How is holiday entitlement calculated for part-time workers?

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Part-time workers in the UK have the right to the same proportion of statutory holiday entitlement as a comparable full-time worker, and understanding the pro-rata calculation method helps clarify exactly how many days or hours of paid leave a part-time employee should expect. **The 5.6-week statutory baseline** All workers, regardless of full-time or part-time status, are entitled to a statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year -- for a standard full-time worker on a 5-day week, this translates to 28 days (5.6 × 5), which happens to be the commonly cited full-time statutory minimum, but the underlying entitlement is genuinely expressed in WEEKS, not a fixed number of days, which is key to understanding the part-time calculation. **Applying the pro-rata calculation** For a part-time worker with a regular, fixed weekly pattern, you simply multiply 5.6 by the number of days they normally work each week -- for example, someone working 3 days a week is entitled to 5.6 × 3 = 16.8 days of paid holiday a year; someone working 4 days a week is entitled to 5.6 × 4 = 22.4 days. Employers commonly round this up to a whole or half number of days for administrative simplicity, though rounding down below the true entitlement wouldn't be compliant. **Part-time workers with irregular hours** For part-time workers whose hours vary from week to week (rather than a fixed regular pattern), the same 12.07% accrual method used for zero-hours and irregular-hours workers generally applies -- 12.07% of hours actually worked translates into paid holiday, or alternatively, rolled-up holiday pay (an extra 12.07% added to pay, itemised separately) can be used for irregular-hours and part-year workers under rules effective from April 2024. **Bank holidays are not a separate additional entitlement** A common point of confusion is that bank holidays (8 a year in England and Wales, with Scotland and Northern Ireland having some different dates) are NOT a separate legal entitlement on top of the 5.6-week statutory minimum -- whether an employee gets bank holidays off as paid leave, and whether this is included within or additional to their core holiday allowance, depends entirely on their specific contract, not on a separate statutory right. This matters particularly for part-time workers who don't normally work on the day a bank holiday falls, since a part-time worker who never works Mondays, for example, shouldn't generally be worse off than a full-time colleague simply because most UK bank holidays fall on a Monday -- pro-rata calculation methods should account for this rather than assuming every part-time worker automatically benefits from all bank holidays regardless of their normal working pattern. **Term-time-only and irregular annual patterns** Workers who only work part of the year (such as term-time-only staff in schools) are also entitled to a pro-rata proportion of the 5.6-week statutory minimum, calculated based on the weeks they're actually expected to work across the year -- specific calculation methods for these "part-year" workers were clarified following case law and subsequent regulatory changes, and rolled-up holiday pay is a commonly used approach for this group too. **Contractual holiday above the statutory minimum** Many employers offer holiday entitlement above the 5.6-week statutory minimum as part of the employment package -- any such enhanced contractual entitlement should also generally be applied pro rata for part-time workers in the same proportionate way as the statutory minimum, under the principle that part-time workers shouldn't be treated less favourably than comparable full-time workers purely because of their part-time status. **Calculating holiday pay itself (not just entitlement)** Once you know how many days or hours of holiday a part-time worker has accrued, the amount of PAY for each day of holiday taken is generally based on their normal pay for a normal working day (or, for those with variable pay, an average calculated over a reference period, similar to the method used for irregular-hours workers) -- ensuring holiday pay reflects normal earnings, not just a notional lower rate. **Practical tip** If you're a part-time worker unsure whether your holiday entitlement has been calculated correctly, multiply 5.6 by the number of days you normally work each week to check the statutory minimum baseline, and then separately check your contract for any additional entitlement above this statutory floor, since employers sometimes miscalculate part-time entitlement, particularly around how bank holidays are handled for those with non-standard working patterns.

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