Irregular hours and zero-hours holiday pay after April 2024: what you are owed

• For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue statutory holiday based on 12.07% of hours worked in each pay period, up to a maximum of 5.6 weeks.
• Employers may pay those workers rolled-up holiday pay: an extra amount each pay period, paid with wages, clearly marked, and in addition to normal pay. It must not be used to push wages up to National Minimum Wage.
• Fixed-hours, full-year workers keep the familiar 5.6 weeks model. Four weeks should reflect "normal" pay; the extra 1.6 weeks can be at basic pay (many employers pay all leave at the normal rate).
• Keep payslips and hours records. If holiday pay is unpaid or unclear, raise it with your employer, then Acas early conciliation, then an employment tribunal if needed.
• Most pay claims still have a time limit of 3 months minus 1 day. From 1 October 2026, that becomes 6 months minus 1 day where the clock starts on or after that date.

GOV.UK guidance on the Working Time reforms defines two groups that the new accrual and rolled-up rules target for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024.

Irregular hours worker: under your contract, the paid hours you will work in each pay period during that leave year are wholly or mostly variable. Classic examples include many zero-hours contracts, casual hospitality roles, and warehouse picking where shifts fluctuate.

Part-year worker: under your contract you only work part of the year, and there is at least one week in the year when you are not required to work and are not paid for that period. Some part-year workers have fixed hours when they are working (for example certain term-time patterns).

How you are labelled depends on the real pattern in the contract. Fixed hours every week all year usually means you are not in these groups, even if overtime comes and goes.

Official sources include:

• Holiday pay and entitlement reforms from 1 January 2024 (GOV.UK)
• Calculating holiday pay for workers without fixed hours or pay (GOV.UK)
• Working Time Regulations 1998 (legislation.gov.uk)
• Holiday entitlement (GOV.UK)

Almost all workers (employees and workers, not genuinely self-employed people) get at least 5.6 weeks of paid statutory holiday a year. For irregular-hours and part-year workers in leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, entitlement accrues as 12.07% of actual hours worked in the pay period.

Why 12.07%? Statutory leave is 5.6 weeks. A year has 52 weeks, so 52 minus 5.6 leaves 46.4 working weeks. 5.6 divided by 46.4 is 12.07%. The percentage tracks the statutory minimum. If your contract gives more than 5.6 weeks, the percentage rises (GOV.UK explains how to recalculate).

Worked method (from GOV.UK):

1. Take hours worked in the pay period and divide by 100.
2. Multiply by 12.07.
3. Round to the nearest hour.

Example from the reforms guidance: 68 hours worked. 68 ÷ 100 = 0.68. 0.68 × 12.07 = 8.2076, which rounds to 8 hours of holiday accrued that period.

You still take leave as time off; accrual shows how much leave the hours built up. Statutory paid holiday is also capped (for example at 28 days if you work six days a week).

For those same workers, and only for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, employers may use rolled-up holiday pay instead of (or as an alternative to) paying holiday only when you take leave via a 52-week average.

Under rolled-up holiday pay:

• Each pay period, the employer adds 12.07% of your total pay for that period as holiday pay.
• It is paid at the same time as your wages for work done.
• It must appear as a separate item on the payslip.
• It is paid in addition to your normal salary for the hours worked.
• Your normal pay for the work itself should still meet National Minimum Wage / National Living Wage. Rolled-up holiday pay must not be used to top up pay so that the combined figure only just meets the minimum wage.

From April 2026, the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour (NMW rates on GOV.UK). Holiday pay sits on top of wages for work. If an employer folds "holiday" into a single rate so that the work element alone falls below the legal minimum, that is not how rolled-up holiday pay is meant to work.

Employers who do not want rolled-up pay can still use the 52-week reference period: average pay from the last 52 weeks in which you were paid (skipping unpaid weeks, looking back no more than 104 weeks). That older method still appears in GOV.UK guidance for variable-hours holiday pay.

If you work fixed hours across the whole year, the April 2024 irregular-hours reforms do not rewrite your entitlement. You still get at least 5.6 weeks of paid statutory holiday.

Pay rates for that leave are nuanced:

• Four weeks (Regulation 13 leave) should be paid at your normal rate. That can include regular overtime, commission, and similar payments that form part of normal pay.
• The remaining 1.6 weeks (Regulation 13A leave) may be paid at basic pay, unless your contract or practice is more generous.

