It is 5.6 weeks, not 28 days
Almost everyone remembers the number 28 and almost everyone applies it wrongly. Statutory entitlement under the Working Time Regulations 1998 is 5.6 weeks of whatever pattern the person actually works. For somebody doing five days a week that comes to 28 days, which is why the figure sticks. For anybody else it does not.
A three day week is 16.8 days. A four day week is 22.4. Telling a part-timer they get 28 days offers them nearly double what they are owed, and quoting "28 pro rata" without doing the arithmetic usually lands somewhere else again.
The cap only bites above five days
Regulation 13A caps statutory entitlement at 28 days however many days are worked. Somebody on a six day week would otherwise get 33.6 days, and instead gets 28. That cap is a ceiling for people working more than five days, and it never reduces a part-timer's entitlement. Applying it to somebody on three days is simply the same mistake in a different direction.
Compressed hours: four long days is still full holiday
Somebody working four ten-hour days gets 22.4 days, and it looks like they have been docked nearly six days against a colleague's 28. They have not. Four ten-hour days is 40 hours a week, and 40 x 5.6 is 224 hours of holiday. Five eight-hour days is also 40 hours a week, 28 days, and also 224 hours. Same holiday. Fewer days, longer days.
So anyone on compressed hours should have leave booked in hours, not days. A week off is four days for them, not five. An employer who gives them 22.4 days and then deducts five days every time they take a week away has taken a fifth of their holiday off them, one week at a time, and it will never show up as an obvious error.
Bank holidays are not a separate right
There is no legal entitlement to bank holidays off, paid or otherwise. An employer may include them within the 5.6 weeks, which is what most do: eight bank holidays plus twenty days of annual leave is exactly 28.
Where a contract gives bank holidays on top of the full 5.6 weeks, it is more generous than the minimum, and that extra is contractual rather than statutory. It matters on termination, because only the statutory part must be paid in lieu.
Starters and leavers
For part of a leave year, entitlement is pro rated to the proportion worked. On termination, regulation 14 requires the figure to be rounded up rather than down, so five months of a five day week is 11.67 days and the leaver is owed 12.
The first year works differently again. Under regulation 15A leave accrues monthly in advance at one twelfth of the annual entitlement, on the first of each month. So somebody one day into their third month already has three twelfths rather than two and a bit. That only applies during the first leave year; after that the whole entitlement is available from the start.
Irregular hours are a different calculation entirely
If somebody has no set pattern, zero hours, casual or term-time only, this is not the right tool. For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, irregular hours and part-year workers accrue holiday at 12.07 per cent of the hours they actually work, under the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023.
That reversed the Supreme Court decision in Harpur Trust v Brazel for those workers. Which rule applies depends on when the leave year started rather than on today's date, which catches out anyone whose leave year runs from January.
This is entitlement, not pay
How many days somebody gets and what a day is worth are two separate questions. For a worker on fixed pay a day of holiday is a normal day's pay. For anyone with variable pay it is averaged over a 52 week reference period, skipping any week they were not paid.
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.
A working pattern says a lot about somebody
Patterns, hours and dates stay on the page and are discarded when you close the tab. There is no account and nothing is uploaded.
Common questions
Is statutory holiday always 28 days?
No, it is 5.6 weeks of whatever pattern you actually work, and 28 days is simply what that comes to for a five day week. A three day week is 16.8 days and a four day week is 22.4, so telling a part-timer they get 28 days hands them nearly double what they are owed.
Does working four long days instead of five give me less holiday?
No. Four ten-hour days is 40 hours a week, and 40 x 5.6 is 224 hours of holiday, exactly the same as five eight-hour days. Anyone on compressed hours should have leave booked in hours rather than days, or a week off ends up costing them a fifth of their real entitlement.
Am I entitled to bank holidays off on top of my annual leave?
There is no legal entitlement to bank holidays as a separate right. An employer may include them within the 5.6 weeks, which is what most do: eight bank holidays plus twenty days of annual leave comes to exactly 28. Where a contract gives bank holidays on top of the full 5.6 weeks, that extra is contractual rather than statutory.
How is holiday worked out for someone who starts or leaves partway through the year?
Entitlement is pro rated to the proportion of the leave year worked, and on termination the figure is rounded up rather than down, so five months of a five day week comes to 12 days owed rather than 11.67. In the first leave year, holiday instead accrues monthly in advance at one twelfth of the annual entitlement.
Does this tool work for zero hours or term-time only staff?
No, that needs a different calculation. For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, irregular hours and part-year workers accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours they actually work, which reversed the Supreme Court decision in Harpur Trust v Brazel for those workers.
Does this tell me how much a day of holiday is worth in pay?
Not directly: entitlement and pay are two separate questions. For a worker on fixed pay, a day of holiday is a normal day’s pay. For variable pay it is averaged over a 52 week reference period, skipping any week they were not paid.