Bank holiday entitlement for part-time workers

Because most bank holidays fall on a Monday, part-timers can easily be short-changed or over-rewarded depending on their working days. Pro-rating fixes it. Here is how.

Last reviewed July 2026 · General guidance, not legal advice.

There is no automatic right to bank holidays off

A surprise for many employers: UK workers have no statutory right to take bank holidays as paid time off. The 8 bank holidays in England and Wales can be counted as part of the 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday. Whether staff get them off, and whether that is on top of or within their allowance, depends on the contract.

Why part-timers need pro-rating

The fairness problem comes from timing. Most bank holidays land on a Monday. Consider two people who each work 3 days a week:

One works Monday to Wednesday and would benefit from nearly every bank holiday.
One works Wednesday to Friday and would benefit from almost none.

Same hours, wildly different benefit. The Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 mean you should not leave part-timers worse off than comparable full-time staff. The clean fix is to pro-rata bank holidays.

The “pot of hours” approach

Instead of tying bank holidays to specific dates, give each part-timer a proportionate pot of bank holiday hours, then let them draw it down against whichever bank holidays fall on their working days. The pot is sized by the hours they work compared with a full-timer.

Part-timer’s bank holiday pot = full-time bank holiday hours × (part-time hours ÷ full-time hours)

Worked example

Assume a 5-day, 37.5-hour full-time week, and 8 bank holidays a year:

A full-timer’s bank holidays = 8 days × 7.5 hours = 60 hours.
A part-timer works 3 days / 22.5 hours a week — that is 22.5 ÷ 37.5 = 0.6 of full-time.
Their pot = 60 × 0.6 = 36 hours of bank holiday time.

They now draw those 36 hours against bank holidays that fall on their working days — fair regardless of which days they work. To size allowances and pots quickly, use our pro-rata holiday calculator.

Worker	Share of full-time	Bank holiday pot
Full-time (37.5h)	1.0	60 hours
Part-time (22.5h)	0.6	36 hours
Part-time (15h)	0.4	24 hours

Working in hours makes this easy

Pro-rating bank holidays is far simpler when you track leave in hours rather than whole days, so a “pot” is a natural unit. Rotaleave’s hourly holiday tracking handles bank holiday pots per person automatically. For the wider pro-rata method, see our guide on calculating holiday for part-time staff.

Check the official sources

This is general guidance, not legal advice. Bank holiday and part-time rules are set out on gov.uk and Acas — check them for your specific contracts and any nation-specific holidays (Scotland and Northern Ireland differ).

Common questions

Are part-time workers legally entitled to bank holidays?

There is no statutory right to take bank holidays off for anyone — they can count towards the 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday. But under the Part-time Workers Regulations, part-timers must not be treated less favourably, so bank holidays should be pro-rated fairly.

Why can part-time staff lose out on bank holidays?

Most UK bank holidays fall on a Monday. Someone who never works Mondays would get no benefit from them, while a colleague who always works Mondays would get every one. Pro-rating with a "pot of hours" removes that unfairness.

How does the pot-of-hours approach work?

You give each part-timer a share of the total bank holiday hours based on the hours they work, then let them draw that pot down against whichever bank holidays fall on their working days. It equalises the benefit regardless of which days they work.

Do I have to pay part-timers for bank holidays they do not work?

Not automatically. It depends on their contract and whether bank holidays are part of their allowance. The goal is proportionate, non-discriminatory treatment compared with full-time staff.