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Free Bank Holiday Pay Calculator
Work out your bank holiday entitlement and pay in seconds. Covers full-time and part-time workers, pro-rata calculations, and the UK legal rules on enhanced pay.
7.5h × £19.50 (£13.00 × 1.5) = £146.25. 8 of England & Wales's 8 bank holidays in 2027 fall on their days: 8 × £146.25 = £1,170.00.
Time and a half comes from their contract, not the law. The legal minimum is their normal rate: £97.50 for this day.
They keep the day of holiday. Their bank holidays are part of their holiday, so working one doesn't use it up: they take that day off another time.
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Your answer, across the year
England & Wales has 8 bank holidays in 2027. All 8 fall on the days they work. Working each one at time and a half pays £146.25, £1,170.00 across the year.
One 7.5-hour bank holiday at £13.00 an hour. The law asks for the first step only; anything higher is a promise in the contract, and it has to be paid if the contract makes it.
A day off in lieu is also contractual. Where bank holidays count towards their holiday, working one leaves them a day of holiday to take another time.
Minimum wage counts the base rate only. A premium on top never makes up for a rate under £12.71 an hour.
The sum for part-time staff
The fair way, and the one that keeps you clear of less favourable treatment, is to pro-rate the whole holiday entitlement — bank holidays included — and then take out the bank holidays that land on the days the person works.
Use the part-time bank holiday calculatorAdd the full-time allowance to the bank holidays. A full-timer on 25 days plus the 8 England and Wales bank holidays has 33 days in total. Use 9 for Scotland and 10 for Northern Ireland, or your own figure if the contract says 28 days including bank holidays.
Multiply by the days worked per week and divide by five. Someone on three days a week gets 33 × 3 ÷ 5 = 19.8 days for the year. If hours vary between days, do the same sum in hours instead: 33 days × 7.5 hours = 247.5 hours for a full-timer, so a 22.5-hour week gets 247.5 × 22.5 ÷ 37.5 = 148.5 hours.
Count the bank holidays in the leave year that land on a day they normally work and deduct those days (or those hours) from the pro-rated total. Whatever is left is the holiday they book themselves.
The legal minimum is 5.6 weeks: for a three-day week that is 5.6 × 3 = 16.8 days, capped at 28 days for anyone working five or more. The 19.8 days in the example is above it, so the employer is offering more than the minimum, which is fine.
| Worker | Pro-rated total | Bank holidays on their days | Left to book |
|---|---|---|---|
| Works Mon, Tue, Wed | 19.8 days | 6 (say) | 13.8 days |
| Works Wed, Thu, Fri | 19.8 days | 3 (say) | 16.8 days |
| Works Tue, Thu | 13.2 days | 0 (say) | 13.2 days |
Both three-day workers end up with the same 19.8 days off in total; it just arrives differently. Four of the eight England and Wales bank holidays are always on a Monday (Easter Monday and the three May and August ones), so the Monday worker has more of their time off fixed for them and fewer days to choose. The Tuesday-and-Thursday worker rarely has a bank holiday on a working day, so they book all 13.2 days themselves. The exact counts change each year with the calendar, which is why the deduction is worked out per leave year.
The shortcut to avoid is simply giving part-timers whichever bank holidays happen to fall on their days. The Monday worker gets a lot more paid time off than a colleague on the same hours who works later in the week, and the second one is treated less favourably than a comparable full-timer — the situation the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 exist to stop.
Working out each person by hand every year is where it goes wrong. In TimeTally the allowance is pro-rated from each person's working pattern and bank holidays are booked on the days they work, so their remaining balance is right in the staff holiday tracker. For the allowance itself, use the pro rata holiday calculator.
From the calculator to every employee
This calculator gives you the numbers. TimeTally books each person's bank holidays for their region on the days they work, pro-rates part-time staff's allowance from their working week, and keeps every leave balance up to date — so you never have to do it by hand. From £3/employee/month.
TimeTally knows the bank holidays for every UK region, straight from GOV.UK. Pick each person's calendar and how their bank holidays are paid, save, and the year's bank holidays are booked on the days they work — no manual entry, no missed dates.
Choose what working a bank holiday earns: paid at 1.25×, 1.5× or 2× their rate, or time back as TOIL at 1×, 1.5× or 2×. It stays off until you pick one. When someone logs hours on a booked bank holiday, TimeTally asks if they worked it and takes the day off back off their calendar, and the premium goes into your payroll export in its own Bank Holiday Premium column.
Pro-rata entitlements can be fiddly to get right. TimeTally pro-rates each part-timer's allowance from their working pattern, then books bank holidays only on the days they actually work, so their balance shows what is genuinely left to book.
Every approved leave request and bank holiday shows on one shared calendar — so you always know who is in, who is off, and when. Staff see their own bank holidays on their phone.
Select any feature for the detail.
Employees see their current balance and their projected future balance — accounting for leave already booked but not yet taken. Optionally let staff see who else in their department has booked time off, so they can plan around colleagues. Managers can manually adjust any employee's balance at any time — ideal when setting up mid-year from a previous system.
