Bank holiday pay in hospitality: what the law says, what's usual, and the dates

Bank holidays are trading days in hospitality. The pub garden fills up on the August bank holiday, the carvery does three sittings on Easter Sunday and Monday, and Boxing Day is one of the biggest days of the year. So the question every owner gets asked is: "Do we get paid extra?"

The legal answer is short: no, not by law. Everything else is down to your contracts and what you choose to offer.

What the law actually says

These are the rules across the UK (Northern Ireland's nidirect guidance says the same):

The explanatory notes to Scotland's St Andrew's Day Bank Holiday Act 2007 spell this out: the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, which sets out most UK bank holidays, gives no statutory right to extra pay or time off for working them. That's a matter of contract or agreement between employer and employee.

How bank holidays fit into 5.6 weeks

Most workers get 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year. For someone on a five-day week, that's 28 days. You can choose to:

1. Include bank holidays in the 28 days. This is what most pubs, restaurants and cafés that trade on bank holidays do. Staff get 28 days to take when they like (within your rules), and a bank holiday is just a normal trading day.
2. Give bank holidays on top. For example 20 days plus the 8 bank holidays in England and Wales. This suits businesses that close on bank holidays, which is rare in hospitality.

If you include them, say so in writing. GOV.UK says the written statement every employee and worker gets from day one must set out holiday entitlement, including whether it includes public holidays. See our staff handbook template for wording.

If you close on a bank holiday

Some cafés and lunch-only venues close on Christmas Day or Easter Monday. Acas says an employer can require a usual working day to be taken as holiday when the workplace is shut, if the contract says so or you give notice. The notice is at least twice as many days as the leave you're asking them to take. Close for one day, give at least two days' notice; close for a week between Christmas and New Year, give at least two weeks.

Part-time staff

Part-time workers get 5.6 weeks pro rata. Someone working three days a week gets at least 16.8 days (3 × 5.6). They should be treated no less favourably than full-timers on holidays.

Where it goes wrong: if full-timers get bank holidays on top of their leave, a part-timer who never works Mondays would miss out on most of them. The fair approach is to give part-timers a proportionate number of bank holiday days, whichever days they work.

Irregular hours and zero-hours staff

In England, Scotland and Wales, for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, irregular hours and part-year workers build up holiday at 12.07% of the hours they work in each pay period (GOV.UK). A zero-hours bartender who works the bank holiday Monday builds up holiday on those hours like any other. Our holiday pay guide and holiday pay calculator cover the maths.

Should you pay a bank holiday premium?

There's no right answer, only what works for your team and your margins. Common options in UK hospitality:

Whatever you choose:

• Write it into contracts or a staff policy, so it's clear and consistent.
• Name the days. "Boxing Day" and "the Boxing Day bank holiday" were different days in 2026 (Saturday 26 and Monday 28 December). Say which you mean.
• Cost it before you commit. Work out the bank holiday's labour cost with the premium included, against expected sales. See labour cost percentage.
• Apply it to everyone in the same role. Inconsistent premiums cause more resentment than no premium.

UK bank holiday dates 2026 and 2027

From GOV.UK. Where a bank holiday falls on a weekend, a "substitute day" is given, usually the following Monday.

England and Wales

Scotland

Easter Monday isn't a bank holiday in Scotland, and the summer bank holiday is at the start of August, not the end.

Northern Ireland

If you run venues in more than one nation, your contracts and holiday policy should say which nation's bank holidays apply to whom.

Common bank holiday mistakes

1. Promising "bank holidays off" in a template contract when you trade every bank holiday. Fix the contract.
2. Paying in lieu instead of giving leave. Staff who work bank holidays still need their full 5.6 weeks off.
3. Forgetting part-timers when full-timers get bank holidays on top.
4. Premiums on the wrong day when Christmas or Boxing Day falls at the weekend.
5. Not paying for the clean-down. Minimum wage applies to every hour, including after close.
6. Holiday records kept on scraps of paper. Since 6 April 2026, employers in Great Britain must keep holiday records for at least six years (Acas).

Bank holidays in ShiftComplete

ShiftComplete won't decide your premium, but it makes the bank holiday rota and the paperwork easier. Add each bank holiday as an event ("Easter Monday, +2 bar, +1 kitchen") and it builds a draft rota from your team's availability, fair across the team. Labour cost is shown as you build, so you can see the time-and-a-half before you publish. Holidays are recorded so nobody gets rota'd while they're off, and staff can request holiday from their phones for you to approve.

Switch on clocking in and out and you'll see hours worked against the rota, then download hours per person as a spreadsheet to hand to payroll, with the bank holiday hours easy to pick out. It's £1.49 per staff member per month, free for 60 days, no card to start.