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Every day of leave you take is worth money. Pick your country, mark the days on the planner and see exactly how much — plus what you are entitled to, and what a public holiday pays if you work it.
Holiday pay is what you are paid for the days you do not work — your annual leave. It is not a bonus and not overtime: for each day of leave you take, you get the day’s normal pay, so your payslip looks the same whether you were at your desk or on a beach.
The second meaning turns up mostly in the United States: pay for working a public holiday, often at 1.5× or 2×. That is a company policy, not a legal right — and this calculator handles both.
The rules below are the statutory floor. A contract or collective agreement can be more generous — never less.
Almost all workers get 5.6 weeks of paid leave a year (Working Time Regulations 1998). For a five-day week that is 28 days, and bank holidays may be counted inside it. The 28-day figure is a legal cap: working six days a week does not earn you 33.6 days.
A week of leave pays a week’s pay. If your hours or pay vary, that week is the average of the last 52 weeks in which you were paid, ignoring unpaid weeks and looking back up to 104 weeks to find them. Irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue at 12.07 % of hours worked.
The FLSA requires no paid holidays and no premium for working one. Private employers average 7–11 paid holidays a year, and time and a half on those days is a common policy — but it is your handbook, not federal law, that decides.
Public-sector, seafarer and armed-forces rules differ. If a collective agreement covers you, read that first.
Four steps, and the only hard one is the average.
Find a week’s pay. Fixed hours and fixed pay? It is simply your normal weekly wage. Variable? Average the last 52 paid weeks.
Turn it into a day. Divide a week’s pay by the days you normally work in a week. Five days a week on £600 gives a £120 day.
Multiply by the days you are taking. Ten days off at £120 is £1,200 of holiday pay — the same money you would have earned at work.
Check your entitlement covers it. Days per week × 5.6, capped at 28. Part of a year worked means a pro-rata share of that.
Statutory minimum paid leave in the UK, before anything your contract adds. Your row lights up as you change the widget.
| Months worked | Days accrued | Days still to accrue |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.8 | 9.2 |
| 2 | 1.7 | 8.3 |
| 3 | 2.5 | 7.5 |
| 4 | 3.3 | 6.7 |
| 5 | 4.2 | 5.8 |
| 6 | 5 | 5 |
| 7 | 5.8 | 4.2 |
| 8 | 6.7 | 3.3 |
| 9 | 7.5 | 2.5 |
| 10 | 8.3 | 1.7 |
| 11 | 9.2 | 0.8 |
| 12 | 10 | 0 |
| Days worked per week | Statutory leave | Days per year | After 6 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5.6 | 5.6 | 2.8 |
| 2 | 5.6 | 11.2 | 5.6 |
| 3 | 5.6 | 16.8 | 8.4 |
| 4 | 5.6 | 22.4 | 11.2 |
| 5 | 5.6 | 28 | 14 |
| 6 | 5.6 | 28 | 14 |
| Unjustified absences | Days of leave | Can be sold (1/3) | Days of rest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 5 absences — 30 days of leave | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 to 14 absences — 24 days | 24 | 8 | 16 |
| 15 to 23 absences — 18 days | 18 | 6 | 12 |
| 24 to 32 absences — 12 days | 12 | 4 | 8 |
| More than 32 absences — no leave entitlement |
5.6 weeks is the statutory floor and 28 days is the cap. Many contracts give 25 days plus bank holidays, which is more.
If you work a day most people have off, three things can happen — and which one applies is a matter of policy, not law.
The day is treated like any other working day. Common where the business never closes and holidays are simply part of the rota.
A multiplier on the hours worked — usually 1.5×, sometimes 2× for the biggest days. This is the most common arrangement in the US and in shift work.
You are paid for the day and given another day off in lieu. Standard in the UK when a bank holiday falls inside your contractual leave.
Whatever your employer pays, the hours still count towards overtime for the week.
See what a week away is actually worth before you book it, and whether you have the days to cover it.
Zero-hours, term-time and shift workers whose weekly pay moves — the 52-week average is where holiday pay is most often got wrong.
Work out what a leave request costs the payroll run, and check the entitlement you are giving clears the statutory floor.
Check the premium on your payslip is the one your handbook promised, before you query it.
A calculator answers one leave request. WebWork tracks the hours behind the average, records who is off and when, and hands payroll a number nobody has to rebuild by hand.
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A 52-week average is arithmetic on data you must already have. WebWork’s employee PTO and vacation tracking software keeps every worked hour and every day off in one record, so the week’s pay behind a holiday is a lookup rather than a reconstruction.
Try WebWork for FreeA calculator settles one number. WebWork keeps hours, absence and leave balances current for the whole team.
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See PTO trackingClock-ins, late arrivals, absences and shifts recorded automatically — no sign-in sheets.
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