Statutory holiday entitlement
calculator (UK)

Work out the 5.6 weeks statutory holiday for full-time and part-time staff, including the 28-day cap.

Your numbers

Days worked per week

Statutory holiday

How much statutory holiday do UK workers get?

5.6 weeks a year, pro-rated by days worked per week and capped at 28 days for statutory purposes. Five days a week gives 28 days.

How we calculated this

Statutory paid holiday in Great Britain is 5.6 weeks a year. For someone with a fixed working pattern, a week of holiday is the days they work in a week, so we multiply the days worked per week by 5.6 to get days of entitlement. The result is capped at 28 days, which is 5.6 weeks for a five-day worker; anyone working six or seven days is limited to the same 28. The number is the legal minimum, and bank holidays can sit inside it. The working and the sources sit below.

New to the term? Read the plain-English definition of statutory holiday entitlement in the HR Glossary.

Your working

Assumptions

Uses the days-per-week method, which suits fixed patterns of full days. Irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue at 12.07% of hours worked instead, under the rules that took effect from leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, so run those cases separately.
Applies the 28-day statutory cap. Six or seven days a week still gives 28 days by law, and 5.6 weeks of a compressed four-day week is 22.4 days, so compressed patterns need care with hours rather than days.
Treats bank holidays as inside the 5.6 weeks unless the contract says otherwise. There is no statutory right to bank holidays off or to extra pay for them; a contract that says "28 days plus bank holidays" is more generous than the law.
Shows the annual entitlement for a full leave year. Starters and leavers get a pro rata share of the year, and any contractual holiday above the minimum sits on top of the figure shown.

Sources

GOV.UK, "Holiday entitlement" (5.6 weeks, the 28-day cap, bank holidays, part-time pro rata), accessed August 2026
GOV.UK, "Calculate holiday entitlement" (the official calculator for irregular hours, part-year workers, starters and leavers), accessed August 2026
GOV.UK, "Holiday pay and entitlement reforms from 1 January 2024" (12.07% accrual for irregular-hours and part-year workers), accessed August 2026

What to do about it

Entitlement is the easy half of the leave question. Whether people take it, and whether they come back better for it, is the half that shows up in the engagement scores. These steps are for whoever manages leave in practice, which is usually the line manager and the person who runs the roster.

Confirm the pattern before you confirm the number

Fixed days, compressed hours, part-year or irregular: each accrues differently and the days-per-week method only fits the first. Note the method used against each person so a query in March can be answered in a minute.

Put bank holidays in writing

Decide whether they sit inside the 5.6 weeks or on top and say so in the contract. Apply it the same way for part-timers, who should get a pro rata share of them rather than only the ones that fall on their working days. Most holiday disputes start here.

Track how much leave is actually taken, by team, each quarter

Untaken leave is a liability on the balance sheet and a warning about workload. If one team carries far more untaken days than the others, the problem is rarely the entitlement.

Where a tool helps

Treat leave as recovery, not admin

Encourage full weeks off and arrange cover so people can switch off. Notice who never takes a break. A team that cannot take its leave is a team running down, and the survey says so a quarter later.

Step 4 is the half
your roster cannot see.

Compono Engage is an employee engagement platform that reads culture and climate alongside work personality, team by team, so you can see whether a team is recovering or quietly running down. Most engagement tools give you an annual score and an average; Engage shows which team is under strain and what is driving it, in time to change it.

Step 4 asks you to treat leave as recovery and notice who never switches off. Engage gives you that read continuously, so the days you calculated above turn into a team that comes back, rather than a liability that grows.

See how it works

Compono Engage

8%+

reduction in turnover

Common questions

Are bank holidays included in the 5.6 weeks?

They can be. There is no automatic right to paid bank holidays on top of statutory entitlement, so an employer may count them within the 5.6 weeks. Many contracts are more generous.

How does holiday work for part-time staff?

Multiply the days worked per week by 5.6. Three days a week gives 16.8 days. The 28-day cap only affects those working six or more days a week.

How do irregular-hours workers accrue holiday?

At 12.07% of hours worked, rather than the days-per-week method. This calculator covers the standard days-per-week case.

This page is general information, not legal advice. We check figures annually and update them on a best-efforts basis, but employment rules change and we cannot promise everything here is current or complete. Before you act on it, confirm the detail with GOV.UK or your own adviser. Last reviewed July 2026.

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