Holiday for irregular hours: leave, pay and the 12.07% rule

In Great Britain, an irregular-hours worker is defined by paid hours that are wholly or mostly variable in each pay period under the contract. A fluctuating bonus on otherwise fixed hours does not automatically put someone in this category.

A part-year worker has a continuing contract with at least a week during the leave year when they are not required to work and are not paid for that period. Annual salary paid in twelve instalments does not, by itself, settle that question. A term-time contract needs its actual terms checked.

The accrual reform applies for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. Regular year-round part-time workers use the regular entitlement method. Workers within the specified Scottish agricultural legislation are excluded from this general accrual provision and need the sector guidance linked below.

For the statutory minimum, multiply the hours actually worked in the pay period by 12.07%. The fraction of an hour is then rounded down if it is below 30 minutes, or up to an hour if it is 30 minutes or more.

Provisional increments before checking prior annual accrual and the cap

Hours worked	Raw 12.07% calculation	Rounded increment
68 in a month	8.2076 hours	8 hours
30 in a week	3.621 hours	4 hours

Round at the pay-period boundary; adding raw periods and rounding only once at year end can give a different answer. For very small weekly hours, ask payroll how its permitted more generous rounding ensures leave can be built up.

Regulation 15B limits statutory accrual in a leave year to 28 days. A new percentage calculation is therefore provisional until previous accrual and the conversion of hours to that cap are established. Taking leave does not reopen the year's accrual capacity. Extra contractual entitlement and carried-forward leave are separate quantities.

The 12.07% accrual rate relates to statutory leave time. A contract with more leave needs an appropriate enhanced percentage or a different contractual calculation confirmed by the employer. Do not assume every employee should have 12.07% added to their salary.

Check the payslip, contract and leave ledger together. A term-time salary may already contain the holiday-pay amount. Adding a second percentage without understanding that arrangement can count the same holiday twice. Our term-time pay guide separates worked weeks, paid weeks and monthly instalments.

Eligible GB irregular-hours and part-year workers can receive holiday pay as a separately identified amount alongside ordinary pay. This is called rolled-up holiday pay. They still need to be able to take their leave; the money is not permission to replace all time off with cash.

For a supported statutory rolled-up arrangement, £1,000 of applicable gross pay gives £120.70 at 12.07%. Payroll should show the holiday amount separately. A statement that one unexplained inclusive hourly rate covers everything is not the same as a clear calculation.

Alternatively the employer can pay holiday pay when leave is taken using the applicable reference-period method. Regular-hours workers cannot simply be moved onto the GB rolled-up method because it is administratively convenient. Northern Ireland's official guidance says rolled-up holiday pay is not permitted.

GB holiday-pay calculations commonly look at 52 paid weeks, going back at most 104 weeks to find them. If fewer eligible weeks are available, the applicable shorter history is used. Unpaid weeks are not simply inserted as zero-pay weeks to depress the holiday-pay average.

The worker's pattern matters. Acas distinguishes fixed-hours workers with variable pay from irregular-hours and part-year workers when explaining whether holiday pay within the reference period is included. Do not reuse one average for every pattern, or confuse an accrual-hours reference with a holiday-pay-money reference.

Sickness and family leave can still generate holiday entitlement even when no ordinary work hours were recorded. Those absences have their own relevant-period rules. Ask for the employer's calculation rather than treating zero worked hours as proof of zero entitlement.

Northern Ireland has its own employment rules. nidirect describes a 12-week reference for variable holiday pay and says it should be paid when holiday is taken. Do not apply GB's 2024 accrual and rolled-up-pay reforms automatically to an NI contract.

For Scottish agricultural workers within the relevant Act's scope, the Scottish Government publishes sector holiday rules and a Scottish Agricultural Wages Board contact. A general calculator's percentage result is not a complete answer to those rights.

The calculator returns a bounded provisional GB increment, with these country and sector routes. It does not claim to calculate an annual irregular-hours balance without the prior accrual and cap evidence.

For each disputed period record the hours actually worked, the leave increment, leave used, separately paid holiday money and the relevant payslip. Keep carried-forward or extra contractual leave in separate columns.

Ask payroll: “Which contract category and leave year apply? Please show my hours, accrual percentage, pay-period rounding and previous annual accrual. How is the statutory cap applied, and is my holiday pay rolled up or paid when leave is taken?”

When regular overtime affects the holiday-pay rate, see the overtime and holiday-pay guide. If a payment remains disputed, contact Acas in Great Britain or the Labour Relations Agency in Northern Ireland promptly.