Checked against gov.uk · 21 August 2026
Zero-hours contract holiday entitlement
Zero-hours staff are workers in law, so the statutory minimum is the same as for everyone else: 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year. The difference is how you earn it. Because your hours vary, the leave builds up as you work rather than arriving as a fixed block at the start of the year.
How holiday accrues: the 12.07% method
For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, irregular hours workers accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours they work in each pay period. The percentage is not arbitrary: take the 5.6 weeks of leave out of a 52-week year and 46.4 working weeks remain.
5.6 ÷ 46.4 = 12.07%
Work 80 hours in a month and you accrue 80 × 0.1207 = 9.66 hours of paid leave. Employers round the result up, never down.
Here is how the accrual adds up over typical months on a zero-hours rota:
The holiday entitlement calculator has an irregular-hours mode that does this sum for any number of hours.
Rolled-up holiday pay
Employers have a second option for zero-hours and other irregular hours workers: rolled-up holiday pay. Instead of paying you when you take leave, they add a 12.07% uplift on top of your pay in every pay period. It is lawful for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, on one strict condition: the uplift must be itemised as a separate line on your payslip. A single merged figure does not count.
Rolled-up pay changes when the money arrives, not your right to time off. You can still take your accrued leave; those days are simply unpaid at the time because the holiday pay already came through earlier payslips. If your payslip shows no separate holiday line and nobody pays you for leave you take, something is wrong and worth querying.
Bank holidays and your rate of holiday pay
Bank holidays are not extra. There is no statutory right to them in the UK, so an employer can count bank holidays you take off as part of the 5.6 weeks. Whether they sit inside or on top of your entitlement depends on your contract.
When you do take paid leave, the rate matters because zero-hours pay varies week to week. A week of holiday pay is your average weekly pay over the last 52 weeks in which you actually worked. Weeks with no work are skipped, and the employer can look back up to 104 weeks to gather 52 worked weeks. Busy weeks pull the average up; the quiet weeks where you earned nothing do not drag it down.
The full rules are on the gov.uk holiday entitlement guidance. If your contract has fixed hours instead and you want to check what a part-time salary or allowance is worth, our guide to what pro rata means covers the pay side.
Zero-hours holiday: common questions
Do zero-hours workers get paid holiday?
Yes. Zero-hours staff are workers in law, so they get the same statutory minimum as everyone else: 5.6 weeks of paid leave a year. The difference is how it builds up. Instead of a fixed allowance handed over at the start of the leave year, holiday accrues as you work, at 12.07% of your hours in each pay period.
Where does the 12.07% figure come from?
A year has 52 weeks. Take away the 5.6 weeks of statutory leave and 46.4 working weeks remain. 5.6 divided by 46.4 is 0.1207, so each hour you work earns 12.07% of an hour of paid leave. This method applies to irregular hours and part-year workers for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024.
Is rolled-up holiday pay legal on a zero-hours contract?
Yes, for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024. The employer adds a 12.07% uplift to your pay in each pay period instead of paying you when you take leave, and the uplift must appear as a separate item on your payslip. You can still take the time off; it is just unpaid at that point because the pay came earlier.
Do I get bank holidays on top of my holiday?
No. There is no separate statutory right to bank holidays in the UK. An employer can count them as part of the 5.6 weeks, so bank holidays are not extra leave unless your contract says so.
What rate am I paid when I take holiday?
A week of holiday pay is your average weekly pay over the last 52 weeks in which you actually worked. Weeks with no work are skipped, and the employer can look back a maximum of 104 weeks to find 52 worked weeks. If you are on rolled-up holiday pay, the 12.07% uplift on each payslip replaces this calculation.
Want the exact figure for your hours? Use the irregular-hours mode of the holiday entitlement calculator.