Holiday Entitlement: How 5.6 Weeks Turns Into Your Days

The number that matters is 5.6, not 28. Statutory holiday is written in weeks, and once you think in weeks the awkward cases stop being awkward: four-day weeks, mid-year starters, shifts that change every fortnight.

Where the 28 days comes from

A week means whatever a working week normally is for you. Work five days a week and 5.6 weeks is 28 days. The figure is capped there, so someone working six days a week still gets 28 days rather than 33.6. Nothing stops an employer offering more: 25 days plus eight bank holidays comes to 33.

Part-time and compressed hours

Multiply your normal days per week by 5.6. Three days gives 16.8 days. Four days gives 22.4. The decimals are real and you keep them; an employer can round up but not down.

Compressed hours need more care. Someone doing 37.5 hours across four long days still gets 22.4 days, but each day is 9.375 hours instead of 7.5, so a full week off costs four days of the allowance, not five. If leave is tracked in hours, the sum is 5.6 x 37.5 = 210 hours.

Bank holidays are usually inside the 28

England and Wales have eight permanent bank holidays, and there is no legal right to take them off or to be paid extra for working them. Most employers count them inside the 28, leaving 20 days you can actually book. Read the contract wording, because "plus bank holidays" and "including bank holidays" are eight days apart.

Starting or leaving part way through the year

Pro-rate by months, or by days if you want to be exact. Join on 1 October when the leave year runs January to December and you have three months left: 28 x 3 / 12 = 7 days.

Leaving works in reverse, and here the arithmetic has money attached. Leave on 31 May having taken 10 days: you accrued 28 x 5 / 12 = 11.67 days, so 1.67 days are owed as pay. At £120 a day that is roughly £200 added to the final payslip. Take 15 days instead and your employer can only claw back the 3.33 days overtaken if the contract says so. Holiday pay is taxed like any other pay, so check what the final payment nets down to with the UK take-home pay guide.

Irregular hours and zero-hours contracts

For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, workers on irregular hours or part-year contracts build up holiday at 12.07% of the hours actually worked in each pay period. Work 120 hours in a month and you bank 14.5 hours of leave.

The percentage is not arbitrary: take 5.6 weeks of holiday out of 52 and 46.4 working weeks remain, and 5.6 / 46.4 = 12.07%. For the wider picture of what a working year contains, see work hours in a year.

Using the holiday entitlement calculator

Three inputs do most of the work: the date your leave year starts, your normal days or hours per week, and your start date if that falls inside the current leave year.

Your leave year is on the contract or in the HR system. Where nothing says otherwise it often runs from the date you joined, so two colleagues can have different reset dates. Days per week come off the contract, not off whatever you worked last month, and hours are on your payslip if you are paid hourly. Enter your employer's actual entitlement if it beats 28 days, and tell the calculator whether bank holidays are already included so it does not count them twice.

Common questions

Do bank holidays come on top of my 28 days? Only if your contract says so. The statutory 5.6 weeks can include them. Many employers advertise "20 days plus bank holidays", which is the same 28 described differently.

Can I be paid instead of taking my holiday? Not for the statutory 5.6 weeks while you are still employed; payment in lieu is only allowed when the job ends. Contractual days above the minimum can sometimes be sold back if the employer runs a scheme.

Do I still build up holiday while off sick or on maternity leave? Yes. Entitlement keeps accruing through sickness absence and through all 52 weeks of maternity leave, which is why people often return with a large balance.