Your rights at work
Bank Holiday Pay and Entitlement
A bank holiday does not give you a legal right to the day off or to extra pay. Your contract decides. Here is what the law does guarantee, how part-time entitlement works and a calculator for a pro rata allowance.
Do you get paid for bank holidays?
There is no automatic right. In the words of GOV.UK, bank or public holidays do not have to be given as paid leave. What the law guarantees is 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, which is 28 days for someone working five days a week.
Whether bank holidays are paid days off for you comes from your contract. Look for the holiday clause: it will usually read either "X days plus bank holidays" or "X days including bank holidays".
Are bank holidays included in annual leave?
An employer can choose to include bank holidays as part of your statutory leave. On the legal minimum that leaves 20 days to book yourself in England and Wales once the eight bank holidays are counted. More generous contracts give the bank holidays on top.
Do you have to work bank holidays?
It is up to your employer. In retail, hospitality, health and transport, bank holidays are often ordinary working days. If your contract says you can be required to work them, you can be.
Is bank holiday pay double time?
Only if your contract says so. The law sets no premium rate for bank holidays, so time and a half or double time is a contractual or collectively agreed benefit, not a right. Check your contract or staff handbook for the rate.
Time off in lieu
Some employers give a day off in lieu when you work a bank holiday, or when one falls on your rest day. This is also contractual. Statutory holiday itself cannot be replaced with pay, except for untaken leave when you leave the job.
Zero-hours, agency and irregular-hours workers
You have the same right to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday, built up according to the hours you work. Bank holidays have no special status: if you work one you are paid your normal rate unless your terms say otherwise.
Extra one-off bank holidays
An extra bank holiday, such as one for a coronation, follows the same rule. See extra bank holidays for how contract wording decides it.
Part-time bank holiday entitlement calculator
Most bank holidays fall on a Monday, so part-time staff who do not work Mondays would otherwise miss out. Employers usually avoid that by giving a pro rata allowance in hours.
Pro rata bank holiday allowance
36 hours
a year, about 4.8 of your working days. That is 8 bank holidays × 7.5 hours × 60%.
- Legal minimum leave
- 16.8 days
- In hours
- 126
The legal minimum is 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year in total, and an employer may count bank holidays as part of it.
This is the method most employers use, not a legal formula. The law requires that part-time workers are not treated less favourably than comparable full-time staff; how that is achieved is set out in your contract.
If a bank holiday falls on your day off
Your employer cannot make you use a day of holiday entitlement for a day you were never going to work. With a pro rata allowance the question disappears: you have a pot of hours, and you use some of it only when a bank holiday lands on a day you would have worked.
The same thinking covers substitute days. When Christmas Day falls on a Saturday and the bank holiday moves to Monday, it is the Monday that counts for your allowance.
Where these rules come from
- GOV.UK: holiday entitlement
- Acas: bank holidays and Christmas
- Citizens Advice: working on bank holidays
This page is general information, not legal advice. For a dispute about your own contract, Acas and Citizens Advice both offer free help.
Bank holiday pay: questions
Do you get paid for bank holidays?
Only if your contract provides for it. Bank holidays do not have to be given as paid leave. Many employers do pay them, either on top of your annual leave or as part of it.
Do I have to work bank holidays?
If your contract says so, yes. It is up to your employer to decide whether you have to work on bank holidays, and there is no general legal right to have them off.
Can my employer make me work bank holidays?
Yes, if your contract allows it or bank holidays are normal working days in your job. If your contract gives you bank holidays off, your employer needs your agreement to change that.
Are bank holidays included in annual leave?
They can be. Workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, and an employer may count bank holidays as part of that total. Your contract should say whether your leave is inclusive or exclusive of bank holidays.
Is bank holiday double pay?
Not by law. There is no statutory right to extra pay for working a bank holiday. Double time or time and a half only applies if your contract or a workplace agreement provides it.
Do part-time workers get bank holidays?
Part-time workers must not be treated less favourably than full-time colleagues, so employers normally give a pro rata bank holiday allowance based on hours worked.
How do you calculate bank holiday entitlement for part-time workers?
A common method: multiply the number of bank holidays by a full-time day's hours, then by your hours as a share of full-time hours. For 22.5 hours against a 37.5-hour week and 8 bank holidays, that is 8 × 7.5 × 60% = 36 hours a year.
What if a bank holiday falls on my day off?
You do not lose leave. An employer cannot make you use a day of holiday for a day you would not have worked. With a pro rata allowance, you simply keep those hours to take at another time.
Can I be paid instead of taking bank holidays?
Not for statutory holiday. The legal minimum has to be taken as time off and can only be paid in lieu when you leave the job. Extra contractual leave may be handled differently.
Do I get an extra bank holiday if one is announced?
It depends on your contract's wording. A contract giving a set number of days plus bank holidays normally includes it; one giving a fixed total does not.