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Wednesday, 3 October 2023

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Employment

Calculating holiday entitlement

How much holiday you get is normally set out in your contract of employment. The legal minimum holiday entitlement you are entitled to is 5.6 weeks, which can include bank and public holidays. Find out how to calculate your entitlement, including calculations for part-time work and other working patterns.

Basic calculation

For a basic calculation of your leave allowance multiply the number of days you work a week by 5.6. For example, if you work a five day week you would be entitled to 28 days' annual leave a year:

5 days x 5.6 weeks = 28 days

Regardless of your working pattern, the minimum leave entitlement is capped at 28 days. So if you work a six day week, the statutory entitlement of 5.6 weeks will still be 28 days.

You may find it helpful to use the statutory holiday entitlement calculator on the Business Link website. It allows you to calculate statutory holiday entitlement for full or part years based on the set days or hours you work.

Calculate your holiday entitlement using Business Link's calculator Opens new window

Bank and public holidays can be included as part of your minimum 5.6 weeks' holiday entitlement.

Part-time workers

If you are a part-time worker, you are still entitled to 5.6 weeks' holiday – 5.6 of your normal working week. For example, if you work two days a week you would be entitled to 11.2 days' annual leave a year:

2 days x 5.6 weeks = 11.2 days

You should be treated no less favourably if you are a part-time worker than an equivalent full-timer. This means that if your employer gives extra days off to full-timers they may have to give extra time off to part-time workers as well.

Part-time work

Agency workers

If you are an agency worker, you are entitled to the statutory minimum leave entitlement of 5.6 weeks. Your agency must allow you to take your paid holidays.

Using employment agencies

Casual or irregular working patterns

If you work casually or irregular hours it may well be easiest to calculate the holiday entitlement that accrues (accumulates) as hours are worked. The holiday entitlement of 5.6 weeks is equivalent to 12.07 per cent of the hours you worked. The 12.07 per cent figure is:

5.6 weeks' holiday, divided by 46.4 weeks (being 52 weeks - 5.6 weeks) multiplied by 100 = 12.07 per cent

The 5.6 weeks have to be excluded from the calculation as you would not be present during the 5.6 weeks in order to accrue annual leave. For example, if you had worked 10 hours, you would be entitled to 72.6 minutes' paid holiday:

12.07 per cent x 10 hours = 1.21 hours = 72.6 minutes

The holiday entitlement is just over seven minutes for each hour worked.

Shift workers

If you are a shift worker your leave is calculated by using an average of your shifts over a 12 week period.

For example, if you always work four 12 hour shifts, followed by four days off (the ‘continental’ shift pattern) then the average working week is three-and-a-half 12 hour shifts. You would be entitled to 19.6 shifts of 12 hours as annual leave a year:

5.6 weeks x 3.5 shifts = 19.6 12 hour shifts

For other shift patterns, it may be easiest to calculate according to the established pattern of repeat.