Holiday Calculator Work Out Your UK Holiday Entitlement
Two calculators in one. If you work regular hours, it works out your entitlement for the year, pro-rated if you joined partway through, and tells you how many days you have left. If you work irregular or zero hours, it works out the holiday you have built up from the hours you have actually worked.
Free, no sign-up needed to see the rules, and built for both employees checking what they are owed and employers working out what they owe.
All results from these tools are estimates based on current UK rates and thresholds. Tax rules and rates change, and individual circumstances vary. Please confirm any figure with a qualified adviser at WPC Accountants before relying on it.
Your details
If you joined partway through the holiday year, we will pro-rate your entitlement automatically. If you joined before it started, or you leave the dates blank, you will get the full amount.
Your holiday figures appear here
Enter your details and click Calculate to see your holiday entitlement and remaining balance.
What this calculator works out
Holiday is the payroll question we get asked about most, and it is almost never the arithmetic that causes the problem. It is that people are working from different assumptions about what counts.
Holiday is the payroll question we get asked about most, and it is almost never the arithmetic that causes the problem. It is that people are working from different assumptions about what counts.
- Regular hours. Tell it how many days a week you work, your contractual holiday, when your holiday year starts, when you joined and how much you have taken. It returns your full entitlement, the pro-rated figure if you joined partway through, and your remaining balance.
- Irregular or zero hours. Tell it the hours you worked in the pay period and your average hourly rate. It applies the statutory 12.07% accrual rate and returns the holiday hours you have built up and what they are worth.
How much holiday you are entitled to
Almost everyone classed as a worker in the UK is entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year. That is the statutory minimum, and a contract can be more generous but never less. For someone working five days a week, 5.6 weeks comes to 28 days. That figure is also a ceiling: statutory paid holiday is capped at 28 days, so working six or seven days a week does not entitle you to more than 28 under the statutory scheme.
| Days worked a week | Statutory entitlement | How it is worked out |
|---|---|---|
| 1 day | 5.6 days | 1 times 5.6 |
| 2 days | 11.2 days | 2 times 5.6 |
| 3 days | 16.8 days | 3 times 5.6 |
| 4 days | 22.4 days | 4 times 5.6 |
| 5 days | 28 days | 5 times 5.6 |
| 6 days | 28 days | 33.6 reduced to the 28 day cap |
| 7 days | 28 days | 39.2 reduced to the 28 day cap |
Source: holiday entitlement rights on GOV.UK
Entitlement can be rounded up but never down. If the calculation gives 16.8 days, you cannot pay 16 and call it near enough.
Do bank holidays count towards your holiday?
This is the question we are asked more than any other on this subject. There is no automatic legal right to paid time off on a bank holiday, and an employer is allowed to count bank holidays as part of the 5.6 weeks. So an employee entitled to 28 days who gets all eight England and Wales bank holidays off may find those eight come out of the 28, leaving 20 days to book themselves, which is entirely lawful. It also works the other way: a contract offering ‘20 days plus bank holidays’ is offering 28 days in total, the statutory minimum, not a benefit on top of it. Look at your contract or staff handbook for the words ‘inclusive of’ or ‘in addition to’ bank holidays; if it says neither, it is worth asking, because it changes your entitlement by eight days. There are also different numbers of bank holidays across the UK: England and Wales normally have eight, Scotland nine and Northern Ireland ten. UK bank holidays on GOV.UK
If you joined partway through the holiday year
You do not get the whole year’s entitlement if you were not there for the whole year: you get the proportion that matches the part of the year you were employed. Example: the holiday year runs from 1 January to 31 December, you work five days a week, and you joined on 1 April.
| Step | Figure | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Full entitlement for the year | 5 days a week times 5.6 | 28 days |
| Days of the holiday year you will be employed | 1 April to 31 December | 275 of 365 days |
| Proportion of the year | 275 divided by 365 | 75.3% |
| Pro-rated entitlement | 28 times 75.3% | 21.1 days, rounded up to 21.5 |
Most employers run the holiday year from 1 January or from 1 April. If you are not sure which yours is, it will be in your contract, and it matters, because it decides when your balance resets.
Irregular hours and zero hours workers
If your hours vary from week to week, or you only work part of the year, a fixed number of days does not work. Instead you build holiday up as you go, at 12.07% of the hours worked in each pay period, for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. Example: you worked 68 hours this month at an average of £12.71 an hour.
| Step | Figure | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Hours worked in the pay period | As recorded | 68 hours |
| Holiday accrued at 12.07% | 68 times 12.07% | 8.21 hours |
| What those hours are worth | 8.21 times £12.71 | £104.32 |
Over a year that adds up faster than people expect: someone working 20 hours a week for 30 weeks builds up 600 hours of work, which is 72.4 hours of paid holiday, close to two full working weeks.
Where the 12.07% figure comes from
It is not an arbitrary figure. A year has 52 weeks; take off the 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday and 46.4 working weeks remain. Divide the 5.6 weeks of holiday by the 46.4 weeks of work and you get 12.07%. So every hour worked earns 0.1207 of an hour of holiday, which produces exactly the 5.6 weeks over a full year of work.
Accrued holiday or rolled up pay?
There are two lawful ways to handle holiday for irregular hours and part-year workers.
| Method | How it works |
|---|---|
| Accrued | The holiday builds up as a balance in hours. You take the time off and are paid for it when you take it, in the normal way. |
| Rolled up | The 12.07% is added to every payslip as a separate line as you earn it, so the holiday is paid in advance and you take the time off unpaid later. |
Source: holiday pay and entitlement reforms on GOV.UK
Rolled up holiday pay is only lawful for irregular hours and part-year workers, and only for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. It is not lawful for staff on regular hours, and where it is used it has to be shown as a separate item on the payslip.
