UK public holiday pay: Rates, entitlements, and calculations

We could all do with a holiday, but days off can mean extra admin work if you’re not prepared. In the UK, many employees have bank holiday pay entitlement. While they may feel like automatic paid days off, UK labour rules for public holiday pay dictate that rights depend heavily on employment contracts and statutory leave structures. 

It’s important to remain legally compliant and understand your employee’s bank holiday pay entitlements. Read on and discover more about UK bank holiday pay, and the important thing you should know about it.

UK bank holiday pay: In summary

• UK workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid statutory leave per year, which employers can choose to include as part of their employment or provide in addition to bank holidays. 

• There isn’t an automatic legal requirement for extra bank holiday pay rates, like double pay or time and a half. Any premium rate of pay depends entirely on the employment contract and what the employer decides to offer. 

• Part-time and zero-hour workers accrue holiday pay in accordance with their working hours, which means everyone gets the same amount relative to their contracted employment.  

What is the bank holiday pay entitlement in the UK?

According to the UK Working Time Regulations, there is no automatic statutory entitlement to bank holiday pay for time off, or extra pay for working one. Employers choose to include the bank holidays as paid leave or as additional paid days off. 

This all depends on your employee’s contract arrangement: 

• Included in statutory leave: This covers the eight standard UK bank holidays as part of the 28-day statutory allowance (e.g., 20 days holiday + 8 bank holidays).

• Additional to statutory leave: In addition to the mandatory statutory leave requirement which is 20 days + 8 days bank holidays, employers could choose to offer further days off on top of the statutory requirement, at their discretion.

Public holidays in the UK

Bank holiday schedules vary across the UK – if you’re working in England, you might notice that your Scottish friends have different bank holidays (and an additional one on top of that.) That means regional holiday pay calculations and shift planning can be directly impacted by these bank holidays. 

Regional holiday variations across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland 

Regional bank holidays vary depending on where you are, for example:

• England and Wales have 8 standard bank holidays per year.

• Scotland has 9 bank holidays per year.

• Northern Ireland has 10 bank holidays per year – including St. Patrick’s Day and Orangemen’s Day.

As an employer, your payroll software should be configured to the region where your employees are based – this helps to ensure you don’t miscalculate bank holiday pay.

Standard UK bank holidays reference 

Sometimes, it seems as though there are never enough bank holidays. Here’s a list of all standard UK bank holidays for your reference:

• New Year's Day – 1^st of January

• Good Friday – the Friday before Easter Sunday

• Easter Monday (England, Wales, and Northern Ireland) – the Monday after Easter Sunday

• Early May Bank Holiday – the first Monday of May

• Spring Bank Holiday – the last Monday of May

• Summer Bank Holiday – the last Monday of August

• Christmas Day – 25^th of December

• Boxing Day – 26^th of December

These are all the standard UK bank holidays, regardless of where your employees reside in the UK. 

Bank holiday pay rates: Full-time, part-time, and zero-hour workers

Depending on the type of employment your employees are in, there are different bank holiday pay rates:

Full-time worker bank holiday rights 

Full-time staff who work five days a week are entitled to a baseline 28-day statutory paid leave allowance. However, there’s no statutory entitlement to bank holiday pay as default. What employers can do is mandate that a bank holiday be taken as paid leave from an employee's annual leave allowance.

Some employers may choose to give employees bank holidays off in addition to their base holiday pay, but this is a benefit – not a requirement.

Part-time worker bank holiday entitlement 

Part-time employees receive a “pro rata” share of the standard 5.6 weeks’ holiday allowance. If a bank holiday falls on a day when a part-time employee isn’t usually scheduled to work, their pro rata holiday amount shouldn’t be affected. This can help ensure they aren’t unfairly treated in terms of their total holiday allowance.

Zero-hour contract bank holiday pay 

Zero-hour and irregular-hours contract bank holiday works a bit different – workers on these contracts accrue holiday pay based on hours worked. 

• Accrual is calculated as 12.07% of the actual hours worked in a pay period.

