Where 12.07% comes from
Almost every worker gets 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, capped at 28 days (GOV.UK). That holds on a zero-hours contract too. The question is how to count it when no two weeks look the same.
The answer is a percentage. If you work 46.4 weeks of the year and take the other 5.6 off, holiday is 5.6 ÷ 46.4 = 12.07% of the time you work. So for irregular-hours and part-year workers, holiday builds up at 12.07% of the hours actually worked in each pay period, for leave years that started on or after 1 April 2024 (GOV.UK). Every hour on the rota earns you about 7 minutes of paid holiday.
You’re an irregular-hours worker if the paid hours you work each pay period are, under your contract, wholly or mostly variable. Zero-hours contracts are the obvious case. A part-year worker has weeks in the year with no work and no pay, like a seasonal job.
Two ways to be paid it
Your employer can handle that 12.07% in one of two ways.
Built up, and paid when you take it
Your holiday builds up in hours. When you take a day off, you’re paid your “normal” rate, worked out from your average pay over the last 52 weeks in which you were paid, skipping weeks with no pay and looking back up to 104 weeks. On irregular hours, all of your holiday is paid at that normal rate, and it includes commission and regular overtime (GOV.UK).
Rolled up into every pay day
Since leave years starting on 1 April 2024, employers can pay irregular-hours and part-year workers rolled-up holiday pay: 12.07% of your total pay for the work done in each pay period, paid at the same time. It must be on top of your pay and clearly marked as a separate item on every payslip. You still take your holiday, you just aren’t paid again when you do, because it was paid as you worked (GOV.UK).
A week, worked out
26 hours at the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour (21 and over, from 1 April 2026), plus £18.00 for two late closes:
- Pay for hours worked26 h × £12.71
- £330.46
- Late-close premiumTwo Saturday closes
- £18.00
- Holiday pay12.07% of £348.46
- £42.06
Total before tax£390.52
The premium counts because rolled-up holiday pay is worked out on your total pay for the period, premiums included. The holiday pay calculator does the same sum with your own hours.
How to find it on your payslip
- A line of its own. Look for “holiday pay”, “HOL PAY” or “rolled-up holiday”. It should be about 12.07% of the period’s pay. On £348.46, that’s £42.06.
- Not hidden in your rate. An hourly rate that “includes holiday pay” with no separate line doesn’t meet the rule: rolled-up pay has to be paid on top and shown on its own.
- No line at all? Then your employer is probably building it up in hours. Ask for your holiday balance, in hours, and check it against 12.07% of what you’ve worked this leave year.
- Neither? Ask in writing which method they use. You’re owed one or the other.
Bank holidays aren’t extra on top of the 5.6 weeks: your employer can count them as part of it (GOV.UK). Your basic rate also has to clear the minimum wage on its own, before any holiday pay. Check it with the minimum wage checker.
What’s changing for zero-hours work
Your employer can’t stop you working for someone else: exclusivity clauses in zero-hours contracts can’t be enforced (GOV.UK). And the Employment Rights Act 2025, law since 18 December 2025, adds three rights for zero-hours and low-hours workers: an offer of guaranteed hours that reflect the hours you regularly work, reasonable notice of shifts, and pay when a shift is cancelled, cut short or moved at short notice. They’re expected in 2027, on dates the government hasn’t set yet (Acas).