Holiday accrual

Holiday accrual is when staff earn their holiday (also referred to as leave allowance) gradually, with each shift they work to completion counting towards their entitlement.

The rate at which employees earn holiday (their “holiday accrual rate”) is usually set by their employer, but the standard rate in the UK is 12.07% of the hours an employee works.

Calculating accrued holiday can be time-consuming, and often leads to errors being made, with staff often receiving either too few or too many days off. To prevent this, many businesses today use software that automatically updates employees’ holiday entitlement based on the number of hours they’ve worked — not just the shifts they’re scheduled to do.