Holiday Entitlement UK: 5.6 Weeks and 12.07%

Most workers in Great Britain are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year under the Working Time Regulations 1998, capped at 28 days for a standard 5-day week, with a separate 12.07% accrual rule for irregular-hours and part-year workers.

How Much Holiday You're Entitled To

The Working Time Regulations 1998 set a statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year for almost all workers, whether full-time or part-time. For someone working a standard 5-day week, 5.6 weeks works out at 28 days, and that figure is also the statutory cap: working 6 or 7 days a week does not entitle a worker to more than 28 days off. An employer's contract can offer more than the statutory minimum, but it can never offer less. Holiday builds up (accrues) across the leave year, and most contracts set out when that leave year starts, commonly 1 January, 1 April, or the anniversary of employment.

Use the UK holiday entitlement calculator to work out an estimate for a specific work pattern. It mirrors the statutory formulas on this page; an employer's own records and payslips remain the final word on what has actually accrued or been paid.

Part-Time and Pro-Rata Holiday

Part-time workers are entitled to the same 5.6 weeks as full-time staff, but it is calculated pro-rata to the days or hours they normally work. The simplest method for someone with fixed days each week is to multiply the number of days worked by 5.6. Someone working 3 fixed days a week is entitled to 5.6 x 3 = 16.8 days a year. This pro-rata approach applies to workers with regular, fixed hours or days. Workers whose hours vary from week to week, such as casual staff or those on zero-hours contracts, are instead covered by the irregular-hours accrual rules described below, because a fixed weekly-days calculation does not work for a genuinely variable schedule.

Bank Holidays: Included, Not Extra

There is no separate statutory right to have bank holidays off work or paid. Employers can choose to count bank holidays within a worker's 5.6-week statutory entitlement, effectively treating them as part of the annual allowance, or they can offer bank holidays in addition to the 5.6 weeks as a contractual extra. Whether bank holidays are included or added on top depends entirely on the contract of employment, so workers should check their contract or staff handbook rather than assume bank holidays are automatically a bonus on top of their statutory leave.

Holiday Pay: What Counts as a Week's Pay

Holiday pay is normally based on a week's normal pay, not simply basic salary. For workers with fixed pay, this is usually their regular weekly wage. For workers whose pay varies, a week's normal pay should reflect what they normally earn, which includes regular, non-guaranteed overtime, commission, and other payments intrinsically linked to the work they do, averaged over a reference period set out in the regulations. Leaving out regular overtime or commission when calculating holiday pay can leave a worker underpaid for the leave they take, since the aim of holiday pay is to put a worker in a similar financial position on leave as they would be in while working.

Irregular Hours and Part-Year Workers: The 12.07% Rule

For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, workers classed as irregular hours or part-year (for example, casual staff, some zero-hours workers, or term-time-only staff whose hours or weeks worked vary across the year) accrue holiday at a rate of 12.07% of the hours they actually work in each pay period, rather than building up a fixed number of weeks. That rate is not arbitrary; it comes directly from the standard 5.6-week statutory entitlement.

Because a worker on the statutory minimum takes 5.6 weeks off and works the remaining 46.4 weeks, expressing that same entitlement as a share of hours worked gives 5.6 divided by 46.4, which rounds to 12.07%. Applying 12.07% to hours actually worked in each pay period spreads holiday accrual evenly across a year in which hours or weeks worked are not consistent.

Rolled-Up Holiday Pay

For irregular-hours and part-year workers, in leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, employers may use rolled-up holiday pay instead of paying workers only when they take leave. Under this method, an employer adds a 12.07% uplift to a worker's normal wages, paid at the same time as those wages, rather than paying separately for each period of leave taken. Rolled-up holiday pay should be identified clearly on the worker's payslip so it is transparent how much of their pay relates to holiday. This method is only permitted for irregular-hours and part-year workers; it is not a general option for calculating holiday pay for workers with regular, fixed hours.

Northern Ireland: What's Different

Northern Ireland has its own Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, which set out near-identical rights to the GB rules described above, including the 5.6-week statutory minimum, the 28-day cap, and the 12.07% accrual approach for irregular-hours and part-year workers. A dispute over holiday pay or entitlement in Northern Ireland is heard by the Industrial Tribunal rather than the Employment Tribunal, and conciliation is provided by the Labour Relations Agency (LRA) rather than ACAS.

Related guides

For the full picture of UK employment rights, see our UK employment law hub and United Kingdom laws hub. See also our guides to statutory sick pay, notice periods, and the employment tribunal process for pursuing an unresolved holiday pay dispute.

This article is general information only, not legal advice, and does not cover every circumstance. Holiday entitlement and pay depend on the individual contract of employment, and rules can change; for advice about a specific situation contact ACAS, Citizens Advice, or a qualified solicitor, or, in Northern Ireland, the Labour Relations Agency.