Holiday pay for hospitality staff: entitlement, the 12.07% rule and rolled-up pay

Holiday pay is one of the most common things hospitality employers get wrong, mostly because so many staff don't work fixed hours. A full-time chef on five days a week is easy. A student who works 30 hours in July and six in November is not. The rules changed for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, and a new record-keeping duty arrived on 6 April 2026, so it's worth checking your approach against the current position.

This guide covers England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland has its own working time regulations, and its official guidance on nidirect doesn't include the 12.07% method or rolled-up holiday pay described below, so NI employers should check nidirect.

How much holiday do hospitality staff get?

Almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year. Statutory paid leave is capped at 28 days.

Bank holidays don't have to be given as paid leave on top. You can count them as part of the 5.6 weeks, which is what most pubs and restaurants that trade on bank holidays do. You can always offer more than the minimum.

Regular hours versus irregular hours

Which method you use depends on the worker's contract, not on how busy you happened to be.

• Irregular-hours worker: under their contract, the hours they're paid for in each pay period are wholly or mostly variable. Zero-hours and casual contracts often fall here. A fixed rotating shift pattern does not.
• Part-year worker: their contract only requires them to work part of the year, with unpaid periods of at least a week when they're not expected to work. A seaside café whose staff contracts are unpaid during a winter closure each year could fit.
• Everyone else is a regular-hours worker, whether full or part-time, and gets 5.6 times their normal working week.

The 12.07% method for irregular-hours and part-year workers

For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours they actually work in each pay period. The figure comes from 5.6 weeks of holiday divided by the 46.4 weeks a year someone works once that holiday is taken off.

How to calculate it:

1. Take the hours worked in the pay period.
2. Divide by 100.
3. Multiply by 12.07.
4. Round to the nearest hour. GOV.UK's guidance rounds under 30 minutes down and 30 minutes or more up.

Example from GOV.UK: a worker does 68 hours in June. 68 ÷ 100 × 12.07 = 8.2076, so she accrues 8 hours of holiday that month.

A hospitality example: a casual bartender at a busy city-centre bar works 74 hours in a four-weekly pay period over the summer, then 18 hours in a quiet four weeks in January.

• Summer: 74 × 12.07% = 8.93 hours → 9 hours accrued.
• January: 18 × 12.07% = 2.17 hours → 2 hours accrued.

Their holiday follows their actual work, which is fairer to both sides than guessing an average.

Rolled-up holiday pay

For irregular-hours and part-year workers only (and only for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024), you can pay rolled-up holiday pay: an extra 12.07% of their pay for the period, paid with their wages, instead of paying them when they take leave.

Example: a zero-hours waiter works 35 hours in a week at £12.71 an hour.

• Pay for work: 35 × £12.71 = £444.85
• Rolled-up holiday pay: £444.85 × 12.07% = £53.69

The rules on rolled-up holiday pay:

• It must be a separate item on each payslip, not hidden in the hourly rate.
• Tell staff before you start using it, and check whether it changes their contract.
• Staff still take their holiday. They've already been paid for it, so the time off itself is unpaid, but you still need to let them take it.
• It's unlawful for regular-hours staff. You can't fold holiday pay into the hourly rate of a part-timer on a fixed three-day pattern.

The government's 2026 consultation on holiday pay compliance and enforcement asked for evidence on how rolled-up holiday pay is used in practice, so watch for changes.

How much is a week's holiday pay?

A worker gets a week's pay for each week of statutory leave.

• Regular hours, fixed pay: their normal weekly pay.
• Regular shift work: average weekly fixed hours over the previous 52 weeks at the average hourly rate.
• Irregular hours or part-year: average pay over the previous 52 weeks in which they were paid. Weeks with no pay are skipped and you go back further, up to 104 weeks. If they haven't worked 52 paid weeks, use the full weeks they have worked.

Normal versus basic pay. For regular-hours workers, at least 4 weeks must be paid at normal pay, which includes regular overtime, commission, and payments linked to length of service or professional qualifications. The remaining 1.6 weeks can be paid at basic pay. Irregular-hours and part-year workers get all their leave at normal pay. Many hospitality employers pay everything at normal pay to avoid running two calculations.

Example: a sous chef is contracted for 40 hours but regularly works 48, with the extra paid as overtime. Their holiday pay for at least 4 of their 5.6 weeks has to reflect that regular overtime, not just the 40 contracted hours.

Booking holiday and the rota

The notice rules from GOV.UK apply unless the contract says otherwise:

• A worker asking for leave gives notice at least twice as long as the leave, plus a day. Three days' notice for one day off.
• You can refuse or cancel leave at a particular time by giving as much notice as the leave requested, plus a day. Eleven days' notice to cancel ten days. You can't refuse to let them take leave at all.
• You can tell staff when to take leave, such as over a closed week in January, by giving notice at least twice as long as the leave.
• You can restrict leave at busy times, such as December or the summer holidays, and many hospitality contracts do.
• You can't force a sick worker to take holiday.

On the rota, the practical rules are simple: get holidays booked early, record them in one place, and don't rota anyone who's off. Our guide on how to write a pub rota shows where holidays fit into the weekly process. Use quiet periods to encourage staff to take leave so you aren't facing a queue of requests in December.

Holiday records: the 6 April 2026 change

From 6 April 2026, employers must keep detailed records of annual leave and holiday pay for at least six years from when they were made, for example the days taken and holiday pay paid. You can choose how to keep them, but you may face a fine if you can't show you keep holiday records. The government's Fair Work Agency was established on 7 April 2026, and its 2026 consultation says holiday pay enforcement won't start before April 2027, with a proposed six-year look-back that matches the record-keeping period.

In practice that means for every worker you should be able to show their entitlement, what they've accrued (for irregular-hours staff), what they've taken, what you paid, and what happened to untaken leave when they left.

Common mistakes in hospitality

1. No holiday for casuals. "They're zero-hours, they don't get holiday" is wrong.
2. Rolled-up pay for regular part-timers. Only lawful for irregular-hours and part-year workers.
3. Rolled-up pay hidden in the rate. It must be a separate payslip line.
4. Basic pay only for staff who do regular overtime. Normal pay applies to at least four weeks.
5. Holiday records in a diary. Since April 2026 you need six years of records you can produce.
6. Not paying for untaken holiday when someone leaves. Leaving is the only time statutory leave can be paid instead of taken, and it's due even if someone is dismissed for misconduct.

Holiday pay checklist

• Each worker classified: regular hours, irregular hours, or part-year
• Regular staff: entitlement set at 5.6 × their working week, capped at 28 days
• Irregular and part-year staff: 12.07% accrual recorded each pay period, or rolled-up pay as a separate payslip line
• Holiday pay rate includes regular overtime and commission for at least 4 weeks
• Leave year start date written down for every worker
• Bank holiday policy written into contracts
• Holiday requests, approvals, leave taken and holiday pay recorded and kept for six years
• Holiday booked onto the rota so nobody is scheduled while off

Where ShiftComplete fits

ShiftComplete isn't a payroll system and doesn't calculate holiday pay. What it does is make sure holidays are recorded on the rota, so when it builds a draft from your team's availability it won't schedule someone who's off. Staff mark the days they're unavailable from their phones, and the published rota shows everyone who's in and who isn't. Your payroll provider or accountant should handle the pay calculations.

This guide summarises official guidance and isn't legal advice; for a specific case, speak to Acas or an employment adviser.