Holiday Entitlement Calculator UK

A holiday entitlement calculator works out the minimum paid annual leave a worker is entitled to under UK law. Our free tool covers the three situations employers and staff ask about most: fixed days a week, fixed hours a week, and irregular hours or part-year work. It applies the statutory 5.6 weeks capped at 28 days, pro-rates leave when someone starts or leaves part way through the leave year, and uses the 12.07% accrual method for irregular-hours and part-year workers in leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024. You also get a clear note on whether bank holidays are included. Results update as you type and nothing leaves your browser.

How to use the Holiday entitlement

1. 1 Choose how the person worksPick days a week for a fixed number of days, hours a week for fixed hours, or irregular hours for zero-hours, casual and term-time work.
2. 2 Enter the working patternType the days per week, or the hours per week and the number of days they are spread over. For irregular hours, paste the hours from each pay period, one per line.
3. 3 Add start or leaving dates if neededTick part way through the leave year and enter the leave year start, the start date, the leaving date or both, plus any holiday already taken.
4. 4 Say how bank holidays are treatedTick the box if bank holidays come out of the entitlement and enter how many fall on working days, to see what is left to book.
5. 5 Read and copy the resultCheck the headline figure, the breakdown and the notes on how it was worked out, then copy the result for a letter, contract or payroll.

The statutory minimum: 5.6 weeks, capped at 28 days

Almost all workers in the UK are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year. That includes agency workers, workers on zero-hours contracts and most part-time staff, as well as employees. For someone who works five days a week, 5.6 weeks is 28 days. The statutory entitlement is capped at 28 days, so a person who works six days a week still has a statutory minimum of 28 days, not 33.6.

The entitlement starts from the first day of work. There is no qualifying period, although in the first year an employer can limit how much leave is taken in advance of it being built up.

An employer can give more than the minimum in the contract, and many do. This calculator shows the legal floor. If a contract gives more, the contract wins, and for leave beyond the statutory minimum the contract also sets the rules for things such as carry-over and pay in lieu.

Part-time and fixed-hours workers

Part-time workers with regular hours get 5.6 weeks pro rata. The simplest way to work it out is to multiply the days worked each week by 5.6. Someone who works three days a week is entitled to at least 16.8 days. Employers can round up but must not round down below the statutory minimum.

When days are different lengths, it is often fairer to work in hours. Multiply the usual weekly hours by 5.6. A person working 30 hours a week gets 168 hours of leave, and when they book a day off, the hours they would have worked that day come out of the total. The 28-day cap still applies, so for someone working more than five days a week the calculator caps leave at 28 days of their average day length. Hours-based leave avoids arguments over whether a short day counts as a full day.

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

For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, irregular-hours workers and part-year workers build up holiday at 12.07% of the hours they actually work in each pay period. An irregular-hours worker is someone whose paid hours in each pay period are wholly or mostly variable under their contract, such as a zero-hours or casual worker. A part-year worker is someone who is only required to work part of the year, with unpaid weeks in between, such as some term-time staff.

The 12.07% figure comes from 5.6 weeks of leave divided by the 46.4 weeks a year when someone is not on leave. GOV.UK gives the example of a worker paid weekly who works 30 hours: 30 times 12.07% is 3.621 hours, which is rounded up to 4 hours of leave. GOV.UK says the figure must be rounded up to the nearest hour if it is 0.5 of an hour or more. Leave built up in one pay period can be taken from the next one.

Paste the hours from each payslip into the irregular hours box and the calculator shows the exact accrual for each pay period, the rounded figure, and the total built up so far. If the leave year started on or before 31 March 2024, the older rules applied to that leave year, but those years have now ended for almost everyone. These 2024 reforms apply in England, Scotland and Wales; Northern Ireland has its own working time rules.

Starting or leaving part way through the leave year

Someone who starts or leaves part way through a leave year is only entitled to part of the full year's leave. The calculator works out the share of the leave year they are employed for, counted in days, and applies it to the full entitlement. For example, a full-time worker who starts on 1 July in a leave year running from 1 January is employed for 184 of the 365 days, so they get about 14.1 days, which rounds up to 14.5.

In the first year of a job, GOV.UK explains that leave builds up at one twelfth of the annual amount each month, rounded up to the nearest half day, although employers can choose to pro-rate the first month. The calculator shows both the exact pro-rata figure and the figure rounded up to the nearest half day. When someone leaves, enter the leaving date and the holiday already taken. If they have leave left, they must be paid for statutory leave they have built up but not taken. If they have taken more than they built up, the employer can only recover the overpayment if a written agreement, usually the contract, allows it.

If the contract does not say when the leave year starts, it starts on the first day of the job, or on 1 October for someone who started on or before 1 October 1998.

Are bank holidays included?

There is no legal right to paid time off on bank holidays on top of the 5.6 weeks. An employer can include bank holidays as part of the statutory entitlement, which is common, or give them in addition. A full-time worker on 28 days with bank holidays included therefore has 20 days to book freely in a year with eight bank holidays.

England and Wales usually have 8 bank holidays a year, Scotland 9 and Northern Ireland 10, although the exact number can vary when an extra holiday is announced. Part-time workers should not be treated less favourably because their working days happen to fall on bank holidays, which is one reason many employers give part-timers a pro-rata bank holiday allowance in hours or days. Tick the bank holiday box and enter how many fall on working days to see what is left to book.

Sources and limits

This calculator shows the statutory minimum only. It does not work out holiday pay, rolled-up holiday pay, carry-over, or leave affected by sickness, maternity or other family leave. Rules for 2026/27, last checked in October 2026 against GOV.UK:

• Holiday entitlement (5.6 weeks, 28-day cap, part-time, bank holidays, leave year): https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights
• Calculate leave entitlement (12.07%, rounding, starting part way): https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/calculate-leave-entitlement
• Holiday pay and entitlement reforms from 1 January 2024: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/simplifying-holiday-entitlement-and-holiday-pay-calculations/holiday-pay-and-entitlement-reforms-from-1-january-2024

Examples you can copy

1 day a week   ->  5.6 days
2 days a week  ->  11.2 days
3 days a week  ->  16.8 days
4 days a week  ->  22.4 days
5 days a week  ->  28 days
6 days a week  ->  28 days (capped)

Pay period  Hours  x 12.07%  Accrued
Week 1      30     3.621     4  (0.5+ rounds up)
Week 2      41     4.949     5
Week 3      18     2.173     2.173

Common mistakes to avoid

Frequently asked questions