An annual leave calculator for the UK does three things a spreadsheet tends to do badly: it works the entitlement out from the person's pattern rather than a typed number, it applies the 28-day statutory cap where it bites, and it converts between hours and days without rounding a part-timer out of a day they are owed. This page is the calculation behind the free annual leave calculator on this site, written for the owner or office manager who has to work out annual leave for a new starter on Monday morning and would like the figure to survive the year.
Calculate annual leave entitlement from the working pattern
Take the days worked a week and multiply by the weeks of leave in the contract, never less than the statutory 5.6 weeks. Five days gives 28; four gives 22.4; three gives 16.8. The statutory part is capped at 28 days, so a six-day week still gives 28 unless the contract adds to it. Type the pattern, not the answer: the annual leave entitlement calculator on this site takes days a week, weeks of leave and months employed, and the figure updates when the pattern changes, which is exactly when a typed number goes stale.
The annual leave hours calculator: when days stop working
A compressed four-day week of ten-hour days, a job share, or a part-timer who works two days one week and three the next all break a days-based record, because a day is not the same length for everyone. Work in hours: hours a week times 5.6 gives the annual hours, so a 20-hour week gives 112 hours and a 37.5-hour week gives 210. Keep the record in hours and show days alongside, and the calculator works this way if you enter hours a week in the days field and read every output as hours.
How to convert annual leave hours into days, and back
Divide the hours by the person's own working day length, not the company's standard one. 112 hours for someone who works four five-hour days is 22.4 of their days, not 14 of somebody else's. Going the other way, days times the person's hours a day gives the hours. The trap is a single company-wide divisor: it hands the part-timer fewer days than they are owed and the compressed-week worker more, and both show up as a dispute at the year end.
Work out annual leave for starters, leavers and the year end
A starter gets the full-year figure scaled by the part of the leave year left; a leaver's untaken balance is paid in the final pay, and an overtaken balance can be recovered only if the contract says so. The leave calculator UK employers actually need therefore has the leave year's dates in it, and the calculator on this site asks for the months employed for that reason. The policy template states the year, the carry-over rule and the notice rule, so the arithmetic and the paperwork agree.
Questions people ask about annual leave calculator UK
What is the UK statutory annual leave entitlement?
Almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, and for a five-day week that is 28 days. The statutory entitlement is capped at 28 days; an employer may include bank holidays within it, and many contracts give more.
How do I calculate annual leave for a part-time employee?
Multiply their days a week by 5.6. Two and a half days a week gives 14 days. Where their days vary week to week, use hours a week times 5.6 and keep the record in hours.
Can I use the annual leave entitlement calculator for a leaver?
Yes: enter the months of the leave year they were employed and the days taken, and the days still to take is the untaken balance to pay in the final pay. GOV.UK's guidance on taking holiday before leaving a job is cited below.
Does the calculator handle irregular hours?
Regular patterns, full or part time. Irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue at 12.07 per cent of hours worked for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, and that calculation is on the zero hours contract page on this site.