Holiday Entitlement for Part Time Workers in the UK: How to Work It Out

Holiday entitlement for part time workers in the UK is at least 5.6 weeks of paid leave a year, scaled to the days or hours they work. Multiply the number of days worked each week by 5.6 to get the minimum in days. Someone working three days a week is entitled to at least 16.8 days of paid holiday a year.

The basic sum is simple. The harder parts are working in hours when shifts vary, deciding how bank holidays fit in, handling irregular hours and term-time staff, and settling up when someone leaves. This guide covers each one with the official GOV.UK and Acas wording, plus worked examples you can use for your own team.

To skip the maths, our free holiday entitlement calculator works out entitlement in days or hours, including part-year starters and leavers.

The legal minimum: 5.6 weeks

GOV.UK's holiday entitlement guidance says almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year, and that statutory paid holiday is limited to 28 days. A five-day worker gets 5 × 5.6 = 28 days. Someone working six days a week also gets 28 days, because of the cap.

Part-time workers get the same 5.6 weeks, which simply means fewer days because each of their weeks is shorter. The minimum is the minimum: employers can offer more in the contract, and many do.

Holiday entitlement for part time workers: the pro rata formula

For regular hours, Acas gives the formula: days worked each week × 5.6.

Statutory leave can't be rounded down. Many employers round up to the nearest half or whole day to keep things simple, which is fine because it gives the worker more, not less.

Working in hours instead of days

If someone works different lengths of day, hours are fairer than days. Multiply the regular weekly hours by 5.6:

• 22.5 hours a week × 5.6 = 126 hours of holiday a year
• 16 hours a week × 5.6 = 89.6 hours a year
• 30 hours a week × 5.6 = 168 hours a year

When the worker takes a day off, deduct the hours they would have worked that day. A Monday of 7.5 hours uses 7.5 hours; a Friday of 4 hours uses 4.

If full-time staff get more than the minimum

If your full-time staff get, say, 25 days plus bank holidays, part-timers should get the same entitlement pro rata. Acas notes that if full-time workers get more than the legal minimum, part-time workers must get more than the legal minimum too. The simple method is: full-time entitlement × (part-time hours ÷ full-time hours).

Example: full-time staff work 37.5 hours and get 33 days including bank holidays (247.5 hours). A 22.5-hour part-timer gets 247.5 × (22.5 ÷ 37.5) = 148.5 hours.

Bank holidays for part-timers

GOV.UK says employers can choose to include bank holidays as part of statutory leave, and there's no legal right to paid time off on bank holidays beyond that. England and Wales have eight bank holidays in a typical year, Scotland and Northern Ireland have different ones. See our guide to working days in 2027 for the full list.

The problem is that most bank holidays fall on Mondays. A part-timer who doesn't work Mondays would get fewer days off than a colleague who does, which can be less favourable treatment. The common fix is to:

1. Give everyone a pro rata entitlement in hours that already includes bank holidays.
2. Deduct bank holiday hours only from staff who would normally work that day.
3. Let part-timers who don't work bank holidays use the remaining hours on other days.

This keeps everyone on the same pro rata total, whichever days they work.

Irregular hours and part-year workers: the 12.07% rule

For workers whose hours vary a lot (such as zero-hours staff) or who only work part of the year (such as term-time staff), Acas explains that from 1 April 2024 they accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours they work in each pay period. GOV.UK's guidance confirms that this applies to leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024. For earlier leave years, entitlement didn't have to be accrued on hours already worked.

Why 12.07%? It's 5.6 weeks of holiday divided by the 46.4 weeks a year a full-time worker is actually at work (52 − 5.6), which comes to about 12.07%.

GOV.UK's worked example: someone works 30 hours in a weekly pay period and accrues about 3.6 hours. Accrued holiday must be rounded up to the nearest hour if it's 0.5 of an hour or more, so that's 4 hours.

