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In England, Scotland and Wales, holiday for irregular hours and part-year workers builds up at 12.07 per cent of the hours actually worked. Northern Ireland did not adopt that reform and uses a reference period instead.

Read this before you rely on the answer. Holiday pay for irregular hours is one of the most contested areas of employment law, and the rules differ between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This calculator is for illustration only. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, and it cannot take account of your particular circumstances. Check the position with a qualified adviser, or with the relevant official body, before acting on any figure it produces.

Your details

Where you work decides which method applies.

Northern Ireland did not adopt the 12.07 per cent reforms, so the method is different.
The actual hours worked, not contracted hours.
£
Before tax. Used for rolled-up holiday pay in Great Britain.

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Figures checked

Checked against GOV.UK holiday pay and entitlement reform guidance, and against Labour Relations Agency guidance for Northern Ireland, on 18th September 2026. This is general information, not professional advice.

Northern Ireland is different, and this matters

The 12.07 per cent accrual method and rolled-up holiday pay were introduced for England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland did not adopt them. There, holiday pay for variable pay is still averaged over a reference period of twelve weeks, with fifty-two weeks available where it produces no lower amount. Any calculator that presents 12.07 per cent as a United Kingdom rule is wrong for Northern Ireland, which is why this one asks first.

Holiday entitlement is the same everywhere: 5.6 weeks, capped at twenty-eight days. It is the calculation of holiday pay that diverges.

Who the 12.07 per cent method applies to

In England, Scotland and Wales, it is for irregular hours workers and part-year workers, for leave years beginning on or after 1st April 2024. An irregular hours worker is one whose paid hours are wholly or mostly variable under their contract. A part-year worker is one who is only required to work part of the year and has periods of at least a week in which they are not paid.

How the accrual works

At the end of each pay period, take the hours actually worked, divide by one hundred and multiply by 12.07, then round to the nearest hour. Someone who worked eighty-four hours in a month accrues 10.14 hours of holiday, which rounds to ten.

Rolled-up holiday pay

Instead of paying holiday when it is taken, an employer may add 12.07 per cent to the pay for each period. It has to appear as a separate line on the payslip, and it is only available for these two groups of workers. For everyone else, holiday pay is paid when holiday is taken, calculated on a fifty-two week average where pay varies.

Why the figure is 12.07 per cent

Statutory holiday is 5.6 weeks out of the year, which leaves 46.4 weeks actually worked. Holiday as a proportion of time worked is therefore 5.6 divided by 46.4, which is 12.07 per cent. It is not 5.6 divided by 52, which is where many incorrect calculations begin.