This article explains how Kobas calculates holiday figures for full-time and part-time UK and Northern Ireland staff members.
Last updated 21 Mar 2024
Jump to:
- Introduction
- Full-Time Allowance
- Part-Time Allowance
- Holiday Accrual
- Value of a holiday day
- Starting and Leaving mid-year
Introduction
This article explains how Kobas calculates Holiday Allowance, its Accrual, and pay for those days when a staff member is on a Full or Part-Time contract. This page works through the three calculation elements:
- Allowance (what staff are entitled to for the year)
- Accrual (how this allowance is earned throughout the year)
- Value (how much staff are paid for each holiday day)
Further information can be found on your relevant government website:
Note: Please note that we are not responsible for the content of external websites. Whilst Kobas makes every effort to ensure our calculations are accurate, we cannot be held responsible for inaccurate payments to staff.
Full-Time Allowance
Each jurisdiction has a different minimum number of days of paid leave that an employee is entitled to, as explained below. This number of days relates to full-time staff, who work 5 days per week.
| Minimum leave entitlement (weeks) | Minimum leave entitlement (days) | |
|
United Kingdom |
5.6 weeks | 28 days |
|
Northern Ireland |
5.6 weeks (4 weeks at normal pay and 1.6 weeks at "basic pay") |
20 days (full pay) 8 days ("Basic pay") |
Coming soon: Please note that support for the differences described above for Northern Ireland will com soon to Kobas.
Kobas will set the Full Year Allowance to your jurisdiction's minimum by default. Therefore, staff on a full-time contract will have the above number of days as their Full Year Allowance. You can add additional days above the minimum either for the current year only, or permanently.
Part-Time Allowance
Kobas considers staff who work 4 or less days per week as Part Time. The allowance principles described above are applied to Part Time staff on a pro-rata basis, and are explained below.
| 4 days | 3 days | 2 days | 1 day | |
| UK | 23 days | 17 days | 12 days | 6 days |
| NI |
16 days 8 day (basic pay) |
12 days 6 day (basic pay) |
8 days 4 day (basic pay) |
4 days 2 day (basic pay) |
Holiday Accrual
Holidays accrue automatically based on two things:
- An employee’s total holiday allowance for the year; and
- At what point in the calendar year did the employee start work?
For example, if your holiday year runs from 1 January to 31 December and two full-time employees start on 1 January, they will accrue their 28 days at the same rate as the year progresses.
If an employee were to start full-time work on 1st July, they would accrue 14 days over the course of the remainder of the year.
Value of a holiday day
A full or part-time staff member's average shift length is calculated by dividing the contract hours by the contact days per week.
Leaving and starting mid-year
We use an accrual system to calculate a worker’s leave. Under this system, a worker gets one-twelfth of their leave each month.
Example:
Someone works a 5-day week and is entitled to 28 days’ annual leave a year. After their third month in the job, they’d be entitled to 7 days’ leave (a quarter of their total leave, or 28 ÷ 12 × 3).