Help me understand my holiday allowance

[MamaAndTheSofa]

I need help understanding my holiday allowance in work - I'm not very good at working this stuff out, so any advice is appreciated!

Our standard annual allowance is 28 days of holiday, for full time employees. I work part time, so I'm in every day, but for 5.5 hours rather than 8. My holidays are "pro-rata'd", so I get 17 (I think) days a year instead of 28.

But this doesn't seem fair to me... surely if I work every day I should still get 28 days off; the "pro-rata" part would mean that I'm getting a shorter day off (I.e a full time person would be getting 8 hours off with 1 day of leave, whereas I'm getting 5.5 hours off).

By the same system, someone who worked 1 hour per day (so 1/8 of a full time person) would only get 3 days off per year (28/8), amounting to a total of 3 hours of time off.

Where am I going wrong? It feels as though I have hardly any holiday to take, while other people have loads! Is the problem that they're saying 1 day of leave is 8 hours, so in fact if I take 1 day of leave it would take up 1 and a bit of my actual working days?

1. Full-Time vs Part-Time Holiday Allowance

• A full-time employee gets 28 days per year (including public holidays).
• A part-time worker gets holiday entitlement on a pro-rata basis, meaning proportional to the hours they work compared to full-time hours.

2. How Pro-Rata Works in Your Case

• A full-time week is typically 40 hours (5 days × 8 hours).
• You work 27.5 hours per week (5 days × 5.5 hours).
• So, you work 27.5/40 = 0.6875 (68.75%) of full-time hours.

3. Pro-Rata Holiday Calculation Since you work 68.75% of full-time hours, your holiday is also 68.75% of 28 days: 28 days × 0.6875 = 19.25 days (rounded to 19 days) 💡 Why You Only Got 17 Days Instead of 19 It’s possible your workplace has rounded down, or public holidays have been included or deducted incorrectly. You should clarify this with HR. 📌 The Core Misunderstanding: “Days” vs. “Hours” of Leave You’re correct to think that if you take one “day” off, it should match your usual working day (5.5 hours), not a full-time day (8 hours). For part-time workers, holiday is best calculated in hours, not days.

• Full-time: 28 days × 8 hours = 224 hours of leave.
• Part-time (you): 19.25 days × 5.5 hours = 105.88 hours (approx. 106 hours) of leave.

This means if you take a day off (5.5 hours), you subtract 5.5 hours from your allowance, not 8 hours. ✅ In Short:

• Your holiday allowance should be about 19 days (or 106 hours), not 17 days.
• A “day” off for you = 5.5 hours.
• If your workplace is deducting a full 8 hours for each “day” you take off, they are calculating it incorrectly.

🚨 What to Ask HR:

• “Can my holiday entitlement be recorded in hours rather than days?”
• “Can you confirm that one day of leave is equivalent to my standard 5.5-hour day, not 8 hours?”

Part time leave is best worked out in hours. So if the normal leave entitlement is 28 days, and normal work day for a full timer is 8 hours, full time entitlement is 224 hours. You work 68% of a normal full time pattern, therefore are entitled to 68% of 224 hours leave= 152.32 hours leave. That works out as roughly 27 days off at 5.5 hours a day. Why do you think you get 17 days off?

Have you got a contract? What does that say about what your holiday entitlement is based on?

The gov.uk site says, based on an hourly entitlement you should be eligible for 154 hours, which is 28 days.

based on a day per week entitlement you would be entitled to 28 days as you work 5 days a week.

Is the holiday entitlement based on: - Calculate holiday entitlement - GOV.UK

Part-timers with us have leave worked out in hours, so you'd still get your 28 days, just as 5.5 hour days rather than 8 hour days, so 154h rather than 224h.

(Unfortunately, the leave request system doesn't cope as well with all this as you might think, from what I hear, but that's probably just us...)

Thank you for this. So a full time person gets 224 hours of leave per year. I work 68.75% of full time hours, so I would expect to get 154 hours of leave per year. At 5.5 hours per day, that should mean I'm getting 28 days' leave (154/5.5), right? But I'm not, I'm getting 19 days (I thought it was 17, but I might be misremembering; that might be my remaining balance for the year), which is 104.5 hours.

Since 104.5 is 68.75% of 154, it looks like my leave has been pro-rata'd twice, right?

Thanks. I remember seeing 17 days, but that might be my remaining balance for the year, as I've had a couple of days off already. So my annual allowance is probably 19 days.

