Annual leave calculator

How annual leave builds up over the year

Paid holiday is earned gradually as the leave year passes. By any date, the amount accrued is yearly entitlement × days elapsed ÷ 365, and what remains to book is the entitlement minus the days you have already taken. The monthly rate is simply the entitlement divided by twelve, which is how most payroll systems add leave to your balance.

Take 25 days a year as an example. After 120 days of the leave year, you have accrued 25 × 120 ÷ 365 = 8.2 days, and with 8 already taken you have 17 of the year's days still to use. Each month adds about 25 ÷ 12 = 2.08 days. Someone who starts partway through the year accrues only from their start date, which is why a mid-year joiner gets a pro-rata slice rather than the full allowance.

Pro-rata leave and policy rules

Part-time staff are usually given leave in proportion to the days they work: someone on three days a week typically gets three-fifths of the full-time entitlement. If you join or leave partway through the year, the same proportion applies to the fraction of the year you are employed, so always check whether your employer rounds part-days up, down or to the nearest half.

This calculator shows a simple accrued balance and does not know your employer's finer rules. Many policies cap how much leave you can carry into the next year, set a short window to use carried days, or pay out untaken leave only when you leave. In the United Kingdom, the statutory minimum is 5.6 weeks a year, which is 28 days for a five-day week and can include public holidays; the European Union sets a floor of four weeks under its Working Time Directive. Entitlements above these minimums, and how unused days are treated, are set by your contract.