Holiday entitlement when you start a job mid-year

The short answer: if you start a job part way through your employer's holiday year, you get a share of the full year's holiday for the time left. Start halfway through a year with 28 days, and you get about 14 days. In your first year, statutory holiday builds up by one-twelfth each month, although many employers let you book ahead.

Your share of the year

Your holiday year is set by your employer, often January to December or April to March. It is in your contract or staff handbook. The formula:

Holiday this year = full-year entitlement × months left ÷ 12

With a January to December year and the statutory 28 days:

Employers can work in exact days rather than months, and may round part days up, but cannot round down below the legal minimum.

Booking holiday in your first year

By law, in the first year of a job, statutory holiday builds up at one-twelfth of the year's amount on the first day of each month: about 2.33 days a month on 28 days a year. After three months, you have about 7.0 days to take. Many employers do not apply this and let you book your whole pro rata amount straight away; check your contract.

If you take more than you have built up and then leave, your employer can only take the extra back from your final pay if your contract says so.

Bank holidays when you start mid-year

• If bank holidays are included in your entitlement (such as 28 days including bank holidays), they come out of your pro rata share.
• If they are on top (such as 25 days plus bank holidays), you usually get the ones that fall after your start date.

Part-time? See bank holidays for part-time workers.

Carrying holiday over

The 5.6 weeks are split in two by law:

• 4 weeks must normally be taken in the leave year. You can carry them over if you could not take them because of sickness, maternity, paternity, adoption or shared parental leave, or because your employer did not let you or tell you that you would lose them. Holiday carried over because of sickness must be used within 18 months of the end of the year it was earned.
• 1.6 weeks can be carried over to the next year only if your contract allows it.

Extra contractual holiday above 5.6 weeks follows whatever your contract says. Many employers let you carry over five days.

If your hours vary

If you work irregular hours or only part of the year, holiday builds up at 12.07% of the hours you work in each pay period instead, so the start date matters less. See holiday on zero-hours contracts.

Leaving part way through

The same pro rata method applies when you leave, and holiday you have built up but not taken must be paid in your final pay. See do you get paid for unused holiday when you leave?

Part-time with fixed days? See holiday entitlement for part-time workers.

A worked example

Priya starts a new job on 1 October. Her employer's holiday year runs April to March, and she gets 25 days plus bank holidays. She has 6 months left in the year:

• Contractual days: 25 × 6 ÷ 12 = 12.5 days.
• Bank holidays: those falling between October and March, usually Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day and Good Friday if it falls in March, so 3 or 4 days.
• From 1 April she gets the full 25 days plus bank holidays.

Holiday during probation

You build up holiday from day one, including during a probation period. An employer can ask you not to book leave during probation, or limit when you take it, but it can't take away the statutory entitlement. If you leave during probation, any holiday you have built up but not taken must be paid.

This is general information about the law in England, Scotland and Wales. Your contract may give more.