# Holiday entitlement and holiday pay: the 5.6 weeks rule explained

> Most workers in Great Britain are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year. This guide explains how that is worked out, how holiday pay…

- URL: https://centiview.com/uk-money/holiday-entitlement-and-holiday-pay
- Published: 2026-10-22T10:16:00.000Z
- Figures checked: 2026-10-22
- Edited by David A
- Topic: Life events (UK)
- Publisher: Centiview (Persie Ltd, London)
- General information only, not financial advice

Most workers in Great Britain are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year. This guide explains how that is worked out, how holiday pay is calculated, and what happens to unused leave.

## What the legal minimum is and how it works

Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, most workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday each year. GOV.UK says this covers agency workers, workers with irregular hours and part-year workers, not only employees on permanent contracts. For someone who works a five-day week, 5.6 weeks comes to 28 days. Statutory leave is capped at 28 days, so a person who works a six-day week still gets 28 days at the legal minimum, not more. The rules below are those checked on GOV.UK and Acas, which cover Great Britain; Northern Ireland has its own separate rules, so readers there should check nidirect.

Part-time workers with regular hours all year get the same 5.6 weeks, which simply works out as fewer days. GOV.UK gives the example of someone working three days a week, who gets at least 16.8 days (3 x 5.6 = 16.8). Employers do not have to give bank holidays as paid leave, but they are allowed to count them towards the 5.6 weeks. That is why one employer may advertise 28 days plus bank holidays while another advertises 28 days including them. Many employers offer more than the legal minimum; that extra, called enhanced or contractual leave, follows whatever the contract says, including any rules on carrying it over.

> **Key numbers** 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, capped at 28 days. Three days a week gives 16.8 days (3 x 5.6). Figures checked on GOV.UK on 22 October 2026.

> **Who this affects** Most workers in Great Britain, including part-time, agency, irregular-hours and part-year workers. It does not usually cover the genuinely self-employed, and Northern Ireland has its own rules.

## Irregular hours and part-year workers

Where hours change from week to week, or work only happens in part of the year, a fixed number of days is hard to set. GOV.UK says these workers build up, or accrue, leave based on the hours they have already worked. For leave years that began on or after 1 April 2024, the Working Time Regulations (regulation 15B) set the rate: at the end of each pay period the worker accrues 12.07% of the hours worked in that period. The figure comes from 5.6 weeks divided by the 46.4 weeks that remain after leave is taken out of a 52-week year (52 - 5.6 = 46.4; 5.6 / 46.4 is about 0.1207). Fractions of an hour are rounded to the nearest whole hour, and accrual in a leave year cannot exceed 28 days.

For example, imagine someone paid weekly who works 30 hours in one week. Leave accrued is 30 x 12.07% = 3.621 hours, which rounds to 4 hours. Over a year, if the same person worked 1,200 hours in total, they would accrue about 1,200 x 12.07% = 144.84 hours of paid leave. These figures are illustrative only. For leave years that began on or before 31 March 2024, GOV.UK says employers could instead estimate entitlement from the average days or hours worked each week. Because the details depend on the contract and the start of the leave year, the GOV.UK holiday entitlement calculator is the usual way to check a figure.

## How holiday pay is worked out

Workers receive a week's pay for each week of statutory leave. For someone with regular hours and fixed pay, that is simply their normal pay for a week. For regular shift work, GOV.UK says the calculation uses the average weekly fixed hours over the previous 52 weeks at the average hourly rate. For irregular hours or part-year work, the pay is averaged over the previous 52 weeks, counting only weeks in which the worker was paid. If a week had no pay, the calculation goes back further, up to 104 weeks, to find 52 paid weeks. Someone with fewer than 52 weeks of pay uses the average for the full weeks they have worked.

What counts as pay matters. GOV.UK says the normal rate includes commission, regular overtime payments and payments linked to length of service or professional qualifications, but does not usually include bonus payments. For workers with regular hours, at least four weeks must be paid at the normal rate and the remaining 1.6 weeks at the basic rate. For irregular-hours and part-year workers, all leave is paid at the normal rate. Rolled-up holiday pay, where an amount for holiday is built into each payslip, is not allowed for regular-hours workers. It is permitted for irregular-hours and part-year workers whose leave year began after 31 March 2024. GOV.UK also says that from 6 April 2026 employers must keep detailed holiday records for at least six years.

## Carrying leave over and leaving a job

As a general rule the 5.6 weeks must be taken in the leave year, unless a contract or agreement allows carry-over. Acas explains the main exceptions. A worker who could not take leave because of long-term sickness can carry over up to four weeks, to be used within 18 months of the end of the leave year in which it built up. A worker who could not take holiday because of statutory leave, such as maternity leave, must be allowed to carry it over. Up to four weeks can also be carried over if an employer did not let or encourage the worker to take their holiday, or did not tell them unused leave would be lost.

When a job ends, GOV.UK says employers must pay for untaken statutory leave that has built up, even where the worker is dismissed for gross misconduct. Payment instead of leave is only possible on leaving. During a notice period a worker may be able to take whatever statutory leave remains. If someone has taken more holiday than they had built up, the employer cannot deduct the difference from final pay unless this was agreed beforehand in writing, for example in the contract or handbook. Extra contractual leave follows the contract.

- It can be worth checking the leave year start date in the contract, because it affects which accrual method applies.
- Many people compare their payslip with the average of the last 52 weeks of pay, including regular overtime.
- Written holiday records, such as dates taken and the balance, can help if a figure is queried.

## Where to get free help

If a holiday figure looks wrong, one option is to raise it informally with the employer or payroll team first. Acas offers free, impartial advice on workplace disputes, and Citizens Advice can explain rights at work. This guide is general information, not advice on a particular situation, and contracts differ.

## Check before you act

Rules, rates and dates change, and your contract may give you more than the legal minimum. Please confirm the details on the official pages linked below before relying on any figure.

### Sources
- [GOV.UK, Holiday entitlement](https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights)
- [GOV.UK, Holiday pay](https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/holiday-pay)
- [GOV.UK, Taking holiday before leaving a job](https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights/taking-holiday-before-leaving-a-job)
- [Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 15B](https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/15B)
- [Acas, Carrying over holiday](https://www.acas.org.uk/checking-holiday-entitlement/carrying-over-holiday)
- [Acas, How holidays affect final pay](https://www.acas.org.uk/final-pay-when-someone-leaves-a-job/how-holidays-affect-final-pay)