Holiday Entitlement and Pay

PAYadvice.UK have a number of articles which cover the lawful application of holiday pay in the United Kingdom.

This pages brings together articles that have been published to address the responsibilities and duties of employers to pay holiday leave. What are employees entitled too and how much should they be paid.

Holiday Entitlement

All employees and workers are annually entitled to 5.6 paid weeks holiday.

The following relate to holiday entitlement:

Holiday Pay

Since April 2020, holiday pay for Great Britain is required to be based as a minimum on the 52 paid week average excluding zero pay weeks. Northern Ireland remains as a 12 week paid earnings average.

A common method of using a percentage of 12.07% (46.4/52 weeks) has been ruled as unlawful not meeting the Employment Rights Act stipulated requirements.

Bank Holidays

Bank or public holidays do not have to be given as paid leave.

An employer can choose to include bank holidays as part of a worker’s statutory annual leave.

Extra leave (above statutory minimum)

An employer can choose to offer more leave than the legal minimum. They do not have to apply the rules that apply to statutory leave to the extra leave. For example, a worker might need to be employed for a certain amount of time before they become entitled to it.

Official resources

Government resources on holiday leave entitlement and pay can be found at:

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PAYadvice.UK 1/8/2022 last updated 6/11/2022