Where 12.07% comes from
It is not a rule of thumb and it is not rounded off. A worker entitled to 5.6 weeks of holiday works the other 46.4 weeks of the year. Divide 5.6 by 46.4 and you get 0.120689, published as 12.07%. It is the same statutory entitlement, expressed against time actually worked rather than against a working pattern that does not exist.
So a fortnight of 40 hours accrues 4.83 hours of paid leave. Nothing about the entitlement has changed; only the way of measuring it.
Who this applies to
Two groups, defined by the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023: irregular hours workers, whose paid hours are wholly or mostly variable under their contract, and part-year workers, who are contracted for at least one week a year they are not paid for. Zero-hours, bank, casual and term-time staff usually fall into one or the other.
Everyone else stays on 5.6 weeks of their normal pattern, worked out the ordinary way. Somebody on a fixed four-day week whose overtime varies is not an irregular hours worker.
It depends on when the leave year started
The rules apply to leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. Not to hours worked after that date, and not to the date you are reading this. An employer whose leave year runs from 1 January was still on the old rules until January 2025.
Before that, Harpur Trust v Brazel governed. The Supreme Court held in 2022 that a part-year worker on a permanent contract was entitled to the full 5.6 weeks regardless of how few weeks they actually worked, and that pro rating by hours was not permitted. The 2023 regulations reversed that for these two groups going forward. They did not reverse it retrospectively.
Rolled-up holiday pay is allowed again, with conditions
For these workers, an employer may pay the 12.07% as an uplift on each payslip instead of paying holiday when it is taken. That had been unlawful since 2006 and became lawful again from 1 April 2024.
The conditions are not optional. It has to be calculated on all pay for the period, itemised as a separate line on the payslip, and paid at the same time as the pay it relates to. Folding it silently into a headline hourly rate and calling it "rate includes holiday" does not satisfy any of that, and the worker can still claim the holiday pay.
Rolled-up pay also does not remove the right to take the time off. The leave still exists; only the payment has been brought forward.
Accruing in hours, taking it in hours
Because accrual is measured in hours rather than days, leave is taken in hours too. Somebody who has accrued 38 hours and takes a week off is booking whatever hours they would have worked that week, not a flat five days.
This tool totals from the raw hours rather than adding up the rounded per-period figures, so the rounding on each line does not compound across a year of payslips.
Nothing here is legal advice, and a contract can always be more generous than the statutory minimum. Where a page cites a regulation it names it so you can check it.
Hours and rates, kept on your machine
Hours, rates and dates stay on the page and are discarded when you close the tab. There is no account and nothing is uploaded.
Common questions
Why is holiday accrued at 12.07% rather than a simpler fraction?
Because a worker entitled to 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday works the other 46.4 weeks of the year, and 5.6 divided by 46.4 is 0.120689, published as 12.07%. It is the same statutory entitlement expressed against hours actually worked rather than against a working pattern that does not exist.
Who counts as an irregular hours or part-year worker for holiday purposes?
Irregular hours workers are those whose paid hours are wholly or mostly variable under their contract, and part-year workers are contracted for at least one week a year they are not paid for. Zero-hours, bank, casual and term-time staff usually fall into one group or the other, while someone on a fixed four-day week with variable overtime does not.
From when do the 12.07% accrual rules actually apply?
From leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, not from hours worked after that date. An employer whose leave year runs from 1 January was still on the old rules until January 2025, so the relevant date is when your employer's leave year starts.
What was the rule before the 2023 regulations, and does it still apply to older leave years?
The Supreme Court's Harpur Trust v Brazel decision held that a part-year worker on a permanent contract was entitled to the full 5.6 weeks regardless of how few weeks they actually worked, and that pro-rating by hours was not permitted. The 2023 regulations reversed that for irregular hours and part-year workers going forward, but not retrospectively.
Is rolled-up holiday pay legal?
Yes, again, from 1 April 2024, for irregular hours and part-year workers. It has to be calculated on all pay for the period, itemised as a separate line on the payslip, and paid at the same time as the pay it relates to. Folding it silently into a headline hourly rate does not satisfy those conditions, and the worker can still claim the holiday pay.
Does rolled-up pay mean I no longer get time off?
No, it only changes when you are paid for it. The right to take the leave still exists; rolled-up pay simply brings the payment forward onto each payslip instead of paying it when the leave is taken.