Pick the accrual method that fits each employee: upfront (full entitlement from day one), monthly accrual (earned gradually each month), daily accrual (builds day by day), or hours worked (earned per hour worked at a rate you set, 12.07% by default). All calculations are handled automatically — no spreadsheets needed.
TimeTally comes with annual leave, sick leave, maternity, paternity and bank holidays set up. Need something else, like compassionate leave? Create unlimited custom leave types with any name. For each type you control: whether it's paid or unpaid, whether it deducts from the annual leave balance or has its own separate pot, and who it's turned off for.
Decide exactly what happens at year end: toggle carryover on or off, set a maximum number of days that can carry, and optionally add an expiry date so carried-over days must be used within e.g. 3 months. You can also allow employees to book leave before they've earned it (negative balance), with an optional cap to limit exposure.
Set each employee's contracted hours per day of the week (or use a company default). TimeTally uses this to deduct the right amount of leave — a half-day Tuesday only costs half a Tuesday's hours — and to pay the correct amount for each day taken. Pro-rata entitlements for new starters and leavers are calculated automatically from their start date.
Employees can request leave in hours, half days, or full days from the app or website — no training required. Managers can book leave on behalf of any employee. Public holidays are added automatically for the country you choose. Set a custom leave year start date (e.g. 7th April) and balances reset automatically. Easy to set up even when migrating from another system mid-year.
Managers can approve any leave request in one tap. Rejections include an optional reason so employees know why, and they can send a new request. Employees can also ask to change or cancel approved leave, and you approve or turn it down. Any booked leave can be deleted if plans change, and the days go back on the balance — all with a full audit trail.
Leave sits in the main team calendar alongside timesheets and rota shifts — one view of the whole business. If you use time tracking, overtime converts to TOIL automatically at a rate you define. Leave analytics give managers a clear picture of absence patterns, entitlement usage, and remaining balances across the whole team.
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Real reviews from TimeTally customers
TimeTally has been excellent for our business. The app is simple to use, reliable, and makes managing holidays, absences, and staff records straightforward. The system has saved us a significant amount of administration time and gives both managers and employees clear visibility of leave balances and requests. Highly recommended for any business looking for an easy-to-use workforce management solution.
Jordan IngoeCLI ManchesterSetup was dead simple and the team just got on with it. Got everyone up and running in an afternoon with no help needed. Does everything we need for timesheets and holidays without the faff.
Has completely changed how I handle timesheets. Used to dread it every week — now it takes me minutes. Really easy to get around and my staff picked it up straight away.
Started using it just for rotas but quickly realised it does loads more. The timesheets and leave management are great, and it even handles TOIL and overtime which I wasn't expecting. Use it for everything now.
Bank holiday pay is more nuanced than a flat rate — here's what employers need to get right.
For salaried employees who do not work on a bank holiday, the pay for that day is simply 1/5 of their normal weekly salary (for a 5-day-week worker). For hourly-paid workers, it is the number of hours they would normally have worked on that day multiplied by their hourly rate. The key principle is that bank holiday pay must reflect what the worker would have earned on that day — including any contractual allowances that form part of normal remuneration.
For workers with variable hours or pay — such as those who work shifts of different lengths or earn regular overtime — bank holiday pay must be calculated using a 52-week average. The average is taken from the 52 weeks before the bank holiday in which the worker received pay. This prevents employers from paying a flat basic rate for bank holidays when the worker's actual earnings are consistently higher. Variable-hours workers should not receive less for a bank holiday than they would for a comparable working day.
The Employment Rights (Employment Particulars and Paid Annual Leave) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 replaced the old 12-week pay reference period with a 52-week average, effective from April 2020. Weeks in which no pay was earned — for example, during unpaid leave or a period of no work for zero-hours staff — are excluded from the calculation and replaced with earlier paid weeks, so the reference period may extend back beyond 52 calendar weeks. This change produces smoother averages for seasonal and variable-hours workers.
Following the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling in Lock v British Gas Trading Ltd [2014], regular commission that forms part of an employee's normal remuneration must be included in holiday pay — including bank holiday pay. A worker who earns commission on sales cannot simply be paid their base salary on a bank holiday if commission represents a consistent and material part of their income. The 52-week average ensures that commission earned in working weeks is factored into the bank holiday pay calculation.
Annual leave — including bank holiday entitlement — continues to accrue throughout statutory maternity leave. However, the pay for bank holidays that fall within a maternity leave period is not paid at the normal daily rate during the leave itself; the employee simply accrues the entitlement to take those days later. When enhanced maternity pay is contractual, some employers extend enhanced pay to accrued bank holidays on return — but there is no statutory obligation to do so above the Statutory Maternity Pay rate.