• This fits in line with the standard 5.6 weeks’ holiday allowance of other contracts.

If an employee on a zero- or irregular-hour contract works a shift on a bank holiday, they receive their agreed hourly rate plus any accrued holiday entitlement unless their contract provides an additional or enhanced rate.

Is double pay on bank holidays a legal requirement in the UK? 

Double pay on a bank holiday, or bank holiday pay rates in general (such as time and a half), are effectively perks – not statutory rights. It could attract talent, but it is not a contractual requirement. 

Common contractual pay setups include:

• Standard Rate: This contractual pay setup offers the standard hourly rate for working a bank holiday shift – there is no additional monetary incentive. 

• Enhanced Rate: An employee on an enhanced rate contract means they earn a premium bank holiday pay – e.g., 1.5x or 2x their base pay.

• Time Off in Lieu (TOIL): Rather than additional pay, your employees earn standard pay for working the bank holiday plus an alternative day off later in the year.

How to calculate public holiday pay: Step by step 

Calculating bank holiday pay for your employees doesn’t need to be daunting – the first thing to do is to check what agreements you have in place with each employee.

Step 1: Check contract wording for rate rules 

First, determine whether the employee's shift qualifies for standard pay, contractual premium pay like double pay or time and a half, or time off in lieu. 

Step 2: Establish the base hourly rate or average 52-week pay

Establishing an employee’s base hourly rate depends on their contract:

• Fixed-hours staff – multiply their hours worked by the contracted pay rate.

• Variable- or zero- hours staff – calculate the average weekly qualifying income over the last 52 paid weeks. 

Step 3: Apply premium multipliers or accrual rates

Finally, you need to apply any contractual multipliers – e.g., £15/hour rate x 2.0 = £30/hr for double pay. Alternatively, you may need to calculate statutory holiday pay accruals instead of a bonus pay rate.

Either way, using built-in payroll tools or a public holiday pay calculator can help you to automate complex pro-rata and variable-pay calculations across your team – even if they have different contracted accrual rates.

Simplify bank holiday calculations with QuickBooks Payroll

QuickBooks can help you simplify bank holiday pay calculations and data entry for UK employers. QuickBooks can help with managing complex leave entitlements, automatically calculating pro-rata holiday pay for variable and zero-hour staff, and applying contractual pay agreements.

Don’t get tangled in complex public holiday pay sums – QuickBooks can help you ensure accurate and easy bank holiday pay.

Discover how QuickBooks can help with payroll.

Bank holiday pay FAQs

Are UK employers legally required to pay double pay on bank holidays? 

No, there is no legal obligation under UK law for employers to offer double pay to employees on bank holidays. It is a decision for the business to make at the point of contract. That means employees are only entitled to premium bank holiday pay rates if it is written into their employment contract. It is an attractive benefit, but not a legal requirement.

How does zero-hour contract bank holiday pay work? 

Zero-hour contract workers accrue paid holiday as a percentage (12.07%) of their hours worked – which puts it in line with the legal minimum of 5.6 weeks per year. When they take leave (or work on a bank holiday), their pay is calculated based on their average qualifying income over the last 52 paid weeks. There is no automatic entitlement to extra pay. 

Are bank holidays included in 28 days’ statutory leave?

Whether bank holidays are included in an employee’s 28-day statutory leave depends on their contract, but it is an option employers can take. This would mean that the 8 standard UK bank holidays are part of the 28-day total (20 days flexible leave, 8 days bank holiday leave).

What happens if a bank holiday falls on a weekend?

When a public holiday falls on a weekend, a weekday becomes the “official” bank holiday instead. In most cases, this is a Monday. Employee contracts should detail what happens in such an event. 

How can QuickBooks help with calculating holiday pay?

QuickBooks has a range of tools to help you calculate holiday pay accurately. Track holiday hours alongside regular hours, add holiday pay as a custom pay type, and set up overtime multipliers for employees with holiday pay bonuses. QuickBooks simplifies holiday pay and helps you apply pay multipliers without a fuss.

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