# Holiday entitlement for a trades firm's first employee: 5.6 weeks, a 28-day cap and part-timers, worked

> GOV.UK says most workers get 5.6 weeks paid holiday, capped at 28 days. Worked for a full-time joiner, a four-day apprentice and a part-timer.

- Page to cite: https://aeolookup.com/trades/holiday-entitlement-5-6-weeks-28-days-first-employee-trades-firm-part-time-worked/
- Publisher: AEO Lookup (https://aeolookup.com/)
- Section: Trades and building firms, Rules and paperwork
- Published 22 October 2026
- Key fact: At £110 a day, 28 days of paid holiday for a five-day employee is 28 x £110 = £3,080; a four-day apprentice gets 4 x 5.6 = 22.4 days = £2,464; a three-day part-timer gets 3 x 5.6 = 16.8 days = £1,848; and a six-day week is 6 x 5.6 = 33.6, cut to the 28-day cap.
- Sources: GOV.UK, Holiday entitlement (https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights): almost all workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year; most people on a 5-day week get at least 28 days; entitlement is limited to 28 days (a 6-day week is still 28); part-time workers with regular hours get at least 5.6 weeks, for example 3 days a week gives at least 16.8 days; irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue leave from hours worked; bank holidays do not have to be given as paid leave and an employer can count them within the 5.6 weeks; employers can offer more than the legal minimum. Read 22 October 2026.

Your first apprentice asks, politely, how much holiday he gets. You say "the usual" and then realise you do not know what the usual is, whether the bank holidays come out of it, or what a four-day week does to the number.

## What GOV.UK says

The GOV.UK page on holiday entitlement sets out these points:

- Almost all workers are entitled to **5.6 weeks' paid holiday** a year.
- On a five-day week that is at least **28 days**.
- Statutory entitlement is **limited to 28 days**, so a six-day week is still 28.
- Part-time workers with regular hours get at least 5.6 weeks, which is fewer than 28 days. The page's own example: three days a week gives at least 16.8 days.
- Bank or public holidays do not have to be given as paid leave. An employer can count them as part of the 5.6 weeks.
- Irregular-hours and part-year workers are covered differently: leave builds up from hours already worked.
- An employer can offer more than the legal minimum.

## The sum

The rule is one multiplication: **days worked each week x 5.6**, never more than 28. The cost column uses an example day's pay of £110, which is a figure I chose for the worked example, not a rate from GOV.UK.

| Working pattern | Working | Days of paid holiday | At £110 a day |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 days a week | 5 x 5.6 | 28 | £3,080 |
| 4 days a week | 4 x 5.6 | 22.4 | £2,464 |
| 3 days a week | 3 x 5.6 | 16.8 | £1,848 |
| 2 days a week | 2 x 5.6 | 11.2 | £1,232 |
| 6 days a week | 6 x 5.6 = 33.6, capped | 28 | £3,080 |

Check: 28 x £110 is £3,080 because 28 x 100 is £2,800 and 28 x 10 is £280. 22.4 x £110 is 22.4 x 100 = £2,240 plus 22.4 x 10 = £224, so £2,464. 16.8 x £110 is £1,680 + £168 = £1,848. 11.2 x £110 is £1,120 + £112 = £1,232. The 2-day row is my own extra row; it uses the same formula as the page's three-day example.

## Do bank holidays come out of it?

They can. The page says bank holidays need not be given as paid leave and that an employer can count them within the 5.6 weeks. So if your contract says the 28 days include the bank holidays, a Monday bank holiday uses one day of a five-day worker's 28. If it does not say so, the worker would have the bank holiday and the full 28 days on top. Put it in the written terms before the first day. I did not read how many bank holidays there are or which ones apply in each nation, so count them from the official list for your own year.

## What to put in place

- **Say which it is** in the contract: statutory minimum including bank holidays, or more.
- **Keep a holiday record** per person: days entitled, days taken, days left. A tradesperson's diary is not enough once there are two or three on the books.
- **Allow for the cost in your day rate.** Paid holiday is a day you pay for and cannot bill: see [the day rate calculator for self-employed trades](https://aeolookup.com/trades/day-rate-calculator-self-employed-trades/).
- **Budget the rest of a first hire.** Alongside holiday come employer National Insurance and pensions: see [the first employee and employer National Insurance](https://aeolookup.com/trades/first-employee-employer-national-insurance-15-percent-5000-employment-allowance-trades/) and [auto-enrolment for a first employee](https://aeolookup.com/trades/auto-enrolment-first-employee-trades-firm-6240-50270-3-percent-employer-worked/). Sickness is the other regular absence: see [statutory sick pay from day one in a small trades firm](https://aeolookup.com/trades/statutory-sick-pay-day-one-small-trades-firm/).
- **Do not guess for irregular workers.** If someone has no fixed hours, the accrual method on the GOV.UK page applies, not the table above.

## What I did not read

The GOV.UK page did not cover the leave year, carry-over, what happens to unused days when someone leaves, or how holiday pay is calculated when pay varies with overtime. I did not read the Working Time Regulations 1998 themselves, the rules for new starters part-way through a year, or whether the same rules apply to a genuinely self-employed subcontractor. Ask ACAS or your adviser about your own case.

Overlyft ![](https://aeolookup.com/img/d/ours-badge.png) builds AI staff who join your trades team and keep the holiday record, work out each person's entitlement and flag a clash with a booked job, with the office manager approving every change.

This is general information, not tax or legal advice. Check the GOV.UK page and your adviser for your own firm.

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General information for UK small firms, not legal, tax or financial advice.