Practical guidance
Holiday Entitlement Guides
Plain-English guides on your UK holiday rights — from the 5.6-week rule to part-time pro-rata calculations and how to challenge your employer.
Featured
5.6 Weeks Holiday — Explained
What the 5.6-week rule actually means, and why it confuses so many people.
Part-Time Workers: Your Holiday Rights
How pro-rata works, what your employer must give you, and common mistakes.
Variable Hours and Holiday Accrual
The 12.07% accrual method — how it works and what it means for zero-hours workers.
Bank Holidays: Included or Extra?
The "including" vs "plus" distinction and what it means for your actual entitlement.
All guides
Holiday When You Leave a Job
How accrued but untaken holiday is calculated and paid in your final payslip.
Challenging Your Employer
What to do when your entitlement is refused — from an informal query to ACAS and tribunal.
How Many Days Holiday Am I Entitled To?
The statutory minimum is 5.6 weeks. Here is what that means in days for five-, four-, three- and two-day weeks, and how bank holidays change the answer.
Zero-Hours Holiday Entitlement
Zero-hours workers are entitled to statutory holiday like anyone else. Here is how accrual works, what 12.07% means, and how rolled-up pay changed in April 2024.
Agency Worker Holiday Pay
Agency workers are entitled to statutory holiday from day one. Here is who is responsible, how accrual works, and what to do if the agency says holiday is included in your rate.
Can I Carry Over Untaken Holiday?
When unused holiday can be carried into the next leave year, the four-week rule for sickness and family leave, and why most carry-over policies are stricter than the law requires.
Rolled-Up Holiday Pay
Rolled-up holiday pay is lawful only for irregular-hours and part-year workers. Here is how the 12.07% rate works, what payslips must show, and when it is still unlawful.
Apprentice Holiday Entitlement
Apprentices are employees and are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday. Here is how it is pro-rated, how it interacts with off-the-job training, and what contracts often get wrong.
Holiday During Your Notice Period
Can your employer make you take holiday while working notice, refuse it, or pay you in lieu? Here is how notice periods and holiday interact when you resign or are dismissed.
Part-Year Workers: Holiday Entitlement
Term-time, seasonal and part-year workers keep 5.6 weeks of holiday. Here is how entitlement is calculated after Harpur Trust v Brazel and the April 2024 changes.
What these guides cover
UK statutory holiday entitlement is short to state and easy to get wrong. The headline rule — 5.6 weeks, capped at 28 days for a five-day week — hides a set of questions that decide what you actually get: whether bank holidays are included or additional, how part-time and variable-hours entitlement is pro-rated, how the leave year and mid-year starters are handled, and what happens to unused holiday when you leave.
These guides work through each of those questions in plain English, with the arithmetic shown rather than asserted. They are written for employees and workers checking their own position, and for small employers and payroll staff who need the calculation to be defensible.
How we approach the figures
- Every figure is derived from the Working Time Regulations 1998, GOV.UK guidance and ACAS, and each guide states the basis it uses.
- Where the law changed — the April 2024 reforms for irregular-hours and part-year workers, for example — the guide says what applied before and after rather than blending the two.
- We separate the statutory minimum from contractual entitlement, because most disputes turn on the difference.
- Where a point is genuinely arguable, it is described as arguable rather than presented as settled.
Where to start
If you are checking your own position, start with the calculator for the number, then read the guide that matches your working pattern: part-time, variable hours, or bank holidays. If you are about to leave a job or have been refused holiday, the leaving and disputes guides are the practical next steps.