28 days
of statutory paid holiday, which can include bank holidays
How it was worked out
| Statutory entitlement | 5.6 weeks, capped at 28 days | 28 days |
|---|
Statutory holiday: 5.6 weeks, at most 28 days
The Working Time Regulations give four weeks (regulation 13) plus 1.6 weeks (regulation 13A), so 5.6 times the days you work a week. Someone working six days a week still gets 28 days: the total is capped. Contracts can give more.
Bank holidays don't have to be given as paid leave. An employer can count them towards the 5.6 weeks, so 28 days on a five-day week can be 20 days plus the 8 bank holidays in England and Wales.
| Days a week | Holiday a year |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5.6 days |
| 2 | 11.2 days |
| 3 | 16.8 days |
| 4 | 22.4 days |
| 5 | 28 days |
| 6 | 28 days |
Part-time and hours-based entitlement
Part-time workers get the same 5.6 weeks, counted in their own days or hours: 16.8 days on a three-day week. If the days are of different lengths, count in hours: 5.6 times the hours of a week for up to five days a week (on more days, 5.6 times five days' hours). Four days of 7.5 hours give 168 hours a year.
For compressed hours, holiday is best counted in hours too, so that a long day off uses the hours it would have been worked.
Irregular hours and part-year workers: 12.07%
For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, irregular-hours workers (whose paid hours are wholly or mostly variable) and part-year workers (with unpaid weeks off each year) build up holiday at 12.07% of the hours they work in each pay period (regulation 15B). Less than 30 minutes is rounded down, 30 minutes or more up to the hour: 30 hours worked give 4 hours of holiday.
For these workers, the employer may pay rolled-up holiday pay: an extra 12.07% on each payslip, shown separately (regulation 16A). Northern Ireland has its own regulations without these rules.
Starting or leaving part way through the year
Starters get the share of the year that remains (regulation 13(5)). The gov.uk calculator counts the months left, the starting month included, and rounds up to the half day (for hours, the half day is rounded first, then converted): starting on 15 March in a leave year from January gives 23.5 days. In the first year, leave builds up a twelfth each month (regulation 15A).
Leavers are owed the share of the year worked, minus what they have taken (regulation 14): leaving on 30 June 2027, after 10 days taken, leaves 3.9 days to be paid in lieu. Untaken statutory leave is paid out even after dismissal for gross misconduct.
Employers can round entitlement up but not down. If the contract doesn't set a leave year, it starts on the day employment began and on each anniversary.
Worked examples
Five cases, each checked by the calculator above.
Three days a week, full year
3 × 5.6 weeks.
Result: 16.8 days
Four days of 7.5 hours, full year
5.6 × 4 days × 7.5 hours.
Result: 168 hours
Five days a week, starting 15 March 2027, leave year from 1 January
10 months left of 12: 28 × 10 ÷ 12 = 23.33, rounded up to the half day.
Result: 23.5 days
Five days a week, leaving 30 June 2027, 10 days taken
181 of 365 days of the leave year: 28 × 181 ÷ 365 = 13.88, minus 10, rounded up.
Result: 3.9 days owed
Irregular hours, 30 hours in the pay period
30 × 12.07% = 3.62 hours, rounded to the hour.
Result: 4 hours
Legal basis
- Regulation 13, Working Time Regulations 1998
Four weeks' annual leave in each leave year; for workers who start part way through, the proportion of the leave year remaining (13(5)).
- Regulation 13A
A further 1.6 weeks; the aggregate entitlement under regulations 13 and 13A is subject to a maximum of 28 days (13A(3)).
- Regulation 14
On termination, payment in lieu of (A × B) − C: the entitlement, times the proportion of the leave year expired, minus leave taken.
- Regulation 15A
In the first year of employment, leave accrues at one twelfth on the first day of each month; fractions round to the half or whole day.
- Regulation 15B
Irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue leave at 12.07% of the hours worked in each pay period, up to 28 days a year; under 30 minutes counts as zero, 30 minutes or more as an hour.
- Holiday entitlement (gov.uk)
Bank holidays can be included in statutory leave; employers can round entitlement up but not down.
- UK Supreme Court, 20 July 2022, Harpur Trust v Brazel [2022] UKSC 21: Part-year workers on permanent contracts are entitled to the full 5.6 weeks, not a pro rata share; the 12.07% accrual rule from April 2024 changed the law for leave years after that.
As of 19 October 2026
Frequently asked questions
22.4 days a year (4 × 5.6), which can include bank holidays. In hours, multiply your weekly hours by 5.6 (if you work up to five days a week).
They can be. Employers don't have to give bank holidays off as paid leave, and many count them towards the 5.6 weeks. Your contract says which applies.
For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, at 12.07% of the hours worked in each pay period, in England, Scotland and Wales.
Yes. Statutory leave you have built up but not taken is paid in lieu when employment ends, including after dismissal for gross misconduct.
No. Employers can round part days up but not down; in the first year, part days must be rounded up to the nearest half day.
How Worklayer calculates it
In Worklayer, the leave policy works out entitlement automatically: pro rata from start and leaving dates and for part-time work, with accrual through the year and carry-over into the next. Everyone sees their balance at any time, and Worklayer comes with policy templates for 13 countries and the public holidays of 204.
More calculators
This calculator gives a guide to statutory holiday entitlement in Great Britain under the Working Time Regulations 1998, as checked on 19 October 2026. Contracts can give more, agricultural workers have their own rules, and Northern Ireland has separate regulations. It is not legal advice. What you enter stays in your browser and is never stored or sent.