Holiday for part-time and irregular hours workers
The short answer
Almost every worker in Great Britain is entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year. Part-time workers with regular hours get the same 5.6 weeks, worked out on the days or hours they actually work: three days a week means at least 16.8 days. Irregular hours and part-year workers build up holiday at 12.07% of the hours they work, and their employer can choose to pay it as rolled-up holiday pay, an extra 12.07% on each payslip.
Where 5.6 weeks comes from
The legal minimum is 5.6 times your normal working week. For someone working five days a week, that's 28 days, which is also the cap: a six-day worker still gets 28 days, not 33.6.
Bank holidays don't have to be on top. Employers can count them as part of the 5.6 weeks, and many do. If your contract says "20 days plus bank holidays", that's 28 in total in England and Wales, which has eight bank holidays a year.
Part-time with regular hours
Multiply your normal working week by 5.6:
| Working pattern | Minimum holiday a year |
|---|---|
| 5 days a week | 28 days |
| 4 days a week | 22.4 days |
| 3 days a week | 16.8 days |
| 2.5 days a week | 14 days |
| 22.5 hours a week | 126 hours |
If you work different lengths of day, holiday is fairer in hours than days. Someone working three 7.5-hour days a week has 126 hours a year, the same as 16.8 days of 7.5 hours.
Part-time workers also shouldn't lose out on bank holidays. If full-time staff get them as paid days off, the fair approach is to give part-time staff a pro-rata share, whichever days of the week they work.
Irregular hours and part-year workers
For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, workers whose hours vary from week to week, such as zero-hours, casual or shift workers, and people who only work part of the year, such as term-time staff, build up holiday as they go. At the end of each pay period they earn holiday equal to 12.07% of the hours they worked in it.
The figure comes from 5.6 weeks of holiday out of 46.4 working weeks in a year. Someone who works 100 hours in a month builds up 12.07 hours of paid holiday. Statutory entitlement is still capped at 5.6 weeks a year.
Rolled-up holiday pay
For irregular hours and part-year workers only, an employer can choose to pay holiday pay as it goes instead of when the holiday is taken. This is called rolled-up holiday pay. It has to be at least 12.07% of the worker's total pay in each pay period, paid at the same time as the work it relates to, and shown as a separate line on the payslip.
If you earn £1,200 in a month, rolled-up holiday pay would be at least £144.84 on top. When you then take time off, it's unpaid, because you've already been paid for it, so it's worth putting some aside.
What holiday pay should include
Holiday pay isn't always just basic pay. For the first four weeks of the year, it has to reflect what you normally earn, including regular overtime and commission. If your pay varies, that's usually worked out as an average over the last 52 weeks you were paid. Part-time workers with variable hours are the ones most often underpaid here, so check your payslip.
Starting or leaving part way through the year
If you join or leave during a holiday year, your entitlement is a share of the year in proportion to how long you're there. When you leave, your employer has to pay you for statutory holiday you've built up but not taken. If you've taken more than you've built up, your contract may allow your employer to take the difference from your final pay.
These rules are for England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own employment law, so check nidirect if you work there.
Work it out with your own figures
Work out part-time pay and holiday for your hours, including irregular hours.
Open the Pro Rata Salary & Holiday CalculatorNext step: see the take-home pay on your pro-rata salary.