Rolled-up holiday pay

For irregular hours and part-year workers only, employers can choose to use rolled-up holiday pay instead of accruing leave. Acas says it must be at least 12.07% of the worker's total pay for the period, paid with their wages and shown as a separate item on the payslip. The worker still takes time off, they've just been paid for it in advance.

Rolled-up holiday pay isn't allowed for workers with regular hours.

Starting part way through the year

New starters only get part of the year's leave. GOV.UK explains that a worker who starts part way through a month can accrue one-twelfth of their leave from their first day. In GOV.UK's example, someone starting on 13 January with 28 days a year gets 2.5 days for January (rounded to the nearest half day).

A simple pro rata method: annual entitlement × (months remaining in the leave year ÷ 12). For a three-day-a-week worker starting with six months of the leave year left: 16.8 × 6 ÷ 12 = 8.4 days.

Leaving a job: holiday and pay in lieu

GOV.UK's guidance on leaving covers the main points:

• Workers may be able to take remaining statutory leave during their notice period.
• Payment in place of statutory leave is only allowed when someone leaves.
• Employers must pay for untaken statutory leave even if the worker is dismissed for gross misconduct.
• If someone has taken more leave than they've accrued, the employer must not take money from their final pay unless that's been agreed in writing beforehand.

Leaver worked example

A four-day-a-week worker (22.4 days a year) leaves exactly nine months into the leave year and has taken 12 days.

1. Accrued: 22.4 × 9 ÷ 12 = 16.8 days
2. Taken: 12 days
3. Owed: 4.8 days, paid at their normal daily rate in the final pay

To find the leave year position, count the days between dates with the working days calculator.

A checklist for employers

1. Put the leave year start date and the entitlement in every contract.
2. Use hours rather than days for anyone whose days vary in length.
3. Decide in writing whether bank holidays are included, and apply it pro rata.
4. Identify irregular hours and part-year workers and apply 12.07% accrual (or rolled-up pay) correctly.
5. Record holiday accrued and taken for every worker.
6. Calculate leavers' holiday pay from accrual, not guesswork.

Holiday also affects pay. Our guide to take home pay explains how holiday pay is taxed like any other pay, and the take-home pay calculator shows the net amount.

Make It Flow builds rota and HR admin automations for businesses such as restaurants and hospitality, where shifts change every week. Managers keep the final say on leave decisions. If you'd like to automate holiday tracking, get in touch.

FAQ

How many days holiday does a 3 day a week worker get?

At least 16.8 days of paid holiday a year, which is 3 × 5.6. That figure can include bank holidays if the contract says so. Many employers round it up to 17 days for simplicity. If full-time staff get more than the minimum, the part-timer should get the same extra on a pro rata basis.

Do part-time workers get bank holidays?

There's no automatic legal right to bank holidays off with pay. They can count towards statutory leave. To avoid treating part-timers less favourably, many employers give everyone a pro rata entitlement that includes bank holidays and deduct them only from staff who would normally work that day.

How is holiday calculated for zero-hours workers?

For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, zero-hours and other irregular hours workers accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours they work in each pay period, rounded up to the nearest hour if it's half an hour or more. Employers can instead choose rolled-up holiday pay of at least 12.07% of pay.

Where does 12.07% come from?

It's 5.6 weeks of leave divided by the 46.4 weeks a year that remain when you take 5.6 weeks off a 52-week year. That gives roughly 12.07%. It means a worker builds up leave in the same proportion to time worked as a full-time employee does.

Can my employer pay me instead of giving me holiday?

Not for statutory leave while you're still employed, unless you're an irregular hours or part-year worker paid rolled-up holiday pay. Payment in lieu of statutory leave is only allowed when the job ends. Any contractual leave above the statutory minimum depends on what your contract says.

Can a part-time worker get more holiday than 28 days?

Statutory leave is capped at 28 days, which a part-timer won't reach. But employers can offer more than the statutory minimum to anyone, and if full-time staff get extra contractual leave, part-timers should receive a pro rata share of it too.