The calculation methods for holiday entitlement differ depending on whether the worker is regular or irregular.
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.
This Help Centre article explains holiday entitlement for regular workers.
For more information about calculating holiday pay for regular workers, please refer to our Help Centre article.
For more information about calculating holiday pay and entitlements for irregular workers, please refer to our Help Centre article.
Tip: There's an employee version of this same Help Centre article that you can send to them.
Calculating statutory annual leave entitlement
All workers are entitled to a statutory minimum annual leave entitlement of 5.6 weeks, regardless of the number of days or hours worked. The entitlement is simply the worker's usual weekly hours or days, multiplied by 5.6.
However, there's a cap of 28 days. Which means a six- or seven-day worker has a statutory entitlement that matches a five-day worker.
The table below shows the minimum statutory leave entitlement for a worker with 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 must be rounded up to the nearest half day.
Bank holidays
Some of a worker's annual leave entitlement may already be allocated to bank holidays, but it doesn't have to be.
Tip: In years where there are additional national bank holidays, the wording in the employment contract can impact the entitlement. For further information, please refer to our Help Centre article.
Typically, employers allocate 1.6 weeks of the statutory entitlement to be taken on bank holidays, so they're paid on those days. The worker can book annual leave using the remaining 4 weeks of their entitlement.
Example
An employee works five days a week, with a minimum entitlement of 28 days.
Their entitlement is already reduced by eight days as they're allocated to bank holidays. They can choose when to take the remaining 20 days.
Otherwise, employers might not allocate 1.6 weeks of the statutory entitlement to be taken on bank holidays. Instead, the worker can choose when to take their full 5.6-week entitlement. In this case, they're only paid for the bank holiday if they work it or take annual leave on that day.
Example
An employee works five days a week, with a minimum entitlement of 28 days.
They can choose when to take the full 28 days.
Bank holidays and annual leave during statutory leave
When an employee's statutory leave conflicts with a bank holiday, they won't receive holiday pay for that day. Their statutory leave entitlement continues uninterrupted, and the employee retains the right to take this day as annual leave after their statutory leave ends. Taking annual leave effectively ends the employee's statutory leave.
This applies to all annual leave, not just bank holidays. For example, an employee on maternity leave is expected to return to work if they're paid holiday pay, even during any unpaid part of their leave.
The following section explains how any untaken annual leave days can be carried forward.
Carrying over annual leave entitlement
Workers can carry forward up to 1.6 weeks of the statutory minimum entitlement.
In the following circumstances, they can carry forward more:
Parental leave: 5.6 weeks
Sick leave: 4 weeks
Unable to take leave: 5.6 weeks
Workers are unable to take their leave if:
they didn't receive ‘rolled-up holiday pay’ that they were entitled to
they weren't given reasonable opportunity to take their leave
they weren't told they'd lose their leave if they didn't take it by the end of the leave year
Employers might offer additional annual leave as a contractual entitlement. In this case, they may allow workers to carry forward some of this leave too.
For more information about how to set the number of days of annual leave your employee(s) can carry forward, please refer to our Help Centre article.
Calculating annual leave entitlement when leaving part-way through the year
When a worker leaves the company, they need to be paid any outstanding annual leave that they've accrued up to the date they leave. That means they receive a pro-rated entitlement, rather than a full year's entitlement. To calculate the outstanding annual leave:
Note: If bank holidays were removed from the worker's entitlement, they must be added back in when they leave the company. Any bank holidays that fall before their leave date will also reduce their remaining entitlement.
Calculate the worker's entitlement, this might be 5.6 x number of days worked per week.
Calculate the number of calendar days between the start of the annual leave year, and the worker's leave date.
Divide the annual entitlement by 365, then multiply by the number of days calculated at step 2.
Calculate the number of days taken between the start of the annual leave year and their leave date, including bank holidays.
Reduce the remaining entitlement by the number of days taken.
Example
They work 5 days a week, with an annual entitlement of 28 days.
They leave the company on 15 May, and your annual leave year runs from 1 January to 31 December.
The remaining entitlement is calculated as follows:
The annual entitlement is 5 days x 5.6 weeks, is 28 days.
The number of calendar days between 1 January and 15 May is 136 days.
The annual entitlement of 28 days, divided by 365, multiplied by 136, is 10.43 days.
Between 1 January and 15 May, they've taken 5 days in February, and there have been 4 bank holidays, 9 days in total.
Their pro-rated entitlement of 10.43 days, minus 9 days taken, leaves a remaining entitlement of 1.43 days.
For more information about holiday pay, please refer to our Help Centre article.