The calculation methods for holiday entitlement differ depending on whether you're a regular or an irregular worker.
Regular worker refers to contract types such as full-time, part-time, or fixed hours.
Irregular worker refers to contract types such as zero-hour and part-term.
If you're a regular worker, this Help Centre article explains your holiday entitlement, while this Help Centre article explains your holiday pay.
If you're an irregular worker, please refer to this Help Centre article to understand how your holiday pay and entitlement are calculated.
How many holidays you have to take
All workers are entitled to a statutory minimum annual leave entitlement of 5.6 weeks. This is regardless of the number of hours or weeks you work in a week. Your entitlement is simply your weekly days or hours, multiplied by 5.6.
There's a cap of 28 days, though. Which means if you work six or seven days a week, you don't receive any more holidays than you would if you worked five days a week.
The table below shows the minimum statutory leave entitlement if you have fixed days:
Days worked each week | Minimum entitlement in weeks | Minimum statutory entitlement |
7 | 7 days x 5.6 weeks | Capped at 28 days |
6 | 6 days x 5.6 weeks | Capped at 28 days |
5 | 5 days x 5.6 weeks | 28 days |
4 | 4 days x 5.6 weeks | 22.5 days* |
3 | 3 days x 5.6 weeks | 17 days* |
2 | 2 days x 5.6 weeks | 11.5 days* |
1 | 1 day x 5.6 weeks | 6 days* |
*The number of days is rounded up to the nearest half day.
Bank holidays and your entitlement
Some of your annual leave entitlement may already be allocated to bank holidays.
Tip: In years where there are additional national bank holidays, whether it's paid, unpaid, or you need to work it, depends on the wording in your employment contract or company policy. If you're not sure, please contact your employer.
Usually, your employer allocates 1.6 weeks of the statutory entitlement to be taken on bank holidays, so you're paid on those days. You can choose when to take the remaining 4 weeks of your entitlement.
Example
You work five days a week, and you have a minimum entitlement of 28 days.
Your entitlement is already reduced by eight days as they're allocated to bank holidays. You can choose when to take the remaining 20 days.
Otherwise, your employer might not allocate 1.6 weeks of the statutory entitlement to bank holidays. Instead, you can choose when to take your full 5.6-week entitlement. In this case, you're only paid for the bank holiday if you work it or take annual leave on that day.
Example
You work five days a week, and you have a minimum entitlement of 28 days.
You can choose when to take your full 28 days.
Bank holidays and other holidays during sick or parental leave
When you're taking statutory sick or parental leave on a bank holiday, you won't receive any additional pay on that day. Your statutory leave entitlement continues uninterrupted, and you can take this day as annual leave later. Taking annual leave effectively ends your statutory leave.
It applies to all annual leave, and not just bank holidays. If you're on statutory sick or parental leave, you need to return to work to be paid holiday pay, even if it's during the unpaid part of your leave.
Carrying over annual leave entitlement
You can carry forward up to 1.6 weeks of your statutory minimum entitlement. In the following circumstances, you can carry forward more:
Parental leave: 5.6 weeks
Sick leave: 4 weeks
Unable to take leave: 5.6 weeks
You're unable to take your leave if:
You were entitled to rolled-up holiday pay, but didn't receive it.
You weren't given reasonable opportunity to take it
You weren't told you'd lose your leave if you didn't take it by the end of the leave year
If your employer offers a contractual annual leave entitlement in addition to your statutory minimum, they might allow you to carry forward some of this leave too.
Holiday entitlement if you leave your company
When you leave the company, you must be paid any outstanding annual leave that you've accrued up to the day you leave the company. That means you receive a pro-rated entitlement rather than a full entitlement.
Note: If bank holidays were removed from your entitlement, they must be added back in when you leave the company. Any bank holidays that fall before your leave date will also reduce your remaining entitlement.
Your remaining entitlement is calculated as follows:
Calculate your annual entitlement. Usually, 5.6 is multiplied by the number of days or hours you work each week.
Calculate the number of calendar days between the start of the annual leave year and your leave date.
Divide your annual entitlement by 365, then multiply by the number of days calculated at step 2.
Calculate the number of days you've taken between the start of the annual leave year and your leave date, including bank holidays.
Reduce your remaining entitlement by the number of days taken.
Example
You work 5 days a week, so your annual entitlement is 28 days.
You leave the company on 15 May and your annual leave year runs from 1 January to 31 December.
Your remaining entitlement is calculated as follows:
Your annual entitlement is 5 days x 5.6 weeks, 28 days.
The number of calendar days between 1 January and 15 May is 136 days.
Your annual entitlement of 28 days, divided by 365, multiplied by 136, is 10.43 days.
Between 1 January and 15 May, you've taken 5 days in February, and there have been 4 bank holidays, 9 days in total.
Your pro-rated entitlement of 10.43 days, minus 9 days taken, leaves a remaining entitlement of 1.43 days.
For more information about how much holiday pay you'll receive, please refer to our Help Centre article.