Holiday pay ― legal points

Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
Produced by Tolley in association with Sarah Bradford
Employment Tax
Guidance

Holiday pay ― legal points

Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
Produced by Tolley in association with Sarah Bradford
Employment Tax
Guidance
imgtext

The right to be paid for holidays is a statutory entitlement and there may also be a further contractual entitlement. Almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks paid holiday per year (which can include bank holidays). Self-employed workers have no statutory leave entitlement.

ACAS provides guidance on all elements of holiday, sickness and leave.

Statutory holiday pay

The Working Time Regulations 1998 entitle a worker to be paid:

  1. •

    during his statutory holiday, entitlement of 5.6 weeks a year

  2. •

    in lieu of any statutory holiday entitlement accrued but unused on termination of his employment

This does not prevent an employer offering a more generous annual paid leave entitlement as part of a contract of employment.

Calculating statutory holiday pay

During any period of statutory holiday, a worker is entitled to be paid at the rate of a week’s pay for each week of holiday.

The Employment Rights Act sets out the method of calculating a week’s pay except that references to ‘employee’ in the ERA 1996 should be read as ‘worker’

Continue reading the full document
To gain access to additional expert tax guidance, workflow tools, generative tax AI, and tax research, register for a free trial of Tolley+™
TAKE A FREE TRIAL NOW
Sarah Bradford
Sarah Bradford linkedinicon twittericon

Director at Writetax Ltd

Sarah Bradford BA(Hons), ACA, CTA (Fellow) is the director of Writetax Ltd, a company providing tax technical writing services on tax and National Insurance, and also of its sister company, Writetax Consultancy Services Ltd. Sarah writes widely on tax and National Insurance and is the author of several books.

Read moreRead more
Powered by Tolley+™
  • 23 Jan 2024 14:40

Home/ Tolley Tax Guidance/ Employment Tax / Legal aspects of employment

Popular Articles

Trusts and Inheritance Tax

BPR ― trading and investment businesses

BPR ― trading and investment businessesIntroductionThe basic qualification rules for business property relief (BPR) are illustrated in the Flowchart ― trading or investment business for BPR purposes.For an overview of BPR, see the BPR overview guidance note.Relevant business propertyThe main

14 Jul 2020 15:36 | Produced by Tolley Read more Read more

Foreign self-employment

Foreign self-employmentTrading in another jurisdiction involves many issues, only some of which involve taxation. Advice should be taken, not only in relation to tax but on the wider business implications. For an overview of the points to consider for certain jurisdictions see Tolley's Global

Read more Read more
Trusts and Inheritance Tax

Bare trusts ― income tax and CGT

Bare trusts ― income tax and CGTThis guidance note explains how trustees of bare trusts are treated for income tax and capital gains purposes. Although a bare trust is, in equity, a type of trust, for both income tax and capital gains tax purposes its existence is transparent. This means that no tax

14 Jul 2020 15:34 | Produced by Tolley Read more Read more