Holiday Pay Calculator UK 2026: How to Work Out What You Are Owed

Holiday pay calculator UK searches usually start with a nagging suspicion: the amount that landed in your account for that week off looks lower than a normal week’s wages. If you work fixed hours on a fixed salary, holiday pay is simple and you probably will not notice a difference. If you work overtime, earn commission, do shifts, or work irregular hours on a zero–hours or term–time contract, the maths gets genuinely complicated, and this is where a lot of UK workers quietly lose money every year. This guide walks you through exactly how holiday pay is worked out in 2026, with real numbers you can apply to your own payslip.

A holiday pay calculator UK workers can trust starts with one rule: you must be paid your normal pay for statutory holiday. For fixed–hours staff that means a normal week’s wages. For variable pay it means the average of your last 52 paid weeks. Irregular hours and part–year workers accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours they work.

How Much Holiday You Are Entitled To in 2026

Almost every worker in the UK is legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave. That is the floor, not the ceiling, and your contract can offer more.

The 5.6 weeks is expressed in weeks, not days, and that matters. For someone working five days a week it converts to 28 days. For someone working three days a week it converts to 16.8 days. The statutory cap sits at 28 days, so working six days a week does not entitle you to 33.6 days.

That 5.6 weeks is actually two separate pots stacked together, and the distinction becomes important when we get to overtime:

• 4 weeks derived from the original Working Time Directive. This is the pot that must reflect your “normal remuneration”.
• 1.6 weeks of additional UK leave. Employers may pay this at basic rate only.

Bank holidays are not automatically on top. An employer can count the eight England and Wales bank holidays towards your 5.6 weeks, which is why so many full–time contracts read “20 days plus bank holidays”. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different bank holiday patterns, and Northern Ireland has ten, so always check what your contract actually says rather than assuming. Our guide to UK employment contracts explained covers where to find this in your written statement of terms.

Pro–rata entitlement for part–time staff

The formula is simply days worked per week multiplied by 5.6.

Employers can round entitlement up but never down. If your pro–rata figure lands on 16.8 days, an employer offering 16 days is short–changing you.

Calculating Holiday Pay on Fixed Hours

If your hours and pay do not vary, holiday pay is the least dramatic part of your payslip. A week of holiday is paid at a normal week’s wages, and a day of holiday is paid at a normal day’s wages.

To sanity–check the daily rate on a salary:

1. Divide your annual salary by 52 to get a weekly figure.
2. Divide the weekly figure by the number of days you normally work.

On a £28,000 salary working five days a week, that is £538.46 a week and £107.69 a day. Because most salaried staff are paid the same amount every month regardless of whether they took leave, you will not see a separate holiday line at all. That is normal and correct.

Hourly–paid staff on fixed shifts work it the same way: your contracted hours multiplied by your hourly rate. Someone on 20 hours a week at the April 2026 National Living Wage of £12.71 has a week’s pay of £254.20. If you are not sure your base rate is legal in the first place, check it against the current UK minimum wage rates for 2026 before you go any further.

The 52–Week Reference Period for Variable Pay

This is the rule that trips up the most people. If the amount you earn varies week to week, whether because of shift patterns, overtime, commission or bonuses, your holiday pay is based on an average.

The method, set out in GOV.UK guidance on calculating holiday pay for workers without fixed hours or pay, works like this:

1. Take the 52 weeks immediately before the week your holiday starts.
2. Remove any week in which you earned nothing, because you did no work.
3. Replace each removed week by counting back one further week, so you still end up with 52 paid weeks.
4. Stop counting back at 104 weeks. If you cannot find 52 paid weeks within that window, use however many paid weeks you do have.
5. Add up total pay across those weeks and divide by the number of weeks used.

Two details are worth pinning down. First, weeks where you were paid something, even a small amount, stay in the calculation. Only genuinely unpaid weeks come out. Second, if you have been employed for fewer than 52 weeks, the average is taken over the full weeks you have actually worked.

This average is the number your employer should apply to each week of statutory holiday you take. A single spike month, a quiet spell, or one heavy overtime run all get smoothed out by the 52–week window, which is exactly the point. Anyone who wants to build this out properly in a spreadsheet rather than trusting the payroll figure will find Coffee & Study’s free Excel courses a quick way to get comfortable with averaging formulas.

Irregular Hours, Zero–Hours and Part–Year Workers

For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, a separate and simpler system applies to two specific groups.

Irregular hours workers are those whose paid hours in each pay period are wholly or mostly variable under their contract. Zero–hours and most casual staff sit here.

Part–year workers are those contracted to work only part of the year, with unpaid periods of at least a week in between. Term–time–only staff are the classic example.

