Holiday pay calculator for irregular hours and part-year workers

What this holiday pay calculator does

If your hours change from week to week, or you only work part of the year, your holiday is no longer worked out in days. Since leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, it builds up as a share of the hours you actually work. This calculator does that sum for you, pay period by pay period, and shows each step.

It answers three questions:

• How many hours of holiday have I built up? Enter the hours you worked in each pay period. You get 12.07% of each, rounded to the nearest hour the way the regulations say.
• Is my rolled-up holiday pay right? Add your gross pay for each period. You get 12.07% of it, so you can check the holiday pay line on your payslip.
• What should a week's holiday pay be? If your employer pays holiday when you take it, enter your weekly pay, most recent week first. The calculator finds your last 52 paid weeks, skips unpaid, sick and family leave weeks, stops at 104 weeks back, and averages what is left.

Most holiday calculators ask how many days you work a week. That question has no answer for a zero-hours contract, bank staff, supply teachers or seasonal workers. This one works from the hours and pay on your payslips instead.

How holiday is worked out for irregular hours

The rules are in the Working Time Regulations 1998, as changed from 1 January 2024. They apply to two kinds of worker:

• an irregular hours worker, whose paid hours in each pay period are wholly or mostly variable under their contract (a zero-hours contract, for example)
• a part-year worker, who is only required to work part of the year and has periods of at least a week when they do not work and are not paid (a seasonal farm worker, for example)

A worker on a fixed rota, even a rotating one, is neither. Their holiday is still worked out in days or weeks.

Holiday accrued

Regulation 15B says you build up holiday on the last day of each pay period, at 12.07% of the hours you worked in it:

holiday accrued (hours) = hours worked in the pay period × 12.07% a fraction under 30 minutes counts as 0; 30 minutes or more counts as 1 hour

The 12.07% comes from the statutory 5.6 weeks of holiday. Take 5.6 weeks from 52 and 46.4 working weeks are left; 5.6 ÷ 46.4 = 12.07%. If your contract gives more holiday, the same sum gives your rate. Six weeks gives 6 ÷ 46 = 13.04%. Enter your weeks in the first box and the calculator uses that rate. You cannot build up more than 28 days of statutory leave in a leave year under this rule.

The rounding happens in each pay period, not once at the end. That is why the total of the rounded hours can differ from 12.07% of all your hours together. The working table shows both.

Rolled-up holiday pay

Regulation 16A lets an employer add 12.07% to your pay every pay period instead of paying you when you take time off. It must be paid at the same time as your wages and shown as a separate amount on each payslip. It is worked out on your total pay for the period, including enhanced rates for nights or weekends. When you then take holiday, you have already been paid for it.

GOV.UK's worked examples divide pay by 100, round to the penny, then multiply by 12.07. That early rounding can move the result by a few pence. The calculator shows both figures so you can match your payslip.

The 52-week average

Employers do not have to use rolled-up pay. If they pay holiday when you take it, a week's holiday pay is your average weekly pay over your last 52 weeks with pay:

• weeks with no pay are left out, and earlier paid weeks are used instead
• weeks with any time off sick, or on maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave, are left out too
• the employer looks back no further than 104 weeks; if fewer than 52 paid weeks are found, the average is over those weeks
• if you have worked there less than 52 weeks, the average uses the complete weeks you have

Worked example

Sam works for a catering agency on a zero-hours contract and is paid monthly. Their leave year began in April. They have the statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks. Over three months they work:

In month 2, 0.828 of an hour is about 50 minutes, so it rounds up to 5 hours. In month 3, 0.4484 of an hour is about 27 minutes, so it rounds down to 1. Sam has built up 14 hours of holiday. If the agency uses rolled-up pay, each payslip should show the 12.07% line, £181.06 in total.

Now take the 52-week method, using the pay pattern in GOV.UK's own example. Working back from the latest week, the employer meets 7 weeks with no pay and skips them. It goes back a further 7 weeks to reach 52 paid weeks, which add up to £12,040. A week's holiday is paid at £12,040 ÷ 52 = £231.54. Press "Try the GOV.UK examples" above to see this worked through.

What it does not cover

• Leave years that began before 1 April 2024 used the old rules. Workers on regular hours, even part-time, still get 5.6 weeks pro rata in days.
• Holiday that builds up while you are off sick or on family leave is worked out from your average hours over the previous 52 weeks. This calculator does not do that step.
• It does not decide whether bonuses or commission count as pay. Use the gross pay your payslip shows.
• The rules here are for England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own holiday regulations.

If you think you are being paid too little holiday pay, Acas gives free advice on 0300 123 1100.