Part-Time Staff and Annual Leave: Getting the Maths Right

Part-time hires are becoming more common, and holiday entitlement is where many small businesses slip up. Here is how it works in the UK.

The statutory minimum.

Every worker gets 5.6 weeks of paid leave a year. For someone working five days a week, that is capped at 28 days, and bank holidays can count towards it if the contract says so.

Part-time workers get the same 5.6 weeks, pro-rated to their working pattern.

Multiply the days they work each week by 5.6. Someone working three days a week is entitled to 16.8 days.

Irregular hours or part-year work.

Leave accrues at 12.07% of the hours worked.

If your contract offers more than the statutory minimum,

pro-rate the extra on the same basis. For example, 20 hours a week against a 37.5-hour full-time week is about 53% of the full-time entitlement.

The most common mistakes

• Giving part-timers the full-time figure by default, which is unfair to full-time staff and expensive for the business
• Not saying whether bank holidays are included in the entitlement
• Not showing the calculation in the offer letter, which leaves room for disputes later

Our advice

State the entitlement in days and show how you reached it, so nobody has to guess.

This is general guidance. For specific situations, check gov.uk or take HR advice.