is then applied to hours actually worked so that holiday builds up fairly even when hours vary week to week.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many days of statutory holiday am I entitled to?
A worker on a standard 5-day week is entitled to 28 days of statutory annual leave a year (5 days x 5.6 weeks, capped at 28). Someone working fewer days per week gets a proportionally smaller entitlement.
What is the 12.07% method and who is it for?
The 12.07% method is for irregular-hours or part-year workers whose hours vary and who cannot easily be given a fixed annual number of days. It applies 12.07% to the hours actually worked in each pay period, derived from the 5.6-week statutory entitlement divided by the 46.4 remaining working weeks in a year.
Does holiday entitlement include bank holidays?
It can. The statutory 5.6-week entitlement can be used to cover bank/public holidays, and many employers do build them in; there is no separate additional statutory right to bank holidays off on top of the 5.6 weeks. Check the specific employment contract.
Can my employer offer more holiday than the statutory minimum?
Yes. Many employers offer more than the statutory minimum as part of their benefits package. This calculator estimates the statutory floor only.
Does part-time work reduce my holiday entitlement?
It reduces it proportionally, not disproportionately. A part-time worker on 3 days a week is entitled to 3 x 5.6 = 16.8 days a year, the same pro-rata share as a full-time worker gets.
Do I get paid for unused holiday when I leave my job?
Yes. When your job ends you must be paid for statutory holiday you built up in the current leave year but did not take (regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998). Choose "Starting or leaving part way" in the calculator, enter your leaving date, the days you have taken and your average weekly pay to estimate it.
Does this tool store or send my information anywhere?
No. All of the math runs in your browser. Nothing you type into this calculator is saved, transmitted, or used to contact you.
This calculator estimates statutory holiday entitlement using the published formulas for regular and irregular-hours workers, checked against the Working Time Regulations 1998 on legislation.gov.uk and the gov.uk holiday calculator on 26 September 2026. It is general information, not legal advice, and RecordingLaw.com is not affiliated with any UK government body. Your employer makes the binding calculation for your actual entitlement, based on the contract of employment.
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