Thank you, this is helpful. I'll have to dig out my contract and check what it says.

Yes, we recently switched systems, and I suspect that it hasn't taken my actual daily working hours into account; it's just assumed that everyone works an 8 hour day (I think I'm the only one who doesn't).

Yes, it does sound like your leave has been pro-rata'd twice, which is a common error in part-time holiday calculations!
📊 Let’s Break Down the Math:

1. Full-Time Allowance:
2. 28 days × 8 hours = 224 hours per year.
3. Your Pro-Rata Allowance (Based on Hours):
4. You work 68.75% of full-time hours (27.5 hours out of 40).
5. So, your annual allowance should be:
6. 224 hours × 68.75% = 154 hours.
7. At 5.5 hours per day, that’s:
8. 154 hours ÷ 5.5 hours/day = 28 days

🚩 What You’re Actually Getting: You’re getting 19 days, which at 5.5 hours per day is: 19 days × 5.5 hours = 104.5 hours 104.5 hours is 68.75% of 154 hours — meaning your pro-rata allowance has been reduced again from what it should be! 🛑 Where the Mistake Likely Happened: Your employer may have:

1. Pro-rata'd the days first (28 days × 68.75% = 19 days) without adjusting for your shorter day length.
2. Then treated those 19 days as if they were full-time days (8 hours each) instead of your 5.5-hour days.

✅ The Correct Approach:

• Holiday should be calculated in hours, not days.
• You should receive 154 hours annually.
• Each day off (5.5 hours) reduces your balance by 5.5 hours.
• You can take up to 28 of your 5.5-hour workdays off per year.

That probably introduces a complication only HR can resolve...

I think it should be 28 days. The "part time" percentage calculations are used for people who work fewer than 5 days a week or who are working irregular hours and days. If you work 5 days a week all year round,you are entitled to 28 days off whether you are working 5.5 hours or 10 hours each day. You can check this on the UK.gov. online calculator,with your trade union or with ACAS.

This is why it’s better to have it in hours when you’re part time

@MamaAndTheSofa depends how you have to log it.

If they’ve calculated as pro rata as you do 68.75% of a full day every day that’s fine. You just book 0.6875 of a day off when you have a days leave. Not a full day.

If they expect you to book a full day off on their system, that’s also fine, but you need to be given 28 days allowance as you work equal length days 5 days a week.

This is being overcomplicated by posters.

You work 5 days a week on 5.5 hours, I work 5 days a week on say 8 hours per day.

We both get 28 days holiday - end of. Your days are at 5.5 hours off, mine are 8 off - our normal working hours.

Unlikely as it's HR who have complicated it to this position

Agree with @JoyousPinkPeer. There is no need to calculate this in hours. That would only be necessary if you work irregular hours. You don't. You are therefore entitled to the same number of days off as full-time staff. The only difference is that a day off for you is only 5.5 hours rather than 8.

If your HR are saying you are only entitled to 17 days holiday, they are wrong and your employer is breaking the law.

@prh47bridge UNLESS @MamaAndTheSofa is expected to log partial days on the holiday system? My previous employer reduced my days but asked me to log 0.67days to get a day off. Worked out right.

Yes, they've pro-ratad it twice, which is wrong.

They either give you 19 days, each worth 8 hours and each time you want a day off, it costs you 0.6875 of a day, which is messy and hard to keep track of, especially when your employer is unable to understand such a simple concept as part time holiday allowance, they're unlikely to be able to correctly account for 4 significant figure decimals.

So instead they pro-rata the allowance in terms of hours per year and you get 5.5 x 28 hours per year (the full timers get 8 x 28 hours per year). Each time you take a day off, it costs you 5.5 hours of your allowance and you get 28 days, the same as the full timers, but their allowance is higher and each day off costs them 8 hours of their allowance.

What a strange way of doing things. But yes, that would work.

No, the system doesn't allow for that. I can only book full days or half days.

As I said, I think I'm the only person in the company who works these kinds of hours - all the other part timers are working 8 hour days but fewer days per week, so I think it's likely just an oversight.

I'll ask them to change it!

Oh, I know that, but they should be the ones to resolve it, by using a system that is fit for purpose. After all, there is nothing radically new about the concept of working part-time and pro-rataing hours, and it's the sort of thing computers are good at working out, so there is no excuse for any employee to be using a system which complicates it so. <stares pointedly at own HR.>