Holiday pay

Am I entitled to holiday pay?

Most employees are entitled to paid holiday. Your employer should provide a minimum of 5.6 weeks paid holiday per year (pro rata for part time employees). Your employer may give you more generous holiday pay and this will be detailed in your contract of employment. You start building up your holiday entitlement from your first day at work and you don’t need to work for a minimum time to be able to take paid holiday.

You will need to request your paid holiday from your employer and they can control when you take it. You should try to give your employer as much notice as possible when you want to take your holiday. Your employer should not refuse reasonable requests.

What is a leave year?

A leave or holiday year is the period of time during which you are expected to take your annual leave. Your employer can give you more details.

Your employer is not obliged to make sure that you take all your holiday entitlement so you need to be aware of what you are entitled to take. Your employer may allow you to carry unused holiday over from one year to the next, but you will need to check your employment contract.

If you start or leave a job during a leave year then you will be entitled to a proportion of your leave.

You can find some information on calculating your leave entitlement here.

Bank holidays

You have no statutory right to paid leave on bank or public holidays. If your employer gives you paid leave on bank or public holidays this can come out of your annual leave entitlement. Your contract may give you contractual rights to paid leave.

You have no automatic right to enhanced pay or time off in lieu if you work on bank or public holidays. It will depend on your contract of employment.

If you are a part time worker and your employer gives paid time off to staff on bank and public holidays, then you should receive this pro rata, even if the holiday does not fall on your usual day of work.

There are 8 permanent bank and public holidays in England. Click here to find out more.

Problems with holiday pay

If you are having problems with getting your paid holiday entitlement, you should talk to your employer or follow the advice given in problems at work.