How UK holiday entitlement works
Almost every worker in the UK, including part-time, agency and zero-hours workers, is legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year. That’s known as statutory annual leave. Your contract can give you more, but never less. This calculator follows the GOV.UK guidance and shows every step, so you can check it against your payslip or contract.
Full-time and part-time workers
If you work 5 days a week, 5.6 weeks is 28 days. Part-time workers multiply their days by 5.6: 4 days a week gives 22.4 days, and 3 days gives 16.8. The legal maximum is 28 days, so someone working 6 days a week still gets 28. If your days are different lengths, the calculator works out your entitlement in days and multiplies it by your average working day. For example, 30 hours over 4 days is 22.4 days × 7.5 hours = 168 hours.
Shift workers
For shift patterns that don’t fit a 7-day week, work out your average shifts per week first: (shifts in the pattern ÷ days in the pattern) × 7. Then multiply by 5.6, up to a maximum of 28 shifts. Five shifts every 8 days averages 4.375 shifts a week, which gives 24.5 shifts a year.
Irregular hours and part-year workers: the 12.07% rule
For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, irregular-hours and part-year workers build up holiday at 12.07% of the hours they work in each pay period. The figure comes from 5.6 weeks of leave divided by the 46.4 weeks a year that remain for work. Working 30 hours in a weekly pay period earns 3.621 hours, which GOV.UK rounds to 4. Employers may instead pay rolled-up holiday pay: an extra 12.07% on top of your pay for each period.
Starting or leaving part-way through the year
In your first year, you build up one-twelfth of your entitlement at the start of each month in the job, rounded up to the next half or whole day. When you leave, your entitlement is pro-rated by the calendar days you were employed in the leave year, and your employer must pay you for any statutory leave you’ve built up but not taken. If you’re leaving because of redundancy, use the UK redundancy pay calculator to check the rest of your final pay.
Sources: GOV.UK – Holiday entitlement, Calculate leave entitlement, how to calculate holiday entitlement for different contracts, holiday pay reforms from 1 January 2024 and UK bank holidays. Last checked 8 October 2026.