How many days or hours do I give a variable hours worker?

Forget everything you thought you knew!

The legislation specifies holidays in Weeks – so you have to start with that in mind e.g. all employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks regardless of whether they work 1 hour per week, 2 days per week or 3 days per week. The weeks are merely worth more or less. You cannot use hours without defining them as a fraction of a week which differs for every employee – so forget hours too!

Now, since it is inconvenient to take 1 whole week off, nearly everyone we do holiday pay for ends up defining 1 week to be 5 days. Then all workers receive 28 days of holiday entitlement (5.6 weeks x 5 days) irrespective of any working patterns. Each day is paid at 1/5 of the 1-week average pay. Half-days work too. Simple and clear for all employees to understand.