Statutory entitlement

Workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid statutory annual leave each leave year. For someone working five days a week that is 28 days. Bank holidays may be counted within that entitlement unless your contract provides them in addition.

Part-time workers receive 5.6 weeks calculated on their working pattern.

What holiday pay must include

Holiday pay must reflect normal remuneration, not basic salary alone. You should not be financially penalised for taking leave.

For the first four weeks of statutory leave, normal remuneration can include:

• regular overtime, whether guaranteed or not
• commission you would have earned had you been working
• shift premiums and unsocial hours payments
• standby and call-out payments
• regular performance or productivity bonuses
• payments intrinsically linked to the performance of contractual duties

For the remaining 1.6 weeks, basic pay may be sufficient unless your contract provides otherwise.

Many employers apply basic pay to all 5.6 weeks. If your earnings routinely include overtime or commission, check your payslips.

Variable pay and hours

Where pay or hours vary, holiday pay is calculated using a 52-week reference period of average weekly earnings. Weeks in which no remuneration was payable are disregarded, and the employer looks back further — up to 104 weeks — to find 52 paid weeks.

Irregular-hours and part-year workers

For holiday years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, specific rules apply.

Leave accrues at 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period, subject to the statutory rounding rules and maximum entitlement.

Rolled-up holiday pay is permitted for these workers: an uplift paid with normal wages rather than when leave is taken. It must be calculated at no less than the statutory percentage, paid at the same time as normal remuneration, and itemised separately on the payslip. It does not remove your right to actually take the leave.

Sickness and family leave

Statutory holiday continues to accrue during sickness absence, however long. You may take holiday while off sick, and where illness genuinely prevented you from taking leave, carry-over rights apply — generally for up to 18 months from the end of the relevant leave year for the four-week entitlement.

Holiday also accrues throughout maternity, adoption, paternity and shared parental leave, and can be carried into the next leave year.

When employment ends

Accrued but untaken statutory holiday must be paid.

Ask for a written calculation showing: the leave year; total entitlement; leave already taken; accrual to the termination date; contractual leave; any carry-over; the rate used; and any lawful deduction for leave taken in excess of accrual (which requires a contractual term).

Claims

Holiday pay shortfalls are recoverable as unlawful deductions from wages. Strict tribunal deadlines apply, and rules about series of deductions can limit how far back you recover. Take advice early.