Calculator / Zero-Hours
Zero-Hours Contract Holiday Entitlement UK 2026
Even on a zero-hours contract, you are legally entitled to paid holiday. This page explains how the 12.07% accrual method works, what changed in April 2024, and how rolled-up holiday pay operates.
Updated 11 April 2026
Zero-Hours Holiday Calculator
Enter the hours you worked in each pay period. Add multiple periods to see your cumulative holiday accrual.
Holiday accrued
14.48 hours
120 hours worked x 12.07% = 14.48 hours holiday
The 12.07% Method Explained
Where does 12.07% come from?
A full year has 52 weeks. Subtract the 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday and you get 46.4 working weeks. The holiday proportion is 5.6 / 46.4 = 0.1207, or 12.07%. For every hour you work, you earn approximately 7.25 minutes of paid holiday.
April 2024 Changes
The Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023 introduced significant changes from April 2024:
- •New statutory definitions of "irregular hours worker" and "part-year worker"
- •The 12.07% accrual method is now the legal default for these worker types
- •Employers can use rolled-up holiday pay for irregular and part-year workers
- •Holiday entitlement is calculated at the start of each leave year based on hours in the previous 52 weeks
Rolled-Up Holiday Pay
Since April 2024, employers can legally pay rolled-up holiday pay to irregular hours and part-year workers. This means adding an extra 12.07% to each payslip instead of paying for holiday when it is taken.
Key points about rolled-up holiday pay:
- •It must be shown as a separate line on your payslip
- •It does not remove your right to actually take time off
- •It only applies to irregular hours and part-year workers, not standard employees
- •When you take holiday, you have already been paid for it through the uplift
Harpur Trust v Brazel (2022)
This Supreme Court ruling ([2022] UKSC 21) held that permanent workers with variable hours must not have their holiday calculated using 12.07%. Instead, they should use the 52-week reference period to average their weekly pay.
The ruling specifically affects permanent term-time workers and permanent employees with fluctuating hours. The April 2024 legislation partly responded to this ruling by creating clear categories: the 12.07% method now applies to genuinely irregular and part-year workers, while the 52-week average applies to everyone else.
Who Counts as an Irregular Hours Worker?
Under the April 2024 regulations, you are an "irregular hours worker" if the number of paid hours you work in each pay period is, under the terms of your contract, wholly or mostly variable.
Likely irregular
- Zero-hours contract workers
- Casual and on-call workers
- Agency workers with variable bookings
- Gig economy workers
- Seasonal workers
Likely NOT irregular
- Part-time workers with fixed hours
- Term-time workers on permanent contracts
- Workers with set shift patterns
- Workers with guaranteed minimum hours
April 2026 Record-Keeping Duty
From 6 April 2026, employers must keep records of annual leave taken and holiday pay for a minimum of 6 years. This is particularly important for zero-hours workers, as it provides an audit trail if there is ever a dispute about whether holiday was correctly calculated and paid.
If you are a zero-hours worker, you have the right to request access to your holiday records. If your employer cannot produce them, this may strengthen your position in any dispute.
Worked Examples
Zero-hours worker doing 120 hours per month
120 x 0.1207 = 14.48 hours per month
Over a year of consistent work, that is approximately 173.6 hours of paid holiday (about 4.7 weeks at 37 hours per week).
Casual worker with variable shifts (40 hours one month, 80 the next)
Month 1: 40 x 0.1207 = 4.83 hours. Month 2: 80 x 0.1207 = 9.66 hours.
Total accrued over 2 months: 14.49 hours. The accrual matches actual hours worked, so quieter months produce less holiday.
Agency worker on weekly pay, working 25 hours per week
25 x 0.1207 = 3.02 hours per week
Each week they accrue just over 3 hours of holiday. If paid rolled-up, this appears as an extra 12.07% on each weekly payslip.