Holiday entitlement in the UK looks simple until it applies to you. Full-time, five days a week, starting in April? Straightforward. Part-time on irregular hours, starting in September, with bank holidays counted inside your allowance and a leaving date in the middle of the year? Considerably less so.
LeaveCalc exists for the second case.
The legal basis
Almost all UK workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year under the Working Time Regulations 1998. For someone working five days a week that comes to 28 days, which may or may not include bank holidays depending on the contract. The 5.6 weeks figure is the important one, because it is what makes pro rata calculations for part-time and irregular hours workers possible at all.
Entitlement is capped at 28 days statutory, so working six days a week does not increase it further.
What our calculators handle
Pro rata entitlement for part-time staff, accrual for anyone starting or leaving part way through a leave year, shift workers whose hours are not uniform, and how bank holidays interact with an allowance. We also cover holiday accrued but untaken when employment ends, which is one of the most frequent sources of disagreement between employers and staff.
Each calculator shows its working rather than just a total, so the number can be checked and, if necessary, discussed with an employer.
Who publishes this site
LeaveCalc is built and maintained by CJ Software Ltd, a UK software company that develops a small family of free, single-purpose calculators. We are a software business, not an employment law service, and we say so plainly because it matters when you decide how much weight to give a number on a screen.
The site is funded by advertising. Advertisers have no influence over the calculations, the guidance, or what we choose to write about.
Where to get advice
Our calculators reflect statutory minimum entitlement. Your contract may be more generous, and where it is, the contract wins. We cannot see your contract, your leave year dates, or any agreed variation, so treat our output as a starting point for a conversation rather than a final answer.
For disputes about holiday pay or entitlement, ACAS offers free impartial advice and GOV.UK publishes the statutory position. If you believe one of our calculations is wrong, tell us and we will look at it properly.