Work out statutory annual leave from the days you work each week, including the 28 day cap, part-year starters and irregular hours accrual.
Almost every worker is entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year. For a fixed weekly pattern that is simply the days you work each week multiplied by 5.6, capped at 28 days. Someone on five days a week gets the full 28 days; someone on three days a week gets 16.8 days.
Enter the shape of your week. Up to 5 days a week entitlement follows the days you work and the hours only convert the answer; above that the 28-day cap decides it.
Entitlement is set in weeks and converts to days, so it follows the days you work rather than the hours: five shorter days is still five days of leave. The last row is a different calculation for a different worker, not one of the ones above. It applies where your contract leaves your hours to vary from one pay period to the next, or where the year contains whole weeks you are neither required to work nor paid for: leave then builds up at 12.07% of the hours you work, rather than as a share of a standard week. Which one is yours is set by the contract, not by the month you joined — either of those and the accrued row is your figure however long you have been there; neither, and the months figure is yours.
Each row multiplies the working pattern by 5.6 weeks and then applies the 28 day cap. The half-year column shows a starter or leaver in post for six months of the leave year.
| Working pattern | Full leave year | Six months in post | Effect of the cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 day a week | 5.6 days | 2.8 days | under the cap |
| 2 days a week | 11.2 days | 5.6 days | under the cap |
| 3 days a week | 16.8 days | 8.4 days | under the cap |
| 4 days a week | 22.4 days | 11.2 days | under the cap |
| 5 days a week | 28 days | 14 days | under the cap |
| 6 days a week | 28 days | 14 days | capped from 33.6 days |
| Tax/source year | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Region | England/Wales/Northern Ireland |
| Tax code basis | 1257L where the page uses PAYE defaults |
| Pension basis | No pension deduction unless this example says otherwise |
| Student loan basis | No student loan unless selected in this example |
| What is not decided here | PayBreakdown does not decide payroll correctness, lender approval, benefit entitlement or employer compliance, and does not give regulated financial, mortgage, debt, tax, payroll or legal advice. |
|---|
The statutory minimum is 5.6 weeks, so for a fixed weekly pattern the calculation scales with the days you work rather than with your hours or your pay. Irregular hours accrue on the hours instead.
For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, two groups build holiday a different way, and the test turns on pay as much as on hours. Your hours count as irregular if your contract leaves the paid hours in each pay period wholly or mostly variable — set hours with overtime on top is not that. You are a part-year worker if your contract requires you to work only part of the year and, while that contract is running, there are stretches of a week or more when you are neither required to work nor paid. Either one, and leave builds up at 12.07% of the hours you work in each pay period, banked as hours, rather than as a number of days fixed at the start of the year.
Part-year status is not the same as having worked only part of the year, and the two calculations are not picked by when you started. The contract decides it.
This is a planning estimate of the statutory minimum. Contracts often give more than the statutory entitlement, and bank holidays only count towards it if your employer includes them.
Change any figure above and the result moves with it. A payslip can differ from any calculator because payroll works pay period by pay period, so a tax-code change, a bonus, arrears or a refund can land in one month and not the next. See how each deduction is worked out.
Multiply the days you work each week by 5.6, then cap the result at 28 days. 5 days a week gives 28 days, 4 days a week gives 22.4 days, 3 days a week gives 16.8 days and 2 days a week gives 11.2 days.
They can, but they do not have to. Bank holidays are not required to be given as paid leave, so an employer may either include the eight England and Wales bank holidays within the 28 day statutory minimum or give them in addition to it. Your contract will say which.
For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024 you accrue 12.07% of the hours you actually work in each pay period. Work 100 hours and you accrue 12.07 hours of paid holiday; work 40 hours and you accrue 4.83 hours.
Your entitlement is pro-rated for the part of the leave year you are in post. On 5 days a week for 6 months that is 14 days rather than the full 28.
Last updated 2026-08-27. Checked by Sean Elsmore. Rates last checked against GOV.UK on 2026-08-07. Estimates are for planning and should be checked against official records where the decision matters.