UK holiday entitlement starts from a 5.6-week statutory floor, but the detail matters: it is capped at 28 days, scales by working days for part-timers, and uses a separate 12.07% accrual rule for irregular-hours staff after the 2024 reform. This calculator handles all three cases.
How it works
For regular-hours workers the entitlement is a simple multiple of the working pattern, capped and pro-rated; for irregular-hours workers it accrues per period:
regular : days = min(5.6 × days per week, 28)
pro-rata : days × (months remaining in leave year / 12)
irregular : accrued hours = hours worked × 12.07%
12.07% = 5.6 / (52 − 5.6)The 28-day cap is why a six-day week does not earn more statutory leave than a five-day week.
Example and notes
A four-day-a-week employee is entitled to 5.6 times four, so 22.4 days a year. A zero-hours worker who clocks 60 hours in a month accrues 60 times 12.07%, about 7.24 hours of holiday. Remember that whether bank holidays count towards the statutory minimum is up to the employer — many contracts give the 5.6 weeks plus bank holidays, but the law only requires 5.6 weeks in total.