UK holiday entitlement: how much paid holiday you get

The short version

• Minimum: 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year, which is 28 days for a 5-day week.
• Cap: the statutory minimum never goes above 28 days, even if you work 6 or 7 days a week.
• Bank holidays: don't have to be given as paid leave, and can be counted as part of your 28 days.
• Part-time: 5.6 × the days you work a week (3 days = 16.8 days).
• Irregular hours or part-year: 12.07% of the hours you work in each pay period (leave years from 1 April 2024).
• Leaving: you must be paid for statutory holiday you've built up but not taken.

5.6 weeks and the 28-day cap

Almost all workers, including agency workers, irregular-hours workers and part-year workers, are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year. This is called statutory leave entitlement or annual leave. Working a 5-day week, that's at least 28 days (5 × 5.6).

Statutory paid holiday is limited to 28 days. Someone who works 6 days a week works out at 33.6 days (6 × 5.6), but is only entitled to 28. Employers can offer more than the legal minimum, and the extra (contractual) leave doesn't have to follow all the same rules: for example, you might need to work there for a while before you get it.

Days worked a week	Statutory holiday a year
1	5.6 days
2	11.2 days
3	16.8 days
4	22.4 days
5	28 days
6 or 7	28 days (capped)

Can bank holidays be included?

Yes. GOV.UK says bank or public holidays don't have to be given as paid leave, and an employer can choose to include them as part of your statutory annual leave. Your employer can also tell you to take leave on certain days, such as bank holidays or over Christmas, as long as they give you enough notice.

In England and Wales there are 8 bank holidays in 2026. So a full-time worker on the 28-day minimum might get 20 days to book whenever they like plus the 8 bank holidays, or 28 days to book plus the bank holidays on top if their contract is more generous. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different bank holidays: see UK bank holidays on GOV.UK.

Your contract or staff handbook should say which applies to you.

Part-time workers: pro rata

If you work regular hours for the whole year, you get the same 5.6 weeks, but it comes to fewer than 28 days. Multiply the days you work each week by 5.6: 3 days a week gives at least 16.8 days, and 4 days gives 22.4 days.

If your days are different lengths, it's simpler to work in hours. GOV.UK's guidance works out your days first, then multiplies by your average working day (your weekly hours ÷ the days you work). For up to 5 days a week that comes to 5.6 × your weekly hours.

Compressed hours

Compressed hours means working full-time hours over fewer, longer days, such as 37.5 hours over 4 days. GOV.UK's guidance says it may be more appropriate to work out holiday in hours for this pattern, using your days a week and your average working day. The 28-day cap is applied as 28 of your average working days.

Because your days are longer, you get fewer days but the same number of hours as someone doing the same weekly hours over 5 days. When you take a day off, the hours of that day come off your allowance.

Irregular-hours and part-year workers (12.07%)

For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, there's a specific method for two groups of workers:

• Irregular hours: the number of paid hours you work in each pay period is, under your contract, wholly or mostly variable (for example a casual or zero-hours contract where your hours change from week to week).
• Part-year: your contract only requires you to work part of the year, and there are periods of at least a week when you don't work and aren't paid (for example seasonal work).

You build up holiday at 12.07% of the hours you actually work in each pay period, rounded to the nearest hour (half an hour or more rounds up). You can take it from your next pay period, and the total is capped at 5.6 weeks a year. The 12.07% comes from 5.6 weeks of leave divided by the 46.4 weeks a year you'd be working.

For these workers only, employers can choose rolled-up holiday pay: an extra 12.07% of your pay added to every payslip, shown as a separate item, instead of paying you when you take the time off. Employers can't use rolled-up holiday pay for regular-hours workers.

For leave years that began on or before 31 March 2024 the older rules applied. If you work in Northern Ireland, check holiday entitlements on nidirect, which has its own guidance.

Starting or leaving part way through the year

Your holiday runs over a leave year, which your employer should tell you about when you start (for example 1 January to 31 December). If your contract doesn't set one, your leave year starts on your first day in the job.

