Irregular hours & zero-hours holiday calculator
Work out holiday entitlement for irregular-hours, zero-hours and part-year workers using the UK statutory 12.07% accrual method introduced for leave years from 1 April 2024.
Only used to show the rough days equivalent. Holiday legally accrues in hours.
Holiday accrued
125.5 hours
≈ 16.7 days at 7.5h per day
12.07% × 1,040 hours worked = 125.5 hours. (20 h/week × 52 weeks = 1,040 hours.) For irregular-hours workers this accrual already includes bank holidays — there is no separate bank-holiday entitlement on top.
General information, not legal advice. Figures use the statutory 12.07% method for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024 and assume the statutory minimum (5.6 weeks). Your contract may be more generous.
How the 12.07% method works
A full-time worker gets 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday a year. For someone whose hours vary, you can't express that as a fixed number of days, so the law uses a percentage instead. Over a year there are 52 weeks, of which 5.6 are holiday, leaving 46.4 weeks actually worked. Holiday therefore accrues at 5.6 ÷ 46.4 = 12.07% of the hours worked each pay period.
This applies to irregular-hours workers (those whose paid hours are wholly or mostly variable) and part-year workers (those who work only part of the year but stay under contract, such as some term-time staff) for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024.
Frequently asked
How is holiday calculated for zero-hours and irregular-hours workers?
Since April 2024, holiday for irregular-hours and part-year workers accrues at 12.07% of the hours actually worked in each pay period. The 12.07% comes from the statutory 5.6 weeks' holiday divided by the remaining 46.4 working weeks of the year (5.6 ÷ 46.4 = 12.07%).
Do irregular-hours workers get bank holidays on top?
No. The 12.07% accrual already represents the worker's full statutory holiday, including any bank holidays. There is no separate bank-holiday entitlement added on top.
Is holiday measured in hours or days for these workers?
In hours. Because the hours worked vary, entitlement accrues and is taken in hours. A days figure is only a rough conversion using an average working day.