Annual Leave Calculator

Use this quick and simple calculator to work out your employees’ holiday entitlement.

Your annual leave calculation

The statutory minimum annual leave an employee should receive a year is 5.6 weeks paid holiday.

But what if an employee starts mid-way through a leave year? What if an employee’s contract is terminated before the end of a leave year? What if the employee is only a temporary contract, and will start and end their employment during a leave year? What about bank holidays?

These are all questions our annual leave calculator can answer.

If you like, you can jump straight into the calculation. Or, if you need a little further guidance, scroll down past the calculator for some guidance on how to use the tool.

Start your calculation

Select the type of statutory annual leave entitlement you wish to calculate
For an employee's full year
For an employee with a starting date falling within the selected leave year
For an employee with a leaving date within the selected year
For an employee with starting and leaving dates within the selected leave year
Start date of the leave year?
Days worked per week?
NB: The annual leave calculator only calculates on full working days.

What you need to know

The two main terms you need to be aware of when managing annual leave are “leave year” and “accrual”.

However, if you’re just using our holiday entitlement calculator, then you need to know:

  • The holiday year start date
  • The days worked per week
  • The date the individual’s employment commenced (if applicable)
  • Their leaving date (if applicable)

Leave year

What is a leave year?

In short, it is the year in which staff must take their annual leave entitlement.

When does your leave year begin?

Well, this is up to you. For ease, many employers choose to have their leave run from 1st January to 31st December. However, you may choose to change this for various reasons. Whatever you decide, the period must last for a year. It’s recommended you set out this period in your employment contracts. If you don’t then the leave year will begin:

  • On the first day of a new job (if started after 1 October 1998)
  • On 1 October (if started on or before 1 October 1998)

When using our holiday entitlement calculator keep UK employment law in mind, such as the beginning of the leave year as outlined above.

Accrual

Annual leave begins to build up, or “accrue”, from day one of employment. This works by giving an employee one-twelfth of their leave in each month. So, for example, an individual working five days a week would receive 28 days’ annual leave in a year. After three months on the job, they’d be entitled to seven days leave.

If you’re wondering how to calculate holiday entitlement, then accrual is key to figuring it out. However, there are other factors to consider, such as…

  • Carrying over leave
  • Family-friendly leave
  • Sick leave

The above tool is an essential annual leave accrual calculator, telling you how much leave entitlement an employee has earned during their time with your company. However, it’s up to you to figure out whether any external factors (such as the above) will affect it.

Other types of leave

If an individual cannot take all of their leave entitlement because they’re on a different type of leave, they can carry over some or all of it into the next leave year. If they’re not on any other type of leave but fail to take all their holiday within the leave year, they may carry over a maximum of eight days at your discretion. Accrual is not interrupted by family-friendly leave.

On the surface this may seem like it doesn’t affect much. The real implication of other types of leave is that it can cause holiday to be carried over into a new leave year. Our annual leave entitlement calculator will not take into account carried over leave.

Other considerations

Almost all workers are entitled to a statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday, including:

  • Agency workers
  • Workers with irregular hours
  • Workers on zero-hours contracts

As a result, you can still receive a result for part-time annual leave via our online calculator.

Also, there are limits on statutory leave, and that limit is 28 days. It doesn’t matter how many extra hours/days the employee works, the minimum remains the same.

Bank holidays don’t have to be given as paid leave. Our annual leave calculator won’t consider UK bank holidays in its calculation, it’s up to you to decide whether to include them in their entitlement.

If you need immediate advice on annual leave, you can speak to an HR adviser today on 01455 858 132.

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