What you should be paid while on holiday
Holiday pay should be a week's normal pay. For someone on a fixed salary that is straightforward. For anyone whose pay varies, it is worked out from a reference period: the previous 52 weeks in which the worker was paid, skipping any week with no pay and going back up to 104 weeks if necessary, so a quiet period does not drag holiday pay down. Normal pay is more than basic pay: regular overtime, commission and shift premiums that a worker would normally receive should be included in at least part of the entitlement. This calculator uses the average hourly rate you enter as a stand-in for that 52 week average, which is the correct rate to use when pay varies.
Holiday you build up while you are not working
Holiday keeps building up during periods of leave, and this is the part that produces awkward conversations on someone’s return.
Holiday keeps building up during periods of leave, and this is the part that produces awkward conversations on someone’s return.
- Maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave. Entitlement continues to build through the whole period, including the unpaid weeks. Someone taking the full 52 weeks of maternity leave comes back with a full year’s holiday untouched.
- Sick leave. Holiday continues to build up while someone is off sick, including on Statutory Sick Pay. Where they genuinely could not take it because of illness, some of it can usually be carried over.
- Furlough style arrangements and unpaid leave. Depends on the arrangement and on whether the employment continued. Worth checking rather than assuming.
For an employer, the practical consequence is a balance sheet item nobody budgeted for. It is worth knowing about before someone returns from leave, not on the day they ask to take eight weeks off.
What this calculator does not cover
- Contractual holiday above the statutory minimum. If your contract gives more than 5.6 weeks, enter the contractual figure. The extra days can have their own rules on carry-over and payment in lieu.
- Carrying holiday over. The rules differ between the four weeks that come from one part of the regulations and the additional 1.6 weeks that come from another, and they differ again for irregular hours workers.
- Payment in lieu of holiday. Statutory holiday cannot normally be bought out while you are still employed. On leaving, untaken statutory holiday must be paid.
- Shift workers and annualised hours. Working patterns that are not measured in days a week need a different calculation. The GOV.UK holiday entitlement calculator handles those.
- The self-employed. Genuinely self-employed people have no holiday entitlement, because entitlement attaches to worker status.
- CIS subcontractors. Being paid under the Construction Industry Scheme does not by itself decide whether someone is a worker with holiday rights.
This calculator gives an estimate based on the statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks and the 12.07% accrual rate for irregular hours and part-year workers. Your contract may give you more. Holiday rules depend on working patterns and on employment status, and this tool cannot assess either. Please contact WPC Accountants before relying on these figures, particularly if you are an employer setting entitlement for your staff.
Frequently asked questions
- Almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year. For someone working five days a week that is 28 days. Statutory paid holiday is capped at 28 days, so working six or seven days a week does not entitle you to more than that under the statutory scheme. Your contract can give you more, but never less.
- There is no automatic right to paid time off on a bank holiday, and an employer can count bank holidays as part of your 5.6 weeks. So an employee with 28 days who gets all eight bank holidays off may have only 20 days left to book. Check whether your contract says holiday is inclusive of or in addition to bank holidays, because it changes your entitlement by eight days.
- Multiply the days you work each week by 5.6. Three days a week gives 16.8 days a year, four days gives 22.4. Entitlement can be rounded up but not down, so 16.8 days cannot be reduced to 16.
- Rather than a fixed number of days, holiday builds up as a percentage of the hours actually worked. For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024 the rate is 12.07% of the hours worked in each pay period. Someone who worked 68 hours in a month has built up 8.21 hours of paid holiday.
- A year has 52 weeks. Take off the 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday and 46.4 working weeks remain. Divide 5.6 by 46.4 and you get 12.07%. So every hour worked earns 0.1207 of an hour of holiday, which produces exactly 5.6 weeks over a full year of work.
- Yes, but only for irregular hours and part-year workers, and only for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. It is not lawful for staff working regular hours. Where it is used it must appear as a separate item on the payslip. An employer rolling up holiday pay for regular staff is exposed to a claim, and the payments already made will not count towards what is owed.
- When pay varies, a week’s holiday pay is based on the average of the previous 52 weeks in which the worker was paid. Weeks with no pay at all are skipped and an earlier paid week is used instead, going back as far as 104 weeks if needed. It exists so that a quiet period does not pull holiday pay down unfairly.
- You get the proportion of the year’s entitlement that matches the part of the holiday year you were employed. Someone on 28 days a year joining on 1 April, with a holiday year running from January, is employed for 275 of the 365 days, which is 75.3%, giving 21.1 days rounded up to 21.5.
- No. Entitlement can be rounded up but not down. If the calculation produces a part day, that part day is still owed to you. Rounding 16.8 days to 16 is not lawful, though rounding it to 17 is fine.
- Yes to both. Holiday entitlement continues to build up throughout maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave, including the unpaid weeks, so someone taking the full 52 weeks returns with a full year’s holiday untouched. It also builds up while you are off sick, including while on Statutory Sick Pay, and where illness genuinely prevented you taking it, some can usually be carried over.
- Sometimes, and the rules are not the same for all of it. The four weeks that come from one part of the regulations and the additional 1.6 weeks that come from another are treated differently, and irregular hours workers have their own provisions again. Your contract may also be more generous than the law requires. If you are close to the end of your holiday year with a large balance, it is worth checking both the contract and the position with us rather than assuming it will roll over.
- Untaken statutory holiday has to be paid to you when you leave, based on the part of the holiday year you worked. If you have taken more than you had built up by your leaving date, your employer may be able to recover the difference, but only if your contract allows it.