Holiday
Holiday pay calculator: what a week of leave is worth
Enter basic weekly pay, the regular extras earned over the reference period and the days you are taking: the calculator prices each day at the rate the Working Time Regulations require.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
Holiday pay is a week’s pay for each week of statutory leave (Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 16). When pay varies, a week’s pay is the average over the last 52 weeks in which you were paid, ending with the last complete week before the leave starts; weeks with no pay are skipped and replaced by earlier ones, looking back no further than 104 weeks. In Great Britain, regulation 16(3ZA), added from 1 January 2024, lists what must be in the average for the first 4 weeks: commission and other payments tied to tasks the contract requires, payments for seniority, length of service or professional qualifications, and overtime paid regularly over the previous 52 weeks. For regular-hours workers the remaining 1.6 weeks may be paid at basic rate. Irregular-hours and part-year workers get the full normal rate for all 5.6 weeks. With £520 basic and £75 of regular extras a week, a full statutory year of holiday is worth £3,212.
Holiday pay for 10.0 days
£1,190
A day’s holiday pay: £119.00 at normal rate
| A week’s pay at normal rate (basic + regular extras) | £595.00 |
| Average regular extras per week | £75.00 |
| Days priced at normal rate | 10.0 |
| Days beyond 4 weeks, priced at basic rate | 0.0 |
| Pay for the full statutory year (28.0 days) | £3,212 |
Regular hours: the first 4 weeks must include regular overtime, commission and seniority pay; the other 1.6 weeks may be paid at basic rate. Irregular-hours and part-year workers are paid at the normal rate for all leave. Your contract can be more generous.
The example in the calculator
The figures already filled in describe a regular-hours employee on £520 basic a week who earned £3,900 of regular overtime and commission over 52 paid weeks, an average of £75 a week. A normal week is therefore £595 and a normal day £119. Pricing the whole statutory year:
| Part of the leave | Days | Rate a day | Pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| First 4 weeks (normal rate) | 20.0 | £119.00 | £2,380 |
| Remaining 1.6 weeks (basic rate allowed) | 8.0 | £104.00 | £832 |
| Total, regular hours | 28.0 | £3,212 | |
| Same pay, irregular hours (all at normal rate) | 28.0 | £119.00 | £3,332 |
The gap of £120 is the price of the 1.6 weeks being paid without extras. Many employers pay the normal rate throughout because it is simpler; the calculator shows the legal floor.
Counting the reference period
The calculation date is the first day of the leave (regulation 16(3)(c)). Count back from the last complete week before it. A week ends on Saturday unless your pay week ends on another day, in which case that day is used (regulation 16(3B)). Skip any week in which nothing was paid, and for the extras listed in regulation 16(3ZA) also skip weeks in which you were on sick leave or statutory leave for any time at all (regulation 16(3ZE)), going further back to make up the 52. Nothing older than 104 weeks is used. The method behind “a week’s pay” comes from sections 221 to 224 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, which a week’s pay explained walks through.
Irregular hours, and Northern Ireland
For irregular-hours and part-year workers in Great Britain, holiday is accrued in hours and paid at an hourly rate: the week’s pay divided by the average weekly hours in the same weeks (regulation 16(1A)). Rolled-up pay, an uplift on each payslip, is the alternative an employer may use for them; see rolled-up holiday pay. Northern Ireland did not adopt the 2024 changes. nidirect tells workers whose pay varies that holiday pay is their average weekly wage over the previous 12 weeks, including guaranteed and non-guaranteed overtime and commission (nidirect, Taking your holidays).