If you fall into either group, you accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours you actually work in each pay period. The figure is not arbitrary: 5.6 weeks of holiday divided by the 46.4 working weeks left in the year gives 12.07%.

So if you worked 120 hours in a month, you accrued 14.48 hours of paid holiday that month. Accrual is rounded to the nearest hour, with 30 minutes and above rounding up.

This system replaced the old approach of applying the 52–week average to work out a “week” for people who have no normal week. It is far easier to audit yourself, because you only need your hours and a calculator.

Rolled–Up Holiday Pay Explained

Rolled–up holiday pay means your employer pays your holiday entitlement as an uplift on every payslip instead of paying you when you actually take time off.

It was unlawful for many years and is now permitted again, but only for irregular hours and part–year workers, and only where three conditions are met:

• The uplift is at least 12.07% of your total pay in the pay period.
• It is paid at the same time as the pay for the work you did.
• It appears as a clearly separate line on your payslip.

That third condition is your enforcement tool. If your employer claims your hourly rate “includes holiday pay” but nothing on the payslip says so, the arrangement does not comply. Learning to read the deductions and additions properly pays for itself, and our guide on how to read a UK payslip shows what a compliant one looks like.

One thing rolled–up pay does not change: you are still entitled to take the time off. Being paid the 12.07% does not buy out your right to actual rest, and employers still have a duty to make sure you take your leave.

Does Overtime and Commission Count?

Yes, for at least four of your 5.6 weeks, provided the payments are regular enough to count as part of your normal earnings.

UK case law settled this in stages. The Employment Appeal Tribunal in Bear Scotland v Fulton (2014) established that non–guaranteed overtime had to be reflected in holiday pay. Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willetts (2017) went further and confirmed that even genuinely voluntary overtime counts where it is worked regularly enough to form part of normal remuneration.

The practical test is not what the contract calls the payment. It is whether the money turns up consistently. Overtime you happen to work twice in a year is unlikely to qualify. Overtime you work most weeks almost certainly does.

The same logic applies to contractual results–based commission and regular bonuses linked to how you perform the work.

Many employers simply apply the same rate across all 5.6 weeks because running two different holiday rates is an administrative headache. That is legal and generous. Applying basic–pay–only across all 5.6 weeks, when you regularly work overtime, is not.

Four Worked Examples With 2026 Figures

Example 1: salaried, fixed hours

Priya earns £32,000 a year and works Monday to Friday. Her weekly pay is £615.38 and her daily rate is £123.08. She takes a five–day holiday and her monthly salary does not change at all. Nothing further to calculate.

Example 2: hourly, regular overtime

Marcus is contracted for 30 hours a week at £13.50 an hour, giving a basic weekly pay of £405. He also works around six hours of overtime most weeks, and his 52–week average total weekly pay comes out at £486.

For his first four weeks of holiday he should be paid £486 a week, not £405. Across those four weeks the difference is £324. If his employer pays basic only, that is money he is owed.

Example 3: zero–hours, accrual method

Aisha is on a zero–hours retail contract at £12.71 an hour, the April 2026 National Living Wage rate for workers aged 21 and over. Over a four–week pay period she works 96 hours.

• Accrual: 96 × 12.07% = 11.59 hours, rounded to 12 hours of paid holiday.
• Value if taken: 12 × £12.71 = £152.52.

Over a year at that pace she accrues roughly 150 hours of paid leave.

Example 4: rolled–up holiday pay

Same worker, same 96 hours, but her employer uses rolled–up pay.

• Pay for work: 96 × £12.71 = £1,220.16.
• Rolled–up holiday pay: £1,220.16 × 12.07% = £147.27.
• Gross total: £1,367.43, with the £147.27 shown as its own payslip line.

She still books and takes her time off. She simply is not paid again for those weeks, because she has already had the money.

How to Check Your Own Holiday Pay in Five Steps

1. Find your leave year start date. It is in your contract or staff handbook. If nothing is specified, it usually runs from your start date or from 1 October under the default statutory rules.
2. Work out your entitlement. Days worked per week × 5.6, or use the free holiday entitlement calculator on GOV.UK for irregular patterns.
3. Identify which category you are in. Fixed hours and pay, variable pay, or irregular hours or part–year. This decides which calculation applies to you.
4. Pull twelve months of payslips. For variable pay, average the last 52 paid weeks. For irregular hours, total your hours and apply 12.07%.
5. Compare with what you were actually paid. Check whether regular overtime, commission and shift allowances made it into at least four weeks of holiday pay.

If the numbers do not add up, raise it informally with payroll first. Most discrepancies are configuration errors rather than deliberate underpayment. If that does not resolve it, Acas offers free confidential advice, and an unlawful deduction from wages claim to an employment tribunal normally needs to be started within three months less one day of the underpayment.

