Your Holiday Entitlement
Annual Entitlement (Days): – days
Annual Entitlement (Hours): – hours
Calculated based on –% of a full-time contract.
Understanding Pro Rata Holiday Entitlement
For part-time workers, calculating holiday entitlement can be confusing. "Pro rata" simply means "in proportion." This calculator helps determine how much paid leave a part-time employee is entitled to based on a comparison with a standard full-time contract within the same organization.
How is Pro Rata Holiday Calculated?
The fundamental principle ensures that part-time workers receive the same proportion of holiday leave as their full-time counterparts. The standard formula generally used is:
(Part-Time Hours / Full-Time Hours) × Full-Time Holiday Entitlement = Part-Time Entitlement
For example, if a full-time employee works 40 hours a week and gets 28 days of holiday, a part-time employee working 20 hours a week (exactly half) should receive 14 days of holiday.
Statutory Minimums
In many regions, such as the UK, there is a statutory minimum holiday entitlement. In the UK, almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year. This is known as statutory leave entitlement or annual leave.
- Full-time (5 days a week): 5.6 weeks × 5 days = 28 days.
- Part-time: 5.6 weeks × Days worked per week.
This calculator allows you to input specific full-time hours and entitlements, which is useful if your employer offers more than the statutory minimum.
Calculating in Hours vs. Days
While many contracts state holidays in days, it is often more accurate for part-time workers—especially those who work irregular shift patterns—to calculate their entitlement in hours. This prevents discrepancies where a worker might take a "day" off that consists of a 4-hour shift versus a 9-hour shift.
Our calculator provides both the Day and Hour equivalent figures assuming a standard full-time day is one-fifth of the full-time weekly hours.
Bank Holidays
Pro rata calculations usually include bank holidays. If a part-time worker does not work on Mondays (when most bank holidays fall), they cannot be paid for that day off if they wouldn't have worked anyway. However, their total annual leave allowance is calculated pro rata to ensure fairness, regardless of which specific days they work.