UK Holiday Pay When Leaving Calculator

How do I use this holiday pay calculator?

1. Enter your leave year start date and your leaving date. Only the day and month of the start date matter, so 1 January or 1 April is enough. If you started your job during the current leave year, enter your first day of work instead.
2. Say whether you are leaving within your first year in the job. If you are, the days you have earned are rounded up to the nearest half day; if not, the exact figure is used.
3. Enter your annual leave entitlement in days and say whether bank holidays are included in it or on top of it.
4. Enter the holiday you have taken this leave year, including days already booked before you leave.
5. Choose the days you work per week, your pay period and your gross pay for that period.

The result shows the holiday pay owed, the days earned to your leaving date, the days owed (or overtaken) and your daily rate. The Summary tab shows the working.

What do I need to enter?

• Leave year start date — the first day of your holiday year. Only the day and month matter; the year must be between 2000 and 2100.
• Leaving date — your last day of employment, which counts as a day of holiday earned.
• Leaving within your first year in the job? — Yes rounds the days earned up to the nearest half day; No uses the exact figure.
• Annual leave entitlement — your holiday for a full year, in days, from 0 to 100. If it is below the legal minimum, the minimum is used.
• Bank holidays are — Included in my days, or On top of my days. On top adds Bank holidays a year (0 to 20) to your entitlement.
• Holiday taken this leave year — days taken or booked before you leave, 0 to 366, including bank holidays that have passed.
• Days you work per week — 1 to 7. It turns a week's pay into a day's pay.
• Pay period and Gross pay — Weekly, Every 2 weeks, Every 4 weeks, Monthly or Yearly (annual salary), and your normal pay for that period before tax, up to £1,000,000.

What do the results show?

• Holiday pay owed — the main figure: the payout for untaken holiday, or £0 if you have taken more than you have earned.
• Pro rata entitlement — the days of leave earned up to your leaving date.
• Holiday days owed — or Holiday days overtaken when you have taken more than you earned. Earned days minus days taken.
• Daily rate — a week's pay divided by the days you work a week.
• Summary — the working behind the figure, step by step.

How is holiday pay calculated when you leave a job?

If the entitlement you enter is below the legal minimum of 5.6 weeks (5.6 × the days you work a week, capped at 28), the calculator uses the legal minimum instead.

This is regulation 14 of the Working Time Regulations 1998: the holiday owed is annual leave × the proportion of the leave year that has passed, less the leave already taken. The days you have earned are rounded up to the nearest half day, never down, only when you leave within your first year in the job. After that the exact figure is used, shown to 2 decimal places.

Worked example, leaving mid-year. A full-time employee works 5 days a week on £500.00 a week, with 28 days of leave a year including bank holidays and a leave year that starts on 1 January. They leave on 30 September 2026, after their first year in the job, having taken 15 days. That is 273 of 365 days of the leave year, so 28 × 273 ÷ 365 = 20.9425 days earned, which the calculator shows as 20.94. They are owed 20.9425 − 15 = 5.9425 days. Their daily rate is £500.00 ÷ 5 = £100.00, so the holiday pay is 5.9425 × £100.00, which comes to £594.25 once the exact figure is rounded up to the next penny.

Worked example, leaving in the first year. If the same employee were leaving within their first year in the job, the 20.9425 days earned would be rounded up to the nearest half day, to 21. They would be owed 21 − 15 = 6 days, which is £600.00.

Worked example, too much holiday taken. Take the same employee but with 25 days taken. They have accrued 20.9425, so they are 4.0575 days over, worth £405.75 at £100.00 a day. Nothing is owed to them, and their employer can only recover the £405.75 from final pay if the contract or a written agreement allows it.

Worked example, part time. A part-time employee, also past their first year in the job, works 3 days a week on £240.00 a week. Their 16.8 days a year (5.6 × 3) accrue to 12.5655 days by 30 September 2026, and with 8 taken they are owed 4.5655 days at £80.00 a day, which is £365.24.

The pay is worked from the exact days and the exact daily rate, then rounded up to the next penny once, so it can differ by a penny or more from the days and daily rate as shown to 2 decimal places. The value of any overtaken days is rounded down to the penny.

How much holiday do I earn by the month I leave?

This is the holiday earned on 28 days a year, with a leave year that starts on 1 January and nothing taken yet. After your first year in the job it is the exact figure, shown to 2 decimal places. If you are leaving within your first year in the job, it is rounded up to the nearest half day.

How do I enter bank holidays in the calculator?

Look at your contract and choose the option that matches how your holiday is written down.

• Included in my days: a contract that says "28 days including bank holidays". Enter 28 days, and include the bank holidays that have already passed in the days you have taken.
• On top of my days: a contract that says "20 days plus bank holidays". Enter 20 days and the number of bank holidays a year: 8 in England and Wales, usually 9 in Scotland and 10 in Northern Ireland. If you work part time, your contract may give you fewer, pro rata: a 3-day week in England would get 4.8. They are added to your entitlement, and the ones that have passed still count as days taken.

20 days plus 8 bank holidays is a pot of 28 days, which accrues exactly like 28 days including bank holidays: 20.94 days by 30 September 2026. Count the bank holidays that have already passed in the days you have taken.

How is the daily rate worked out?

It is a week's pay divided by the days you work in a week. The regulations pay holiday by the week, so employers turn that into a day this way. If you are paid every 2 or 4 weeks, monthly or on a yearly salary, the calculator first turns your pay into a week's pay in proportion: a yearly salary is divided by 52, and a monthly figure is multiplied by 12 and then divided by 52.

Use your normal pay. GOV.UK says that includes commission, regular overtime and payments linked to length of service or qualifications, and usually leaves out bonuses. The first 4 weeks of statutory leave must be paid at that normal rate, and the remaining 1.6 weeks can be paid at a basic rate, so a payout for those days can be a little lower than this calculator shows.

What does this calculator not cover?

It is guidance rather than payroll or legal advice, and it works only from what you enter. It does not:

• Separate statutory leave from contractual leave. It pays every day you enter, or the legal minimum if that is higher, but your employer only has to pay contractual leave above the statutory minimum if your contract says so
• Add leave carried over from a previous leave year, which may also be owed
• Work out holiday for irregular-hours or part-year workers, which builds up at 12.07% of hours worked
• Take off Income Tax or National Insurance, which come off holiday pay like normal wages
• Include pay for your notice period, a redundancy payment or any other final payment

To see what is left after tax, try the UK take-home pay calculator. If you are being made redundant, the UK redundancy pay calculator works out the statutory payment, and the Statutory Sick Pay calculator covers pay while you are off ill.

Disclaimer and sources

This calculator estimates the holiday pay owed to a UK employee on regular hours when their job ends. It is not payroll software or legal advice, and your employer's calculation, your contract and the law as it applies to you are what count. If you disagree with the figure you are given, ask your employer how it was worked out.

• GOV.UK: Taking holiday before leaving a job
• GOV.UK: Calculate holiday leave entitlement
• GOV.UK: Holiday pay
• GOV.UK: Holiday entitlement
• GOV.UK: UK bank holidays
• legislation.gov.uk: Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 14
• legislation.gov.uk: Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 15
• Acas: How holidays affect final pay
• Citizens Advice: Getting paid when you leave a job
• HMRC: NIM09170, accrued holiday pay on leaving employment

Frequently asked questions