Holiday pay calculator

The 12.07% accrual applies to irregular-hours and part-year workers, for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024 (Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 15B). Regular-hours workers get 5.6 weeks' leave per leave year instead.

The 12.07% figure comes from the statutory 5.6 weeks' leave a year, divided by the 46.4 weeks actually worked (52 weeks minus 5.6 weeks' leave = 46.4). An irregular-hours or part-year worker accrues 12.07% of the hours they work in each pay period, on the last day of that pay period. They cannot accrue more than 28 days of leave in a leave year (regulation 15B(4)).

Accrued banks that 12.07% as hours and pay in a running balance, drawn down when the worker actually takes leave. Rolled-up holiday pay pays the 12.07% out with each payslip instead, itemised as a separate amount, and the worker takes unpaid leave when they're off.

Rolled-up holiday pay is only lawful for irregular-hours and part-year workers, and only for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024 (regulation 16A, inserted by the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023). It must be shown as a separate item on the payslip, not folded into the hourly rate.

Worked example. A contractor works 37.5 hours at £30.00 an hour: £1,125.00 gross. Accrued holiday: 37.5 × 12.07% = 4.53 hours before rounding. Regulation 15B(5) treats a fraction of an hour under 30 minutes as zero and one of 30 minutes or more as a whole hour, so the 0.53 of an hour (about 32 minutes) rounds up and the statutory accrual is 5 hours. Holiday pay: £1,125.00 × 12.07% = £135.79, either banked (accrued) or paid with this payslip (rolled-up).