UK Statutory Holiday Pay Entitlement 2026: Complete Employer Guide
Holiday pay is one of the most miscalculated statutory obligations in UK payroll — not because the headline rule is complicated, but because the exceptions are. Bank holidays, irregular-hours staff, and variable pay all trip up employers who assume one formula fits everyone. This guide sets out what the law actually requires, and where the most expensive mistakes tend to happen.
5.6 weeks
"The statutory minimum paid annual leave for almost all UK workers — equivalent to 28 days for someone working a standard 5-day week. This is a hard cap: it does not increase for employees working more than 5 days a week."
— Working Time Regulations 1998, Regs. 13 & 13A (SI 1998/1833)
What Is Statutory Holiday Pay?
Statutory holiday entitlement: The minimum paid annual leave that almost all UK "workers" (a broader category than just "employees") are entitled to under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR 1998). It is made up of 4 weeks under Regulation 13 and an additional 1.6 weeks under Regulation 13A — 5.6 weeks in total, equal to 28 days for a standard 5-day-week worker. This is a statutory maximum floor: employers can offer more, contractually, but never less.
The 28-Day Cap and Bank Holidays
Key figures — statutory holiday entitlement
- Statutory minimum: 5.6 weeks' paid leave/year (28 days for a 5-day week)
- Statutory cap: 28 days maximum, regardless of how many days/week a worker works
- Bank holidays: Employers can count the UK's bank holidays towards the 28-day entitlement — they are not automatically additional leave
- Part-time pro rata: Days worked per week × 5.6 (e.g. 3 days/week = 16.8 days/year)
- Legal basis: Working Time Regulations 1998, Regs. 13 and 13A
One of the most common employer misunderstandings sits right here: there is no automatic legal right to have the UK's bank holidays off on top of the statutory 28 days. Employers are free to include bank holidays within the 28-day allowance, provided the total never drops below the statutory minimum. Many employers do offer bank holidays as an addition as a matter of goodwill or contract — but that is a choice, not a legal requirement.
The cap also works the other way: a worker on a 6-day week is still only entitled to the statutory 28-day maximum, not 33.6 days (6 × 5.6). Employers sometimes over-calculate here for workers with unusual patterns, which costs money for no legal reason.
Part-Time and Fixed-Hours Workers: The Pro Rata Formula
For workers with fixed, regular hours or days, the calculation is straightforward: multiply the number of days worked per week by 5.6. A worker on a 4-day week is entitled to 22.4 days a year; a worker on 3 days is entitled to 16.8 days. This pro rata formula applies only to workers with genuinely fixed hours — it is not the correct method for irregular-hours or part-year workers, covered below.
Irregular Hours and Part-Year Workers (2024 Reforms)
For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, a distinct accrual method applies to workers with irregular hours and part-year workers — term-time staff, casual and zero-hours workers, and seasonal employees. These reforms are not retrospective: they only apply to leave years beginning on or after that date.
Accrual at 12.07% of hours worked
Irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours actually worked in each pay period. That figure comes from dividing 5.6 weeks by the 46.4 remaining working weeks in a standard year. Accrual is calculated on the last day of each pay period.
Rolled-up holiday pay is lawful — for this group only
For irregular-hours and part-year workers in leave years from 1 April 2024 onwards, employers may pay the 12.07% holiday uplift on every payslip, rather than paying separately when leave is taken. This is often called "rolled-up holiday pay."
The uplift must be itemised separately
Where rolled-up holiday pay is used, the holiday pay element must appear as its own separate line on the payslip — it cannot be silently folded into basic pay. This is a frequent compliance gap for SMEs running informal or manual payroll processes.
Important distinction: the 12.07% accrual method applies only to workers legally classed as irregular-hours or part-year — not to regular part-time staff with fixed days or hours. Applying the 12.07% shortcut to a fixed-hours part-timer, instead of the days-worked × 5.6 pro rata formula, is a common but incorrect simplification.
Calculating Holiday Pay for Variable Pay
| Worker type | Calculation method |
|---|---|
| Fixed hours, fixed pay | Normal weekly pay for each week of leave |
| Fixed hours, variable pay (e.g. commission, shift premiums) | Average weekly pay over a 52-week reference period |
| Irregular hours / part-year | 12.07% accrual of hours worked per pay period |
For workers without fixed pay — those earning commission, regular overtime, or shift premiums — holiday pay is calculated using an average weekly pay figure taken over a 52-week reference period. Only weeks in which the worker was actually paid count towards that average; unpaid weeks are skipped, with employers able to look back up to 104 weeks to find 52 paid weeks. This 52-week reference period replaced the previous 12-week reference period, and has been in force since 6 April 2020.
Common Employer Mistakes on Holiday Pay
Treating bank holidays as automatically additional
Bank holidays can lawfully be included within the statutory 28-day entitlement. Assuming staff are entitled to 28 days plus bank holidays, without checking the contract, routinely over- or under-provides leave.
Applying rolled-up holiday pay to fixed-hours staff
Rolled-up holiday pay is only lawful for irregular-hours and part-year workers under the post-April 2024 rules. Extending it to regular fixed-hours employees is a frequent and risky over-application.
Still using the old 12-week reference period
The reference period for variable-pay holiday calculations has been 52 weeks since 6 April 2020. Payroll processes that were never updated after that change will consistently miscalculate holiday pay for anyone with variable earnings.
Excluding regular overtime from holiday pay
Case law — including Bear Scotland and Lock v British Gas — established that regular overtime should be reflected in holiday pay for at least part of the statutory entitlement, and Harpur Trust v Brazel confirmed that part-year workers' leave cannot be pro-rated below the WTR minimum. These are case-law-derived principles rather than fixed statutory figures, but ignoring them is a recurring source of underpayment claims.
How IgeraHR Helps Get Holiday Pay Right
// IgeraHR — UK holiday entitlement query
❓ "We have a term-time-only teaching assistant on irregular hours. How do we calculate their holiday entitlement under the current rules?"
✅ "For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, a part-year worker like this accrues holiday at 12.07% of hours actually worked in each pay period, calculated on the last day of that period. You may pay this as rolled-up holiday pay on every payslip, provided the uplift is shown as a separate, clearly itemised line — it cannot be folded into basic pay."
⏱ 2 seconds · 📄 Working Time Regulations 1998, Reg. 13A · 🚫 0 hallucinations
Confident your holiday pay calculations are compliant?
IgeraHR helps HR and payroll teams apply the right entitlement rules for fixed-hours, irregular-hours and variable-pay staff — with every answer traceable to the underlying regulation.
Free 14-day trial — no card requiredUpdated: August 2026 · Sources: Working Time Regulations 1998 (SI 1998/1833), Regs. 13 & 13A; gov.uk "Holiday entitlement" and "Calculating holiday pay for workers without fixed hours or pay" guidance; ACAS guidance on irregular hours and part-year workers · Author: Igera Solutions Team · IgeraHR — HR compliance automation for UK employers.