How much holiday am I entitled to in the UK?
Short answer
5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year — 28 days for someone working five days a week. Your employer can include bank holidays within that, so there is no automatic right to a paid day off on a bank holiday. Part-time workers get the same 5.6 weeks pro rata.
Verified · 4 cited sources
The statutory entitlement under the Working Time Regulations is 5.6 weeks, which for a five-day week works out at 28 days. It is capped at 28 days, so someone working six days a week is not entitled to more than 28.
Crucially, bank holidays are not additional by law. An employer may lawfully require you to use part of your 5.6 weeks for bank holidays, which is why some contracts say '20 days plus bank holidays' and others say '28 days including bank holidays' — the second is the statutory minimum, and the first is the same thing described differently in England and Wales where there are eight bank holidays.
Part-time workers get 5.6 weeks of their own working pattern. Someone working three days a week is entitled to 16.8 days, not to a proportion of 28 calculated some other way.
Holiday pay must reflect normal remuneration, not just basic pay. Following case law, regular overtime, commission and similar payments must be included where they are part of normal pay — a point many employers still get wrong.
Entitlement accrues from the first day of employment and continues to accrue during sick leave, maternity and other family leave. Untaken statutory holiday must be paid out when employment ends.
For irregular-hours and part-year workers, the rules changed for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, allowing accrual at 12.07 per cent of hours worked and permitting rolled-up holiday pay for those workers — a significant change after years in which rolled-up pay was unlawful.
- 5.6 weeks statutory, capped at 28 days for a five-day week
- Bank holidays can be counted within the 5.6 weeks — there is no automatic right to them
- Part-time workers get 5.6 weeks of their own pattern, pro rata
- Holiday pay must include regular overtime and commission where they are normal pay
- Irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue at 12.07 per cent of hours worked
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Sources & provenance
Facts verified
- 1.Holiday entitlement OfficialUK GovernmentUsed for: 5.6 weeks statutory entitlement, the 28-day cap and bank holidays
- 2.Checking holiday entitlement OfficialAcasUsed for: Pro rata calculation and accrual during leave
- 3.Calculating holiday pay for workers without fixed hours or pay OfficialDepartment for Business and TradeUsed for: 12.07 per cent accrual and rolled-up holiday pay for irregular-hours workers
- 4.Working Time Regulations 1998 Legislationlegislation.gov.ukUsed for: Statutory basis of the entitlement
Entitlement, the bank holiday position, pro rata calculation and the irregular-hours rules come from GOV.UK, Acas, the Department for Business and Trade and the Working Time Regulations as cited. The rules for irregular-hours and part-year workers changed for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024 — earlier guidance found elsewhere may be out of date on rolled-up holiday pay.
Facts on this page are taken from the sources listed above — UK government departments, devolved administrations, regulators, statutory bodies and official statistical releases. Comparisons, judgements and "which option suits whom" conclusions are AI-assisted analysis written over those sources; they are marked in the text and listed as an AI-analysis entry in the sources, not attributed to any authority. Rates, thresholds, fees and processing times change, usually at the start of a tax year in April; figures are current as at the review date shown and should be confirmed with the responsible body before you rely on them. Much of what follows differs between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — where it does, this site says so.