For a team of 10 on a £30,000 average salary with a 28-day allowance, the annual leave payroll value is roughly £32,300, or about 10.8% of the salary bill. Most UK employers' leave costs fall between 9% and 15% of payroll, depending on the allowance.
How this calculator works
The calculator works out the payroll value of your team's annual leave: the amount you spend paying staff while they are on holiday. The starting point is a daily rate, worked out by dividing the average annual salary by 260 working days (five days a week across 52 weeks). That daily rate is then multiplied by the number of leave days to get the per-person cost, and then by the number of staff for the total.
daily rate × leave days = cost per person
cost per person × staff = total cost
The leave percentage figure tells you what share of salary time is taken as annual leave. A 28-day allowance out of 260 working days is 10.77%, which is close to the statutory minimum. Many employers in the UK offer 25 contractual days plus eight bank holidays, which comes to 12.69%.
Worked examples
Click any example to load it into the calculator.
Common situations
Should I include bank holidays?
It depends what you want to measure. In England and Wales, full-time employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks of annual leave, which can include the eight public bank holidays. If your staff have 28 days that includes bank holidays, enter 28. If they have 25 contractual days and bank holidays are on top, enter 25 for the discretionary leave cost, or 33 for the total cost of all time off.
What if my team has different allowances?
The simplest approach is to calculate each group separately and add the totals. If half the team has 28 days and the other half has 25, run the calculator twice and sum the results. Alternatively, use a weighted average of the two allowances as a rough single figure.
Does the calculation change for part-time staff?
For part-time employees, the annual salary is already reduced compared to the full-time rate, so the daily rate via salary divided by 260 still produces the correct figure for that person's cost. Their leave allowance is also pro-rated: someone working three days a week and entitled to 5.6 weeks has 16.8 days, not 28. Use the part-time holiday calculator to work out the pro-rata allowance first, then enter it here.
What about employer on-costs?
This calculator shows the gross salary cost of leave days only. The full employer cost of each working day also includes employer National Insurance contributions (13.8% above the secondary threshold in 2026/27) and pension contributions. For a salaried employee, these on-costs apply equally to working days and leave days, so adding your typical on-cost percentage to the total this calculator shows gives you the full employer cost of the annual leave time.
What this calculator does not do
This calculator produces a planning estimate, not a payroll figure. It uses a flat 260-day divisor for all staff and does not handle annualised hours contracts, term-time workers, zero-hours workers, or people partway through a leave year. It also does not account for leave already taken, carry-forward balances, or salary changes during the year. For per-person calculations or irregular working patterns, the annual leave entitlement calculator goes further.
FAQs
What does the cost of annual leave mean for salaried employees?
For salaried staff, annual leave does not add extra payroll cost. They are paid the same whether they are working or on leave. The figure this calculator produces is the payroll value of the leave days, which is what you spend paying staff while they are not working. It is a measure of productive time taken as leave, not extra expenditure on top of the salary.
Should I include bank holidays in the days I enter?
It depends how your contracts work. If your staff have 28 days including bank holidays, enter 28. If they have 20 contractual days plus eight bank holidays, enter 20 to see the discretionary leave cost, or 28 to see the total. The calculator works the same either way; you decide which figure is most useful.
Why does this calculator use 260 as the total working days?
260 working days is five days a week for 52 weeks, which is the standard measure of a full-time working year in the UK. It excludes weekends but not bank holidays. If you want to factor in bank holidays (eight in England and Wales), divide the salary by 252 instead; the calculator uses 260 as the conventional planning figure.
What is the typical annual leave cost as a percentage of salary?
At the statutory minimum of 28 days (including bank holidays for a full-time employee in England and Wales), annual leave amounts to about 10.8 per cent of working time. Many employers offer 25 contractual days plus eight bank holidays, which is 12.7 per cent. Most UK employers' leave costs fall between 9 and 15 per cent of the total payroll.
Does this calculator include employer National Insurance or pension contributions?
No. This calculator shows the payroll value of the leave days based on salary only. It does not add employer National Insurance contributions, pension contributions or other on-costs. For a full employer cost of leave, add your typical employer on-cost percentage on top of the figure this calculator produces.
Can I use this for a single employee rather than a team?
Yes. Set staff to 1 and enter that person's salary and allowance. The result shows the payroll value of one person's annual leave and their daily rate.
Does this calculator work for part-time employees?
It works best for a team where everyone works full-time or close to it and the average salary reflects that. For part-time staff, the salary is already lower, so the daily rate via salary divided by 260 still produces a correct figure. For a mixed team, the most straightforward approach is to calculate each working pattern separately and add the results.
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Sources
| Source | What it covers |
|---|---|
| GOV.UK · Holiday entitlement | The 5.6 weeks statutory minimum and the 28-day cap for full-time employees. |
| ACAS · Checking holiday entitlement | How bank holidays interact with contractual leave entitlement. |
| GOV.UK · UK bank holidays | The eight public holidays in England and Wales used in the benchmarks. |
| Working Time Regulations 1998 | The legal basis for statutory annual leave entitlement in the UK. |