UK Holiday Entitlement Rules: Everything Employees Need to Know

Almost all UK workers are entitled to paid annual leave under the Working Time Regulations 1998. Here's what you need to know.

Statutory minimum entitlement

Full-time workers (5 days/week) are entitled to 28 days paid leave per year — this includes 8 bank holidays. Employers can count bank holidays towards this total, or offer them on top.

Part-time workers

Part-time workers get a pro-rata entitlement based on days worked. Someone working 3 days a week gets 3/5 × 28 = 16.8 days.

Starting mid-year

New starters accrue leave from day one but only on a pro-rata basis for the remainder of the holiday year. Most employers operate a January–December or April–March holiday year.

Carrying over leave

Unused leave can normally only be carried into the next year in limited circumstances — illness, maternity leave, or if the employer explicitly allows it.

Who qualifies

The entitlement applies to workers, which is a broader category than employees. Agency workers, most casual and zero-hours workers, and many people classed as workers rather than employees all qualify from their first day. Genuinely self-employed contractors do not.

Employment status is determined by the reality of the working relationship rather than the label on the contract, and misclassification is common. If you are told you are self-employed but work set hours under supervision for one company, your status may not be what your contract claims.

Bank holidays are not a separate right

This is the most persistent misunderstanding in UK holiday law. There is no legal right to take bank holidays off, and no legal right to extra pay for working one. The 8 bank holidays can be counted within the 5.6 weeks or granted on top, entirely depending on your contract.

So a contract offering “20 days plus bank holidays” and one offering “28 days including bank holidays” provide exactly the same statutory minimum. The first is not more generous, it is the same entitlement described differently.

What holiday pay must be based on

Holiday pay should reflect normal remuneration rather than basic pay alone. Where earnings vary, it is calculated using average weekly pay over a 52-week reference period, skipping any weeks in which no pay was received and going back further to make up the full 52.

Regular overtime, commission and shift allowances generally form part of that calculation. Workers who consistently earn more than basic salary and receive only basic salary while on leave are often being underpaid.

Carrying leave over: the exceptions in detail

The general position is use it or lose it, but there are established exceptions where leave must be allowed to carry forward:

• Long-term sickness: leave that could not be taken due to illness can be carried forward, subject to a limit on how long it remains available.
• Family leave: workers returning from maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave carry over untaken entitlement.
• Employer prevented it: where an employer failed to give a genuine opportunity to take leave, or did not inform the worker they would lose it, the leave carries over.

That last point is often overlooked. The obligation to make sure workers can actually take their leave sits with the employer, not the worker.

Booking, refusal and notice

Employers can refuse specific dates and can require leave to be taken at particular times, such as a Christmas shutdown, provided the correct notice is given. The statutory notice for requiring leave is twice the length of the leave itself, so a two-week shutdown requires four weeks' notice.

What an employer cannot do is refuse leave so persistently that the worker cannot use their entitlement within the year, which brings the carry-over rules above into play.

When you leave a job

Untaken accrued leave must be paid in your final wages, calculated on the proportion of the leave year worked. Payment in lieu is only permitted on termination. While employed, statutory leave must be taken as actual time off and cannot be bought out.

Calculate your entitlement

Calculate your entitlement precisely with our holiday entitlement calculator, or use the pro-rata calculator if you started or are leaving mid-year and the bank holiday calculator to see how the 8 days affect your total.

General information, not legal advice. Statutory entitlement is a minimum and your contract may give you more. ACAS provides free impartial guidance on annual leave disputes.