An employee on sick leave continues to accrue annual leave entitlement, including any bank holiday entitlement under their contract. Where a bank holiday falls during a period of sick leave and the employee is entitled to that bank holiday as a day off, they should not have it absorbed into their sick leave. The bank holiday should be reclaimed as a separate day's leave on return. When it comes to pay, accrued bank holiday entitlement paid out in due course is at the normal holiday pay rate — not at SSP.
On termination of employment, any accrued but untaken annual leave — including the bank holiday element of that entitlement — must be paid out as part of the final pay settlement. For employees who leave mid-leave-year, the bank holiday entitlement is pro-rated to their leaving date. The payment is made at their holiday pay rate: a normal week's pay for regular hours, or the 52-week average where hours or pay vary. Failure to include accrued bank holiday pay in a final settlement is an unlawful deduction from wages under the Employment Rights Act 1996.
Some employment contracts provide for enhanced pay when working on a bank holiday — commonly time-and-a-half or double time — in addition to a lieu day. This is entirely a contractual benefit with no statutory minimum above the NMW floor. Enhanced pay rates must be applied consistently across comparable employees; differential treatment without objective justification may give rise to an equality of terms claim. Employers who offer enhanced bank holiday pay should ensure it is clearly defined in the contract to avoid disputes about what 'enhanced' means in practice.
Everything you need to know about bank holiday entitlement and pay under UK law. For related topics, try our holiday entitlement calculator or pro-rata holiday calculator.
No — there is no automatic legal right to take bank holidays off. What UK workers are entitled to is 5.6 weeks' paid annual leave per year. Whether bank holidays form part of that 5.6 weeks or are given on top depends entirely on the employment contract. Many contracts state "28 days including bank holidays" (i.e. bank holidays come out of the 5.6 weeks), while others give 20 days plus 8 bank holidays on top. Always check your contract.
Not necessarily fewer in total leave terms, but their bank holiday entitlement is calculated pro-rata. A worker doing 3 days per week gets a share of 4.8 bank holidays (8 × 3/5). The complication for part-time workers is that if bank holidays always fall on the same day (e.g. Mondays), they may end up using all their bank holiday entitlement on that one day. If bank holidays fall on days a part-time worker does not work, they book the rest of their share as holiday on other days — assuming bank holidays form part of their entitlement.
No. UK law does not require employers to pay a premium — such as time and a half or double time — for work carried out on a bank holiday. The only statutory requirement is that the worker receives their normal contractual rate of pay. Enhanced pay for bank holiday working (often called "bank holiday rates") is entirely contractual: it only applies if the employment contract explicitly provides for it. Always check your contract or staff handbook.
Only if the contract says so. Christmas Day and Boxing Day are bank holidays like any other: no law requires time and a half, double time or a day off in lieu for working them, and many employers in hospitality, retail and care pay a premium by choice or agreement. When Christmas Day or Boxing Day falls on a weekend, the bank holiday moves to a weekday "substitute day" (in 2027, Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 December), and a contract's bank holiday rate usually follows the bank holiday, not the date.
If the bank holiday counts as part of your paid holiday, yes: you get a normal day's pay, and it uses one of your days of holiday. If your contract gives bank holidays on top of your holiday, they are paid on top. Bank holidays don't have to be given as paid leave at all, so a contract can leave them unpaid, but every worker still gets 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year. If your hours or pay vary, a day's holiday pay is your average over the last 52 weeks in which you were paid.
If a part-time worker does not work on Mondays and a bank holiday falls on a Monday, they still get their pro-rata share of the bank holidays as leave, to be taken on other days — provided bank holidays are part of their contractual entitlement. This is because all workers are entitled to the same pro-rata leave, regardless of which days of the week they work. Employers must not disadvantage part-time workers simply because bank holidays habitually fall on days they don't work.
There are 8 public bank holidays in England and Wales: New Year's Day (1 January), Good Friday, Easter Monday, Early May bank holiday (first Monday in May), Spring bank holiday (last Monday in May), Summer bank holiday (last Monday in August), Christmas Day (25 December), and Boxing Day (26 December). Scotland usually has 9: New Year's Day, 2 January, Good Friday, the early May and spring bank holidays, the summer bank holiday on the first Monday in August, St Andrew's Day (30 November), Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but no Easter Monday (2026 added a one-off World Cup bank holiday on 15 June). Northern Ireland has 10 — the same 8 as England plus St Patrick's Day (17 March) and the Battle of the Boyne / Orangemen's Day (12 July).
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Book a DemoLast checked against GOV.UK: 2 October 2026
Bank holiday dates are GOV.UK's for 2026 to 2028, counted over the calendar year. Contracts can give more than the law, never less. This calculator is a guide, not legal advice.
Calculate annual leave entitlement for full-time and part-time UK employees
Calculate pro-rata holiday entitlement for part-year or part-time workers
Calculate time and a half and double time pay for UK employees
Check statutory leave entitlements including sick leave, maternity and paternity
Set each person's working pattern once and TimeTally pro-rates their allowance and books bank holidays on the days they work, so this sum never needs doing again.
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