Starting part way through: you get a share of the year based on how much of it is left. GOV.UK counts the months you start in the leave year, gives one-twelfth of a full year's leave for each, and rounds any part day up to the next half or whole day. Your entitlement must never be rounded down. In your first year, an employer can instead use an accrual system, where you build up one-twelfth of your leave each month (28 ÷ 12 × 3 = 7 days after 3 months).

Leaving part way through: your statutory holiday for that leave year is pro-rated by the calendar days you were employed (not the days you actually worked), out of the days in the leave year. You may be able to use what's left during your notice period. Your employer must pay you for any statutory holiday you've built up but not taken, even if you're dismissed for gross misconduct. That's the only time statutory holiday can be paid instead of taken ("payment in lieu").

If you've taken more holiday than you've built up, your employer can only take money from your final pay if you agreed to it in writing beforehand.

Worked examples

These use the same code as our holiday entitlement calculator, which follows GOV.UK's rules and rounding.

1. Part-time and compressed hours. Sam works 3 days a week, 7 hours a day (21 hours). Sam's entitlement is 5.6 × 3 = 16.8 days, or 16.8 × 7 = 117.6 hours. Priya works 37.5 hours over 4 days (compressed hours). Her days are 5.6 × 4 = 22.4 days, her average day is 37.5 ÷ 4 = 9.375 hours (about 9 hours 23 minutes), so she gets 22.4 × 9.375 = 210 hours. That's the same as someone working 37.5 hours over 5 days: 28 days × 7.5 hours = 210 hours.

2. Starting and leaving mid-year. Both work 5 days a week (28 days a year) with a leave year from 1 January to 31 December 2026. Alex starts on 15 June 2026: counting 15 June and then the 15th of each month to 15 December, that's 7 months started, so 28 × 7 ÷ 12 = 16.33 days, rounded up to 16.5 days. Jo leaves on 30 October 2026: 1 January to 30 October is 303 calendar days out of 365, so 28 × 303 ÷ 365 = 23.24 days, which GOV.UK's calculator shows rounded up as 23.3 days. If Jo has taken 20 days, the remaining 3.3 days of statutory holiday must be taken in the notice period or paid in Jo's final pay.

3. Irregular hours. Chris is on a zero-hours contract, paid weekly, with a leave year that started on or after 1 April 2024. Working 30, 22.5 and 41 hours in three weeks builds up 30 × 12.07% = 3.621, rounded to 4 hours; 22.5 × 12.07% = 2.716, rounded to 3 hours; and 41 × 12.07% = 4.949, rounded to 5 hours: 12 hours in all. GOV.UK's own example is a monthly-paid worker who works 68 hours in June and builds up 8 hours (8.2076 rounded).

Try your own numbers

Carrying leave over

Your contract says how many days you can carry over into the next leave year. If you get the 28-day minimum, you can carry over up to 8 days. If you get more than 28 days, your employer may let you carry over the extra: check your contract, staff handbook or intranet.

• Family leave: if you couldn't take your leave because you were on maternity, paternity, adoption or other family-related leave, you can carry it over into the next leave year. You keep building up holiday during maternity, paternity and adoption leave.
• Sickness: if you couldn't take your leave because you were off sick, you can carry over up to 20 days if you work regular hours for the whole year, or up to 28 days if you work irregular hours or part of the year. It must be used within 18 months of the end of the leave year it was built up in.
• Employer's fault: you can also carry leave over if your employer didn't give you a reasonable chance to take it, didn't tell you that you'd lose it if you didn't take it by the end of the leave year, or didn't pay rolled-up holiday pay you were entitled to.

How holiday pay is worked out (the basics)

You're entitled to a week's pay for each week of statutory holiday you take. How a week's pay is worked out depends on your hours and how you're paid:

Working pattern	A week's holiday pay
Regular hours and fixed pay (full- or part-time)	Your pay for a week
Shift work with regular hours	Your average weekly fixed hours over the previous 52 weeks, at your average hourly rate
Irregular hours or part-year	Your average pay over the previous 52 weeks, counting only weeks in which you were paid

Weeks with no pay are skipped, counting back up to 104 weeks to find 52 paid weeks. If you've been paid for fewer than 52 weeks, the average of the full weeks you've worked is used.

