Check you've got the right amount of holiday pay

You should be paid what you normally earn.

This might apply to you if, for example, you’re a zero hours worker or you only work during school terms.

Your employer might either:

• pay you when you take holiday

• pay you nothing when you take holiday, but pay you 'rolled-up holiday pay' instead

If your employer pays you rolled-up holiday pay, you'll get an extra 12.07% on top of your normal pay each pay day.

If you get paid when you take holiday

You’ll get paid an average of what you’ve earned in the last 52 weeks.

Add together your pay for the previous 52 weeks - including any overtime, commission or bonuses you got during that time. Then divide that by 52 to get your weekly average pay. 

You should only use weeks in which you actually worked. If you didn’t work in one of the last 52 weeks, count back another week, so that you have 52 weeks in total. The furthest you can count back is 104 weeks.

If you’ve worked less than 52 weeks, you should divide what you’ve earned by the number of weeks you worked. For example, if you worked 25 weeks you should divide what you’ve earned by 25 to get your average weekly pay.

If you get rolled-up holiday pay

Your employer can only use rolled-up holiday pay if your current leave year began on or after 1 April 2024. Your leave year is the year you have to take your holiday in.

The amount of rolled-up holiday pay you get depends on how much you earn in each ‘pay period’. A pay period is how often you get paid - for example, weekly or monthly.

To work out how much holiday pay you should get for a specific pay period, multiply the amount you earned by 12.07%.

Example

Ali works irregular hours and her leave year began on 1 April 2024. Her employer uses rolled-up holiday pay. She is paid once a month.

Last month, Ali was paid £1,000. £1,000 x 12.07% is £120.70. She should get £120.70 in rolled-up holiday pay for the month.

This month, Ali is paid £800. £800 x 12.07% is £96.56. She should get £96.56 in rolled-up holiday pay this month.

Your holiday pay should be the same as what you normally earn including any regular overtime, commission or bonus. 

Overtime that you’ve only done twice in 6 months probably isn’t regular enough. But if you’ve worked overtime in 5 of the last 8 weeks, it might. 

There’s no set way of working out how much to include if your overtime, commission or bonus is different every week. 

Start by working out how much your average weekly pay was over the past 52 weeks. Add together your pay for the previous 52 weeks - including any overtime, commission or bonuses you got during that time. Then divide that by 52 to get your weekly average pay. 

If you think the amount isn’t about the same as what you would have earnt if you weren’t on holiday, ask your employer to use the average for a different period. The furthest back you can go to find a different period is 104 weeks.

Your employer must include overtime, commission or bonuses for the first 4 weeks of your holiday pay. Your remaining 8 days’ holiday pay will be paid at your basic rate.

This might apply to you if you work shifts or you’re on a rota. 

Follow these steps to work out how much holiday pay you should get:

Step 1: add together your pay for the previous 52 weeks - including any overtime, commission or bonuses you got during that time. Then divide that by 52 to get your weekly average pay. 

Step 2: add together the number of fixed hours you did in the past 52 weeks and divide that by 52 to get an average of your weekly hours.

Step 3: divide the answer you got in Step 1 by the answer you got for Step 2. This gives you your average hourly rate of pay. 

Step 4: multiply the answer you got in Step 3 by the number of hours of holiday you took. This will give you the amount you should be paid for your holiday.

This might apply to you if you do ‘piece work’ - this means how much you’re paid depends on how many items or tasks you complete. For example, if you work in a car wash and are paid by how many cars you wash. 

Follow these steps to work out how much holiday pay you should get:

Step 1: add together all the pay you got in the last 52 weeks. 

Step 2: divide the answer you got in Step 1 by 52. This gives you your average weekly pay.

Step 3: divide the answer you got in Step 2 by your fixed hours of work. This gives you your average hourly rate.

Step 4: multiply the amount in Step 3 by the number of hours holiday you took. This will give you the amount you should be paid for your holiday.

If you haven’t worked for 52 weeks yet, calculate an average over the period you have worked. 

If you didn’t work for a week in the 52-week period, use the week before to make up the difference. For example if you were off sick or have a zero-hours contract and weren’t given any work.

The furthest back you can go to find a longer period is 104 weeks.