Many employers simply pay all 5.6 weeks at the normal rate to keep payroll simple. For the detail, use the reforms page above rather than treating irregular-hours maths as if it applied to everyone.

Imagine you are 22, on a zero-hours café contract. Your leave year started on 1 April 2025, so the new accrual rules apply. You are paid weekly. In one busy week you work 28 hours at £12.71 an hour (National Living Wage from April 2026).

Wages for work that week:

28 × £12.71 = £355.88

Holiday entitlement accrued that week (12.07% of hours):

28 ÷ 100 = 0.28 0.28 × 12.07 = 3.3796 → rounds to 3 hours of leave accrued

If your employer uses rolled-up holiday pay on total pay:

£355.88 ÷ 100 = £3.56 (to nearest penny for the percentage step, following the GOV.UK style) £3.56 × 12.07 ≈ £42.97 rolled-up holiday pay for that week

Your payslip should show something like:

• Pay for hours worked: £355.88
• Rolled-up holiday pay: £42.97
• Total: £398.85 before tax and National Insurance

That holiday element is not "extra pay for working". It is holiday pay paid as you go. When you later take time off, you have already received holiday pay for the hours that built up that entitlement (subject to how your employer operates leave and any contractual extras).

Warehouse picker variant: same maths for 40 hours at £12.71. Pay for work: £508.40. Holiday hours accrued: about 5 hours after rounding (40 × 12.07%). Rolled-up holiday pay at 12.07% of £508.40 ≈ £61.36. If there is no separate holiday line and the rate alone is £12.71 with "holiday included" but no clear extra 12.07%, ask for a written breakdown.

1. Check your leave year start date. The 12.07% accrual and rolled-up option apply to leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. Older leave years follow earlier rules.
2. Gather evidence: contract or written particulars, payslips, timesheets or clock records, and any messages about holiday.
3. Raise it with your employer in writing. Ask how entitlement is calculated, whether rolled-up pay is used, and for any unpaid holiday to be corrected.
4. Acas: if that fails, contact Acas for advice and, if you may claim, start early conciliation. Acas early conciliation can pause the tribunal time clock if you notify within time.
5. Employment tribunal: unpaid holiday pay is typically pursued as a wages / Working Time related claim. Most pay claims still must reach the tribunal process within 3 months minus 1 day of the relevant underpayment (or last in a series, depending on the claim). From 1 October 2026, for most claims the limit becomes 6 months minus 1 day if your time limit starts on or after that date. See Acas on tribunal time limits.

Do not wait for a grievance to finish before protecting the deadline. Grievances do not stop the clock on their own.

• "Holiday is in your hourly rate" with no separate 12.07% and no clear holiday accrual: that is not the reformed rolled-up model. Rolled-up pay must be additional and itemised.
• Using holiday pay to meet National Minimum Wage: wages for work must meet NMW/NLW in their own right. Holiday pay is on top.
• Applying 12.07% to fixed full-year staff as if the irregular-hours reforms covered everyone: different groups, different rules.
• Ignoring leave year dates: reforms bite when the leave year begins on or after 1 April 2024, not simply because the calendar says 2024.
• No records: without hours and payslips, proving underpayment is harder. Keep copies yourself.
• Assuming zero-hours means no holiday: zero-hours workers who are workers or employees still get paid statutory holiday.

Holiday pay disputes often start with fuzzy hours. Track shifts and payslip holiday lines in one place so you can spot a missing 12.07% or a rolled-up figure that never appears. Paye Mes Heures helps you log working time and compare what you worked with what you were paid before you escalate to Acas.

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/simplifying-holiday-entitlement-and-holiday-pay-calculations/holiday-pay-and-entitlement-reforms-from-1-january-2024
• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/calculating-holiday-pay-for-workers-without-fixed-hours-or-pay/calculating-holiday-pay-for-workers-without-fixed-hours-or-pay--2
• https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/contents
• https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights
• https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates
• https://www.acas.org.uk/irregular-hours-and-part-year-workers/rolled-up-holiday-pay
• https://www.acas.org.uk/irregular-hours-and-part-year-workers/calculating-holiday-pay
• https://www.acas.org.uk/employment-tribunal-time-limits