Holiday Entitlement Calculator

Holiday entitlement calculator for compressed hours contracts

On this page, you’ll find one of our most popular calculators, our holiday entitlement calculator for employees working compressed hours contracts.

Here at People Based Solutions, we offer a selection of holiday entitlement calculators, free for use, on our website. All you have to do is plug your figures into the relevant calculator, enter a valid email address, hit the submit button, and we’ll send you the result in an email.

Offering employees more flexible working hours can help to improve their work/life balance and job satisfaction. However, it also generates more work for a HR department, particularly if some staff members work compressed hours while others don’t.

Employees working different numbers of hours and days in a week have different holiday entitlements. Holiday entitlement calculators help HR departments to quickly, efficiently, and accurately calculate how much holiday each employee is entitled to.

Calculate the holiday entitlement for employees who works a compressed hours contract

Compressed hours is when an employee works the standard weekly hours in a compressed no of days. E.G. rather than working 40 hours over a 5 day  8 hours a day working week, they work 40 hours over a 4 day 10 hours per day working week. If an employee who worked a 5 day 8 hours a day week was entitled to 28 days annual leave (including statutory holidays), they would be entitled to 22.5 days holiday entitlement (including statutory days that fall on a compressed hours working day) for a compressed working week of 4 10 hour days per week .

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What is a holiday entitlement calculator?

In the UK, most full-time workers are legally entitled to at least 28 days of paid annual leave, which often includes public holidays. Part-time workers receive pro-rata annual leave based on the number of days or hours that they work. A holiday entitlement calculator is a useful tool that can be used by employees and employers alike to quickly and accurately calculate how much holiday an employee is entitled to.

Calculating employee holiday entitlement manually can be a time-consuming task that is susceptible to human error, particularly for companies with many employees.

This is why HR departments often use holiday entitlement calculators to automate the process, save time, and increase the level of accuracy. Using an up-to-date and reliable holiday entitlement calculator also helps ensure the company policies comply with the holiday entitlement laws.

The exact information that you are required to input into a holiday entitlement calculator can vary depending on several factors, including the type of holiday entitlement calculator being used, the nature of the employee’s contract and any other unique circumstances.

What is a compressed hours contract?

A compressed hours contract is a flexible working arrangement that allows employees to work their full contractual hours over fewer days. For example, rather than working 40 hours over five days (eight hours per day), the employee could work 40 hours over four days (10 hours per day).

The main benefits of offering compressed hours contracts are that they can provide employees with a better work/life balance and reduce the time and money they spend commuting, resulting in better job satisfaction. Many employers also find that offering compressed hours contracts results in a more efficient and productive workforce.

However, one of the challenges that compressed working hours can present HR with is that holiday entitlement for these employees must be worked out slightly differently. Because employees on compressed hours contracts work fewer days, they are entitled to fewer days of leave.

Here is an example of how entitlement differs for employees on a compressed-hours contract.

If an employee who worked eight hours a day in a five-day week was entitled to 28 days annual leave (including statutory holidays), they would be entitled to 22.5 days (including statutory days that fall on a compressed hours working day) for a compressed working week of four days (working 10 hours per day).

How to use People Based Solutions’ holiday entitlement calculator for compressed hours contracts

To help HR personnel work out holiday entitlement for employees on compressed hours contracts, we created a free holiday entitlement calculator for the task. To use the calculator below, simply enter the number of days in a standard working week, the number of days in a compressed working week, and the number of days of annual leave entitlement. To ensure an accurate, fair, and lawful calculation, you should include statutory holidays when stating the Full Time Equivalent (FTE) contractual holiday entitlement.

The practice of saying X days holidays + statutory holidays, e.g.  20 days + statutory, can be inconsistent and potentially unlawful, so to ensure the consistent and lawful treatment of those who only work on certain days in the week, the FTE annual leave entitlement should be the total amount inclusive of statutory holidays, using the example above, the figure for the calculator should be 28 days NOT 20.

Using 2022 as an example, if an employer gave leave to a compressed hours employee working a three-day week based on 20 days + statutory, an employee working Monday, Wednesday and Friday would get 19 days leave, i.e. 12 + 7 bank holidays, while an employee working Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday would get 14 days leave, i.e. 12 + 2 bank holidays. The fair and lawful way to calculate the leave is to pay them both a proration of 28 days, in this case, and deduct from their leave entitlement bank holidays that fall on working days.

Once you have filled out these three fields, select ‘open a compressed hours holiday calculator’ and fill out all other fields relevant to your employee’s specific circumstances before entering your email address and clicking ‘submit’. The result will then be emailed to you.

Contact People Based Solutions for advice on employee holiday entitlement

At People Based Solutions, we provide an extensive range of HR support services to small businesses in Warrington and nationally.

Whether you require advice on employee holiday entitlement in Warrington, Manchester, Liverpool, across the UK or help creating an employee handbook, you can outsource your HR requirements to our specialists. We support UK and Warrington businesses with their HR strategic, operational, administrative, procedural, and legal requirements.

Call us today on 01925 202 217 to learn more about our HR services for small businesses.