• Normal vs basic rate: for regular-hours workers, at least 4 weeks must be paid at your normal rate, which includes commission, regularly paid overtime and payments linked to length of service or professional qualifications (bonuses usually aren't included). The remaining 1.6 weeks can be paid at your basic rate. Many employers pay all 5.6 weeks at the normal rate. Irregular-hours and part-year workers get all their leave at the normal rate.
• Salaried? If you're on a fixed monthly salary, taking a week off shouldn't change your pay that month.
• Records: from 6 April 2026, employers must keep records of annual leave and holiday pay for at least 6 years.

To see what a normal payday leaves you after tax, try the take-home pay calculator. More pay and tax tools are on the Tax & Pay page.

Booking time off

Unless your contract says otherwise, give notice of at least twice the length of the holiday plus 1 day (3 days' notice for 1 day off). Your employer can refuse or cancel leave with notice of at least the length of the holiday plus 1 day, and can restrict when you take it, for example at busy times, but can't stop you taking your leave altogether.

Work out your own holiday

Pick your working pattern and see your statutory holiday in days or hours, for a full leave year or if you start or leave part way through. Irregular-hours workers can add up what they've built up over several pay periods.

Use the holiday entitlement calculator

Planning the money side of a break? The free bills monthly cost calculator turns all your bills into one monthly figure, and the Household Bills & Budget Planner (£7) shows what's left after bills, spending and savings.

Frequently asked questions

How many days' holiday am I entitled to in the UK?
Almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year. For someone working 5 days a week that's 28 days. The legal minimum is capped at 28 days, so working 6 or 7 days a week still gives 28 days. Your contract can give you more than this.

Are bank holidays included in my 28 days?
They can be. GOV.UK says bank holidays don't have to be given as paid leave, and an employer can choose to include them as part of your statutory leave. In England and Wales there are 8 bank holidays in 2026, so a full-time worker on the minimum could get 20 days to book plus the 8 bank holidays. Check your contract to see which applies to you.

How much holiday do part-time workers get?
The same 5.6 weeks, pro rata: multiply the days you work each week by 5.6. Working 3 days a week gives at least 16.8 days a year. If your days are different lengths it's easier to work in hours, which is 5.6 times your weekly hours for up to 5 days a week (21 hours a week gives 117.6 hours).

How is holiday worked out for irregular hours or zero-hours workers?
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, rounded to the nearest hour (half an hour or more rounds up). 68 hours in a month earns 8 hours of holiday. This is capped at 5.6 weeks a year.

Can I carry holiday over to next year?
Your contract says how much you can carry over. If you get the 28-day minimum, you can carry over up to 8 days. If you couldn't take your leave because you were on maternity or other family leave you can carry it over, and if you were off sick you can carry over up to 20 days (or up to 28 days if you work irregular hours or part of the year), to be used within 18 months of the end of the leave year.

Do I get paid for holiday I haven't taken when I leave?
Yes. When you leave a job your statutory holiday for that leave year is pro-rated by the calendar days you were employed, and your employer must pay you for any statutory holiday you haven't taken, even if you're dismissed for gross misconduct. This is the only time statutory holiday can be paid instead of taken. If you've taken more than you've built up, your employer can only take money from your final pay if you agreed to it in writing beforehand.

How is holiday pay worked out?
You get a week's pay for each week of statutory holiday you take. If you work regular hours for fixed pay, that's normally your usual pay for a week. If you work irregular hours or part of the year, it's your average weekly pay over the previous 52 weeks in which you were paid. For regular-hours workers, at least 4 of the 5.6 weeks must be paid at your 'normal' rate, which includes things like commission and regularly paid overtime.

Sources

All rules and figures on this page were checked on GOV.UK on 17 October 2026:

Holiday entitlement (GOV.UK), including calculate leave entitlement, holiday pay, booking time off and taking holiday before leaving a job
Calculate holiday entitlement (GOV.UK tool)
How to calculate holiday entitlement for workers on different types of contract (GOV.UK)
Holiday pay and entitlement reforms from 1 January 2024 (GOV.UK)
UK bank holidays (GOV.UK)
Checking holiday entitlement (Acas)

Checked 17 October 2026. This covers statutory (legal minimum) holiday only; your contract may give you more. General guidance only, not legal advice. For help with a dispute, contact Acas.