Summarise with AI
Who it can be used for
Rolled-up holiday pay was unlawful in the UK for years before being reintroduced in a deliberately narrow form. It applies only to irregular-hours and part-year workers, and only for leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024.
An irregular-hours worker is broadly someone whose paid hours in each pay period are wholly or mostly variable — zero-hours staff being the common example. A part-year worker is contracted to work only part of the year with unpaid periods in between, such as term-time-only staff. Someone on settled part-time hours is neither, and cannot be paid rolled-up holiday pay.
Where 12.07% comes from
A year has 52 weeks. Take out the 5.6 weeks of statutory leave and 46.4 working weeks remain. The leave is therefore worth 5.6 ÷ 46.4 of the time actually worked, which is 12.07% — roughly seven minutes of holiday for every hour on shift.
The two conditions
Both are easy to miss, and both matter:
- It must be itemised on the payslip. The holiday element has to be visible as its own line rather than absorbed into the hourly rate. Beyond the legal requirement, this matters for minimum wage: an hourly rate that quietly includes a 12.07% uplift may leave the rate for the work itself below the statutory floor — our minimum wage checker shows the effect.
- The worker still gets to take the leave. Paying the money does not discharge the obligation to allow rest. If someone is paid rolled-up holiday pay and never actually takes time off, the arrangement is not working as intended.
If you are not using rolled-up pay, holiday is paid when it is taken — at a normal week's pay for fixed hours, or a 52-week average where pay varies. Our holiday pay guide works through both. The balance still has to be paid out on termination — see final pay when someone leaves.