What Changed on 6 April 2026

The Employment Rights Act 2025 brought in a new record–keeping duty that took effect on 6 April 2026, and it materially strengthens your hand if you are querying a figure.

Employers must now keep adequate records showing compliance with holiday and holiday pay obligations, retained for at least six years. Those records need to cover leave taken, any payments made in lieu of untaken holiday, and crucially, how the holiday pay was calculated.

Failure to keep adequate records is a criminal offence carrying a fine. The duty applies to all workers, explicitly including zero–hours and part–year staff. The new Fair Work Agency, launched on 7 April 2026, has enforcement powers over employers who do not comply.

In practical terms this means an employer can no longer wave away a query about holiday pay by saying the calculation is not available. They are legally required to have it written down.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Mistake 1: assuming bank holidays are extra

Plenty of people believe they get 28 days plus eight bank holidays as a legal minimum. They do not. An employer can count bank holidays inside the 5.6 weeks. Read the contract wording carefully: “20 days plus bank holidays” and “28 days inclusive of bank holidays” describe exactly the same statutory minimum.

Mistake 2: including unpaid weeks in your 52–week average

If you divide a year’s earnings by 52 when you had six unpaid weeks, you drag your own average down by more than 11%. The rule exists precisely to protect you from this. Strip out the zero–pay weeks and count back further, up to a maximum of 104 weeks.

Mistake 3: accepting “your rate already includes holiday pay”

This is the single most common issue for agency, casual and gig–adjacent work. Rolled–up holiday pay is only lawful for irregular hours and part–year workers, must be at least 12.07%, and must appear as a separate payslip line. If any of those three is missing, challenge it.

Mistake 4: not counting regular overtime

Workers routinely accept basic–rate holiday pay when they work six or eight hours of overtime nearly every week. Regular voluntary overtime counts towards at least four weeks of holiday pay. Over a full year of leave this can be worth several hundred pounds.

Mistake 5: letting leave expire without asking

Employers have a legal duty to encourage you to take your leave and to warn you if it will be lost. If they never told you, untaken statutory leave may carry over rather than simply vanishing on 31 December. Ask in writing before your leave year ends rather than after.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I calculate holiday pay for a zero–hours contract?

For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, you accrue 12.07% of the hours you actually work in each pay period. Multiply your hours by 0.1207 to get the hours of paid holiday earned, rounding to the nearest hour. When you take that holiday it is paid at your normal hourly rate, or at your 52–week average rate if your rate itself varies. Your employer may instead pay it as rolled–up holiday pay on every payslip.

Is holiday pay the same as normal pay?

It should be. For fixed–hours workers it is identical. For anyone with variable earnings, at least four of the 5.6 weeks must reflect normal remuneration, which includes regular overtime, results–based commission and regular shift allowances, averaged over the last 52 paid weeks. The remaining 1.6 weeks can lawfully be paid at basic rate, though many employers pay the full rate across all 5.6 weeks for simplicity.

Can my employer refuse to let me take holiday?

They can refuse specific dates, but not your entitlement overall. An employer can decline a request by giving counter–notice at least as long as the leave requested, and can require you to take leave at particular times, such as a Christmas shutdown, with double the notice. What they cannot do is prevent you from taking your 5.6 weeks across the leave year, and they have a positive duty to encourage you to use it.

Do I get paid for holiday I did not take when I leave a job?

Yes, for accrued statutory leave. On termination you must be paid in lieu of any statutory holiday accrued but untaken in that leave year. Contractual holiday above the statutory 5.6 weeks depends on what your contract says. Note that outside of termination, statutory holiday cannot be swapped for cash, because the point of the entitlement is rest rather than money.

How far back can I claim underpaid holiday pay?

An unlawful deduction from wages claim normally has to be brought within three months less one day of the last underpayment. Where there is a series of deductions the position is more complex, and a gap of three months or more between underpayments can break the chain. Because timing is decisive, get free advice from Acas early rather than waiting to gather perfect evidence.

Does holiday pay count towards minimum wage compliance?

Statutory holiday pay is not counted as pay for National Minimum Wage purposes in the pay reference period it relates to, which is one reason rolled–up holiday pay has to be shown separately on the payslip. Your underlying hourly rate must independently meet the legal floor, which from April 2026 is £12.71 for workers aged 21 and over, £10.85 for 18 to 20 year olds, and £8.00 for 16 to 17 year olds and apprentices. Some employers voluntarily pay the higher real Living Wage instead.

Now that you know what your holiday pay should look like, it is worth checking whether your current role actually pays fairly for the hours you put in. Browse the latest UK job vacancies on UK Jobs Alert to compare pay rates, contract types and holiday packages across employers hiring right now.