Calculator / Retail and Hospitality
Retail and Hospitality Holiday Entitlement UK 2026
Statutory 5.6 weeks applies. Most retail and hospitality contracts use the 12.07% method for hourly staff, paid rolled-up. Bank holiday premium pay depends on the contract; there is no statutory right to bank holidays off in retail or hospitality.
Updated 18 May 2026. As of May 2026.
12.07% rolled-up for hourly staff, 5.6 weeks for salaried
Hourly retail and hospitality crew typically accrue 12.07% paid rolled-up on each payslip. Salaried managers get 5.6 weeks as block holiday allowance, often with bank holidays included or as TOIL/premium pay.
The Sector Structure
UK retail employs roughly 3 million workers, the second-largest private-sector employer after professional services. Hospitality (pubs, restaurants, hotels, cafes, takeaways, festival catering) employs roughly 2.2 million. Together the two sectors account for about 17% of UK employment. The workforce is heavily weighted toward part-time, casual, and zero-hours contracts: roughly 60% of retail and hospitality workers are part-time, compared to 25% across the wider UK economy.
Holiday entitlement structures reflect this. For hourly-paid workers (the majority of the workforce), the 12.07% accrual method post 1 April 2024 is the standard. For salaried management (typically branch managers, area managers, head office staff), the entitlement is expressed as days per year, usually 25 to 28 with bank holidays handled separately. The gap between hourly and salaried treatment is one of the larger fault lines in the sector and a frequent topic of industrial action campaigning by the GMB and Usdaw.
The April 2024 reform of the Working Time Regulations through the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations 2023 made rolled-up holiday pay lawful again for irregular-hours workers. This was a major win for the sector's payroll teams: post-Harpur Trust v Brazel, the 52-week reference period had created administrative burden for thousands of casual contracts. Rolled-up at 12.07% is much simpler to administer.
Major Chains' Practices
| Employer | Hourly Holiday | Bank Holiday Pay |
|---|---|---|
| Tesco | 12.07% rolled-up | Normal rate |
| M&S | 12.07% rolled-up | Time-and-a-half for non-rostered |
| John Lewis | 5.6 weeks block | Time-and-a-half |
| Wetherspoon | 12.07% rolled-up | Normal rate |
| Pret a Manger | 12.07% rolled-up | Normal rate (some chains: premium) |
| Costa Coffee | 12.07% rolled-up | Normal rate |
| Greggs | 12.07% rolled-up | Normal rate |
| Whitbread (Premier Inn / Beefeater) | 12.07% rolled-up | Premium for some bank holidays |
Sources: employer staff handbooks where publicly available, plus Usdaw and GMB negotiated agreements. Practices vary year to year as employers update contracts. Workers should check the staff handbook or contract for current terms.
Bank Holiday Trading and Rotas
Retail and hospitality trade on most bank holidays. The exceptions are Christmas Day (most chains close) and Easter Sunday (some chains close, most open). For the other 6 bank holidays the typical pattern is reduced opening hours rather than closure, with reduced staffing managed through the standard rota.
Whether the worker is paid extra for working a bank holiday is a contract question. There is no statutory right to bank holiday pay above the normal rate. Some employers (Waitrose / John Lewis, M&S for some bands, some pub chains) pay time-and-a-half or double-time as a contractual premium. Most large chains pay the normal rate, treating the bank holiday as an ordinary trading day with no premium.
The interaction with the 5.6-week statutory leave is the tricky bit. Where the contract gives 28 days of leave inclusive of bank holidays, the worker who works the bank holiday and does not take a day in lieu has effectively forfeited one of their 28 days. Where the contract gives 28 days plus bank holidays, the worker who works the bank holiday accrues a day in lieu (or premium pay). The contract should be checked carefully on this point. ACAS guidance on checking holiday entitlement covers the inclusive-versus-additional question.
Christmas and Peak Trading
Most retail and hospitality contracts include a clause restricting annual leave during the November-December peak. The British Retail Consortium estimates that roughly 35% of annual retail sales are concentrated in the Q4 quarter. Hospitality has a strong Christmas party season from mid-November to mid-December. Allowing all staff to take leave in this window is operationally impossible.
The standard contractual restriction is "no annual leave between 1 November and 5 January unless agreed in exceptional circumstances". This is enforceable under Regulation 15 of the WTR 1998, which allows employers to set rules about when leave can be taken. The worker retains the right to take 5.6 weeks somewhere in the leave year, but the employer can decide which weeks.
The practical effect is that retail and hospitality workers concentrate their leave-taking in February-March and June-September. Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and New Year's Day for closed branches are effectively forced rest days that do not count against the leave allocation (they are not rostered work in the first place). Annual leave during these months requires advance booking and is subject to maximum approved numbers per branch per week.
Tipping, Service Charge, and Holiday Pay
The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023, which came into force on 1 October 2024, requires hospitality employers to pass on 100% of tips and service charges to workers within one month of receipt. Tips are now classed as part of normal remuneration for many purposes.
Whether tips count for holiday pay calculation is contested. The post-Bear Scotland and Lock principle is that holiday pay reflects normal remuneration, which arguably includes regular tips. The 2023 Act and its Code of Practice (effective October 2024) do not directly address holiday pay but do strengthen the argument that tips should be treated like other elements of normal pay. Some hospitality employers have started including the previous 52-week average tip income in holiday pay calculations; others have not.
For a waiter on a £12 hourly base with average £4 per hour in distributed tips, the holiday pay rate arguably should be £16 not £12. Hospitality unions (Unite Hospitality in particular) are pursuing tribunal claims to establish the principle. Workers should check the staff handbook for current tip-related pay rules and consider raising the question with HR if the holiday pay calculation excludes tips.
Worked Examples
Supermarket cashier, 30 hours per week, zero-hours contract
30 × 0.1207 = 3.62 hours holiday per week, rolled-up at 12.07%
Over 52 weeks: 188.3 hours of paid holiday. At £11.50 per hour: £2,166 of rolled-up holiday across the year, paid on each weekly payslip as an itemised line.
Pub bar manager (salaried), 28 days plus 8 BH
5.6 weeks block + 8 bank holidays
Salaried at £28,000. 4 of the 8 bank holidays typically worked (Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year, Easter), with TOIL or time-and-a-half. The other 4 typically off on a rota basis.
Christmas warehouse temp, 40 hours per week for 6 weeks
240 × 0.1207 = 29 hours holiday, rolled-up
Final payslip shows total wages and total rolled-up holiday (£348 at £12/hr). End of contract: no further pay-out because rolled-up was delivered throughout.
Sunday-only retail worker (8 hours/week), opted out
8 × 0.1207 = 0.97 hours holiday per Sunday
Just under 1 hour of paid leave per Sunday worked. Over 52 weeks: 50.2 hours. The opt-out is from Sunday work specifically; if accepted, the worker simply does not work Sundays without losing employment rights or holiday accrual.
Not legal advice. Retail and hospitality contracts vary widely. Always check the staff handbook for the specific employer's holiday and bank holiday rules. For disputes, contact your trade union (Usdaw, GMB, Unite Hospitality) or ACAS on 0300 123 1100.