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Your Holiday Rights at Work: What UK Employers Must Provide in 2026

5 March 2026

Annual leave is one of the most fundamental employment rights in the United Kingdom, yet a surprising number of workers do not fully understand what they are legally entitled to. Whether you work full-time behind a desk, part-time in retail, or on a zero-hours contract in the gig economy, UK employment law guarantees you a minimum amount of paid time off. In this guide, we explain everything you need to know about your holiday rights in 2026, including how your entitlement is calculated, what your employer must provide, and what steps you can take if your rights are being violated.

The Statutory Minimum: 5.6 Weeks

Under the Working Time Regulations 1998, almost all workers in the UK are entitled to a minimum of 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave per year. For someone working a standard five-day week, this works out to 28 days. This figure can include bank holidays, which is an important distinction that catches many people off guard. Your employer is not legally required to give you bank holidays on top of your 28 days; they can count bank holidays as part of your statutory entitlement.

The 5.6-week minimum applies from day one of your employment. You do not need to complete a probationary period or work for a certain number of months before you become eligible. However, your employer can set rules about when you take your leave, require you to give notice, and restrict holiday during busy periods, provided they follow the correct procedures.

How Pro-Rata Works for Part-Time Workers

If you work part-time, your holiday entitlement is calculated on a pro-rata basis. This means you receive the same proportion of leave as a full-time worker, adjusted for the number of days you work each week. For example, if you work three days per week, your statutory entitlement is 3 multiplied by 5.6, which gives you 16.8 days of paid holiday per year.

It is important to understand that part-time workers receive exactly the same rate of holiday as full-time workers when measured in weeks. The only difference is the number of days per week. If your employer gives full-time staff additional holiday beyond the statutory minimum, you are also entitled to the same proportional increase. Treating part-time workers less favourably in terms of holiday would be unlawful discrimination under the Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000.

Irregular Hours and Zero-Hours Contracts

Workers on irregular hours or zero-hours contracts also have holiday rights, though calculating the entitlement can be more complex. The standard approach is the 12.07% method: for every hour you work, you accrue approximately 12.07% of that time as holiday. This percentage is derived from the fact that 5.6 weeks of leave out of a 46.4-week working year equals roughly 12.07%.

From April 2024, the government introduced changes to simplify holiday calculations for irregular-hours workers. Under the new rules, employers can choose to use a method called "rolled-up holiday pay," where a holiday pay supplement is included in every payslip rather than being saved for when holiday is taken. If your employer uses this method, you should see a separate line on your payslip showing your holiday pay element, which must be at least 12.07% of your pay for the period.

Key point: Even if you are on a zero-hours contract and have not been offered shifts for several weeks, your accrued holiday entitlement does not disappear. You are still entitled to be paid for any holiday you have built up.

What Counts as a Working Day?

A working day for holiday purposes is any day on which you are normally required to work. If you work Monday to Friday, then each of those days counts as one day of holiday when you take time off. If you work shifts that vary in length, your holiday entitlement may be better measured in hours rather than days. For example, if you normally work 10-hour shifts, taking one day of holiday should use 10 hours of your entitlement, not just the standard 7 or 8 hours.

Employers and workers sometimes disagree about how to count holiday for shift workers. The safest approach is to measure everything in hours. Take your total annual hours, divide by the number of working weeks to get your average weekly hours, and then multiply by 5.6 to find your total holiday hours for the year.

Holiday Pay: What You Should Receive

When you take annual leave, you are entitled to receive your normal pay. For workers with a fixed salary, this is straightforward. However, for those with variable earnings, calculating holiday pay has been the subject of significant legal debate. Following several landmark court cases, the current position in 2026 is that holiday pay should reflect your normal earnings, including regular overtime, commission, and other regular payments.

The reference period for calculating holiday pay for workers with variable earnings is 52 weeks. Your employer should look at your earnings over the previous 52 weeks in which you were paid (skipping any weeks where you received no pay) and calculate the average. This average becomes your rate of holiday pay per week.

If you receive rolled-up holiday pay, your employer adds a holiday supplement to each payment rather than paying you separately when you take time off. While this was previously considered unlawful, the government clarified from April 2024 that rolled-up holiday pay is permissible for irregular-hours and part-year workers, provided it is clearly itemised and calculated at the correct rate.

Your Employer's Obligations

Your employer has several specific obligations regarding your annual leave:

What If Your Employer Is Not Complying?

If you believe your employer is not providing your legal holiday entitlement, you have several options. The first step is usually to raise it informally with your manager or HR department. Many holiday disputes arise from genuine misunderstandings rather than deliberate non-compliance.

If the informal approach does not work, you can contact ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) for free advice and early conciliation. ACAS can help mediate between you and your employer without the need for a formal legal process. If conciliation fails, you have the right to bring a claim to an employment tribunal. Claims for unpaid holiday must usually be brought within three months of the date you should have been paid.

Holiday During Notice Periods

When you resign or are given notice of dismissal, your holiday entitlement continues to accrue during the notice period. Your employer can require you to take any remaining holiday during your notice period, but they must give you appropriate notice to do so. If you have accrued but untaken holiday when your employment ends, your employer must include a payment in lieu of holiday in your final pay.

Conversely, if you have taken more holiday than you have accrued at the point you leave, your employer may be entitled to deduct the overpayment from your final salary, but only if your contract includes a specific clause allowing this.

Agency Workers and Holiday Rights

Agency workers have the same basic holiday entitlement as direct employees from day one of an assignment. You are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid annual leave regardless of how long your assignment lasts. Your holiday pay should be included in the rate agreed between the agency and the hirer, and it is the agency's responsibility to ensure you receive it.

If you are an agency worker and you are unsure whether your holiday pay is being calculated correctly, ask your agency for a breakdown. Under the Agency Workers Regulations, you are entitled to clear information about your pay and deductions.

Summary of Your Rights in 2026

Your holiday entitlement is a legal right, not a perk. Every worker in the UK, regardless of contract type, is entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid leave per year. Your employer must allow you to take this leave, pay you correctly when you do, and compensate you for any unused leave when your employment ends. If these rights are not being respected, you have clear legal routes to enforce them. Use our Holiday Entitlement Calculator to work out exactly how many days you should be receiving.

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