Full-Time Entitlement

Full-time workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday per year, which equals 28 days for someone working 5 days per week.

This can include public (bank) holidays — depending on your contract.

Pro-Rata for Part-Time Staff

Part-time employees receive the same 5.6 weeks, adjusted for the number of days or hours they work.

Example (by days):

If an employee works 3 days per week:

3 × 5.6 = 16.8 days holiday per year

Round up to the nearest half day if needed (e.g. 17 days).

Example (by hours):

If full-time is 37.5 hours/week and part-time is 20 hours/week:

20 ÷ 37.5 × 28 = 14.9 days (≈ 15 days) or 111.75 hours (14.9 x 7.5) ((≈ 112 hours)

Handling Public Holidays

Public (bank) holidays are not automatically extra days off. They can be:

1. Included in the total annual allowance (most common), or

2. Given separately only if they fall on a normal working day (subject to ensuring that the legal minimum of 28 days paid holiday is still met).

Example (pro-rated bank holidays):

If there are 8 public holidays and the employee works 3 days per week:

8 × (3 ÷ 5) = 4.8 days public holiday allowance per year

Fairness Tip

To keep things consistent — especially if some employees don’t work Mondays or Fridays — many employers:

Combine annual leave and bank holidays into one total allowance (in days or hours). That way, everyone books time off from the same total, no matter when public holidays fall. However, this is not a legal requirement, which means some part-time workers feel they get a better or worse deal depending on whether they work Mondays and/or Fridays (which is when the majority of bank holidays fall).

Quick Reference Table

Work Pattern Total Annual Leave (inc. bank holidays)

5 days/week: 28 days

4 days/week: 22.4 days

3 days/week: 16.8 days

2 days/week: 11.2 days

1 day/week: 5.6 days

Key Points

• All workers are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks paid holiday.

• You can include public holidays in this allowance.

• Always apply holiday allowance proportionally for part-time staff.

• Converting entitlement into hours keeps things fair across different work patterns.

• All of the above workings assume that the full-time worker has a holiday entitlement of 28 days (the legal minimum). If you provide a greater entitlement for your full-time workers, any part-time worker will need the same pro-rata entitlement.

• Where a part-time worker works irregular hours (which means the number of hours worked in a pay period often or always changes) a different calculation is required and specific legal advice should always be taken.