Almost all workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday a year (known as statutory leave entitlement or annual leave).

This includes:

agency workers

workers with irregular hours

workers on zero-hours contracts

An employer can include bank holidays as part of statutory annual leave.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) does not affect workers’ entitlement to holiday pay and leave, except for carrying over leave.

Statutory annual leave entitlement

Most workers who work a 5-day week must receive at least 28 days’ paid annual leave a year. This is the equivalent of 5.6 weeks of holiday.

Working part-time

Part-time workers are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday, but this will amount to fewer than 28 days.

For example, if they work 3 days a week, they must get at least 16.8 days’ leave a year (3 × 5.6).

Use the holiday entitlement calculator to work out a part-time worker’s leave.

Irregular hours

People working irregular hours (like shift workers or term-time workers) are entitled to paid time off for every hour they work.

They might find it helpful to get an estimate of holiday entitlement by calculating leave based on days or hours worked in an average week.

Limits on statutory leave

Statutory paid holiday entitlement is limited to 28 days. For example, staff working 6 days a week are only entitled to 28 days’ paid holiday.

Bank holidays

Bank or public holidays do not have to be given as paid leave.

An employer can choose to include bank holidays as part of a worker’s statutory annual leave.

Extra leave

An employer can choose to offer more leave than the legal minimum. They do not have to apply all the rules that apply to statutory leave to the extra leave. For example, a worker might need to be employed for a certain amount of time before they become entitled to it.

Other aspects of holiday entitlement

Workers have the right to:

get paid for leave

build up (‘accrue’) holiday entitlement during maternity, paternity and adoption leave

build up holiday entitlement while off work sick

request holiday at the same time as sick leave

Disputes

Paid annual leave is a legal right that an employer must provide. If a worker thinks their right to leave and pay are not being met there are a number of ways to resolve the dispute.