Holiday pay accrual calculator
The standard accrual method for irregular hours — entitlement weeks ÷ weeks worked, applied to a period's pay.
Pay & entitlement
Typically a week's pay — the period the accrual applies to.
5.6 weeks is the UK statutory minimum.
Holiday pay accrued
— add 12.07% on top of every payslip.
For irregular-hours/part-year workers. Must be itemised separately on the payslip where rolled-up holiday pay is used.
Working out holiday pay is straightforward for someone on a fixed weekly wage — it's just their normal pay. It gets harder for casual labour, apprentices on variable hours, or anyone paid by the hour or the day, where "a week's pay" isn't a fixed number. The accrual method solves that by building holiday pay into every payment as it goes, rather than trying to average it out later when someone actually wants time off.
Where 12.07% comes from
The UK statutory minimum is 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year. Spread across the 46.4 weeks actually worked (52 weeks minus the 5.6 taken as leave), that entitlement equals 5.6 ÷ 46.4 = 12.07% of hours or pay. Paying that percentage on top of every payslip, rather than working out a separate holiday payment later, is the accepted method for irregular-hours and part-year workers, and from April 2024 it's explicitly permitted in regulations for that group as "rolled-up" holiday pay. Workers on regular fixed hours generally still take their holiday pay as normal pay during time off, rather than rolled-up on every payslip.
A worked example
A week where gross pay comes to £600, at the statutory 5.6-week entitlement: 12.07% of £600 is roughly £72.41 in accrued holiday pay for that week. Over a full year of steady £600 weeks, that accrual adds up to the equivalent of 5.6 weeks' pay set aside for time off — which is the whole point of the method. Offer a richer entitlement, say 6.6 weeks a year, and the same £600 week accrues a higher percentage, since holiday is being spread across fewer working weeks.
What this isn't
This is the accrual percentage and the amount it produces for one pay period — it doesn't replace working out whether rolled-up holiday pay is the right method for a given worker's contract, or confirming it's itemised separately on the payslip, which is a legal requirement where it's used. Entitlement above the 5.6-week statutory minimum, if offered, simply increases the percentage — the same formula still applies, and the underlying rules are worth a quick check against gov.uk if a contract is being drawn up from scratch.
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