UK Holiday Entitlement Calculator
Calculate your UK statutory annual leave entitlement in days and hours based on your working pattern, employment type, and start date.
About the UK Holiday Entitlement Calculator
Under UK employment law, all workers are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave per year under the Working Time Regulations 1998. For someone working five days a week, this equates to 28 days per year. Part-time workers receive the same 5.6 weeks entitlement, but in proportion to their working days — someone working three days per week is entitled to 3 × 5.6 = 16.8 days of annual leave.
The 5.6 weeks figure includes bank holidays, but how bank holidays count depends on your employment contract. Some employers count bank holidays as part of your statutory entitlement (meaning they come off your 28-day allowance). Others grant bank holidays on top of statutory leave — giving you 28 days plus 8 bank holidays. Always check your employment contract for the specific wording.
Our holiday calculator determines your annual leave entitlement in both days and hours based on your working pattern. It can also calculate accrued leave if you started mid-year, which is particularly useful for new starters wanting to know how much leave they have built up before they can take their first holiday.
UK Holiday Entitlement Rules
The legal minimum of 5.6 weeks applies to all workers — employees, workers, and most zero-hours contract workers — regardless of whether they are full-time, part-time, term-time only, or on irregular hours. Agency workers are entitled to the same statutory minimum. Independent contractors and the genuinely self-employed do not have the same statutory rights but should factor equivalent downtime into their rates.
For workers with irregular hours or casual arrangements, the method of calculating leave entitlement changed from 1 January 2024. The new method uses a 12.07% accrual approach (5.6 weeks ÷ 46.4 working weeks = 12.07%) applied to hours worked in each pay period. This is particularly relevant for workers on zero-hours contracts or those with highly variable hours.
Employers can legally require workers to take leave at specific times (such as a factory shutdown at Christmas) by giving appropriate notice — usually double the length of the leave they require you to take. Employers can also restrict when leave is taken based on operational requirements. Workers may carry over up to four weeks (of the 5.6-week statutory minimum) if they could not take leave due to sickness or maternity/paternity leave.