How much paid holiday you are entitled to in the UK: 28 days, bank holidays and what you are owed when you leave

The usual confusion for newcomers is that the UK does not grant '28 days of holiday' as such. The law gives 5.6 weeks of paid leave a year, and how many days that becomes depends on how many days a week you work. On a five-day week it is 28 days — which is also the ceiling: even on a six-day week, statutory paid holiday is capped at 28 days.

Who is entitled to paid holiday

Almost everyone classed as a worker has the right to 5.6 weeks, not just permanent employees. That includes agency workers, people on irregular hours (where the number of hours in a pay period often or always changes) and part-year workers — for example term-time only staff.

ONLYWAY NEWSLIVETravel · 02.10Cheap train tickets in Britain: a third off fares, and the money back when the train is lateHousing · 02.10UK house prices stall: annual growth halves to 0.8% and prices slip over the monthJobs & Business · 02.10Maternity leave and pay in the UK: 52 weeks off, £194.32 a week and what to do if your employer says noJobs & Business · 02.10Employment tribunal deadline doubles: six months to claim against your employer from 1 OctoberLife · 02.10Pharmacy First: seven conditions a pharmacist in England treats without a GP appointmentHousing · 02.10Renters’ Rights Act: what changed for tenants in England — evictions, rent rises, deposits and petsUK & Politics · 02.10UK population has almost stopped growing: net migration down by two thirds, births at a 43-year lowMoney · 02.10Power cut: £100 paid automatically, up to £2,235 in a storm — what you are owed and what to do if the money never arrivesJobs & Business · 02.10How much paid holiday you are entitled to in the UK: 28 days, bank holidays and what you are owed when you leaveTravel · 02.10Airlines to be banned from charging parents to sit with their children: under-14s must be seated with an adult free of chargeONLYWAY NEWS · appInstall the ONLYWAY NEWS appFresh UK news, classifieds, key dates and exchange rates on your home screen, one tap away. Free.NewsClassifiedsCalendarRates

Citizens Advice makes a point of this: you might be a worker even if your contract says you are self-employed. What matters is the reality of the arrangement, not the wording. Only genuinely self-employed people running a business for clients have no right to paid holiday.

Part-time: your actual number of days

If you work the same number of days every week all year, 5.6 weeks translates like this: five days a week or more — 28 days; four days — 22.4; three days — 16.8; two days — 11.2; one day — 5.6 days a year.

Fractions of a day are normal, not an employer's error: entitlement is measured in weeks and the remainder is usually taken in hours. The free holiday entitlement calculator on GOV.UK checks your own case, including the harder ones.

Zero hours and irregular hours: the 12.07% rule

If your hours vary or you only work part of the year, there is no fixed number of days: leave accrues from hours already worked. The rate is 12.07% of the hours worked in a pay period, rounded to the nearest hour.

The Citizens Advice example: someone is paid monthly and worked 100 hours last month. 100 × 12.07% is 12.07 hours, rounded down — 12 hours of holiday accrued for that period.

ADV · A001ONLYWAY JEWELRY — gold, silver and platinumRings, chains, bracelets, earrings and pendants. Delivery across the UK.Advertise here

One caveat about the older rules: for leave years that began on or before 31 March 2024, entitlement for irregular-hours and part-year workers did not have to be accrued from hours worked — it was estimated from average weekly days or hours. If your leave year started later, the 12.07% rule applies.

Bank holidays: why they usually come out of your 28 days

This is the part that most often feels like a trick. The law does not require bank or public holidays to be given as paid leave, and does not make them an extra on top: an employer can include them inside the same 5.6 weeks.

Check the contract. Wording like 'In addition to bank and public holidays, your annual entitlement to holidays is … days' means the holidays are on top. Wording like 'Your annual holiday entitlement (inclusive of bank and public holidays) is … days' means they come out of it. If the contract says nothing about bank holidays, they are deducted from your entitlement by default.

In numbers: full-time, 28 days of statutory holiday, no written contract. The eight bank holidays in England and Wales come out of those 28, leaving 20 days to take when you choose.

Part-time work skews this further, which is worth knowing when picking a working pattern. If you work one day a week — Monday — you are entitled to 5.6 days' leave a year. Four bank holidays fall on a Monday each year, and if the workplace shuts, four of your days go on them: 1.6 days left to choose. Someone working Tuesdays keeps all 5.6. No law stops this, but it is negotiable — you can ask not to be paid on bank holidays and to take paid leave on other days instead.

How much you are paid for a holiday day

The general rule: for each week of statutory holiday you take you are entitled to a week's pay. How that is worked out depends on how you are paid.

Fixed hours and the same pay every week — you are paid what you normally earn.

Pay that varies because of overtime, commission or bonuses — your holiday pay should match what you normally earn, including regular overtime and commission. Regularity is judged on the facts: overtime worked twice in six months probably is not regular enough; overtime in five of the last eight weeks might be. The calculation uses average weekly pay over the previous 52 weeks. Note the boundary: your employer must include overtime, commission and bonuses in the first 4 weeks of holiday pay, and the remaining 8 days may be paid at basic rate.

No fixed hours, or part-year work — your employer either pays you when you take holiday, or uses rolled-up holiday pay, adding 12.07% to every pay packet instead. The second option is only lawful if your current leave year began on or after 1 April 2024. The Citizens Advice example: £1,000 paid in a month means £120.70 of rolled-up holiday pay; £800 the next month means £96.56.

How the 52-week average works

Add up your pay for the previous 52 weeks, including overtime, commission and bonuses, and divide by 52. Only count weeks in which you actually worked: if you did not work in one of them, count back another week until you have 52 working weeks. You can go back no further than 104 weeks. If you have worked less than 52 weeks, divide by the number of weeks you worked.

This arithmetic is the main tool for checking a payslip. If your holiday is paid at basic rate while you work overtime every month, that is a conversation to have with your employer.

Your first year in the job

In your first year you can only take the holiday you have built up: roughly 1/12 of the annual entitlement for each month worked. One month in, one twelfth is available. That restriction applies to the first year only; after that, with the right notice, you can take everything you are entitled to.

Holiday has to be used inside a 'leave year' set out in your contract or written statement, which need not match the calendar year. You also have to give your employer notice of the dates.

Leave builds up even when you are not working

Entitlement keeps accruing during maternity, paternity and adoption leave, and while you are off sick. A worker can also ask to take holiday at the same time as sick leave — which can be worth doing, because holiday pay is usually higher than statutory sick pay.

What you are owed when you leave

This is the part people most often miss, and it is worth money. The only time you can be paid instead of taking statutory leave ('payment in lieu') is when you leave a job. Employers must pay for untaken statutory leave even if the worker is dismissed for gross misconduct.

The reverse case: if you have taken more leave than you were entitled to, your employer must not take money from your final pay unless it was agreed beforehand in writing — in the contract, staff handbook or intranet.

During your notice period you may be able to take whatever is left of your statutory annual leave. How much that is depends on how much of the leave year has passed and how much you have accrued.

If your employer offers more than 5.6 weeks, they can set separate rules for the extra days — including not paying them out when you leave. That does not touch the statutory 5.6 weeks.

If your employer will not play fair

Paid annual leave is a legal right, not a reward for loyalty. The usual order: talk to your employer or HR first, then raise a formal grievance — you can do that even if your employer has no formal procedure. Keep your contract, payslips and the calculations above to hand: in most cases showing the numbers is enough.

If the job is ending anyway, check what else you are owed in a redundancy — untaken holiday is only one line of it.