Most employees in Ireland are entitled to four working weeks of paid annual leave a year under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997, plus a separate benefit for each public holiday. How much you are paid depends on your hours, whether they vary and whether you work on the day. This guide covers the rules, the sums and the situations that cause the most mistakes, for employees and for the employers who run payroll.
TL;DR
- Annual leave is four working weeks a year for most employees. Part-time, temporary and casual staff accrue it too, pro rata.
- You get whichever of three statutory methods gives you the most leave: 1,365 hours worked, a third of a week per qualifying month, or 8% of hours worked, capped at four weeks.
- Public holidays are separate from annual leave. Work on the day and you get an extra day's pay or equivalent. Do not work it and you may still get a paid day off or a fifth of a week's pay.
- Untaken annual leave must be paid out when employment ends.
Table of Contents
- How much annual leave you are entitled to
- The three ways holiday entitlement is calculated
- How holiday pay is worked out
- Public holiday pay
- Carrying over leave and taking it
- What happens when you leave a job
- Common mistakes employers make
- Our perspective: leave is a payroll control, not an admin chore
- Getting payroll and holiday pay right with us
- FAQ
- Sources
How much annual leave you are entitled to
The baseline is four working weeks of annual leave each leave year. For someone on a five-day week, that is 20 days. It is a statutory minimum: a contract can give you more, never less.
The entitlement does not depend on how you are employed. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) says all employees, whether full-time, part-time, temporary or casual, accrue annual leave from the start of their employment. There is no qualifying period before leave starts to build up, and a probation period does not pause it.
The leave year is normally the calendar year (1 January to 31 December) unless your employer uses a different 12-month period, for example April to March. Your contract or handbook should say which.
The three ways holiday entitlement is calculated
The law does not use a single formula. You are entitled to whichever of these three methods gives you the greatest amount of leave, according to Citizens Information:
| Method | Who it usually suits | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Hours worked in the year | Full-time staff who work most of the year | Four working weeks if you worked at least 1,365 hours in the leave year |
| Monthly accrual | People who start mid-year or work every month | One third of a working week for each calendar month in which you worked at least 117 hours |
| 8% of hours worked | Part-time and irregular workers | 8% of the hours you worked in the leave year, capped at four working weeks |
A good rule of thumb: the 8% method is the one most often used for part-time and casual workers, because it follows the hours you actually did. The 1,365-hour method rewards a full year of full-time work, and the monthly method protects people who joined part-way through the year but worked solid months.
Worked example: the 8% method
Say you started in July and worked 600 hours in the leave year. 8% of 600 is 48 hours of paid leave. If your usual shift is 8 hours, that is 6 days.
Now say you worked 20 hours a week for the full year, about 1,040 hours. 8% is 83.2 hours, which is slightly more than four weeks of 20 hours (80 hours). The cap applies, so your entitlement is 80 hours, or four of your working weeks.
Worked example: the monthly method
Say you joined in March and worked at least 117 hours in each of the ten months from March to December. That is ten qualifying months, so 10 × one third of a working week, or 3⅓ working weeks. If you work five days a week, that is about 16.7 days. Compare this with the 8% result and take the better figure.
How holiday pay is worked out
The pay for annual leave is your normal pay for the time off. Under the guidance on annual leave, holiday pay is paid in advance of the leave at your normal weekly rate. In practice, many employers simply pay you through the normal payroll run for the week you are away, so long as the amount is correct.
If your hours or pay vary
Where pay varies with commission, shift patterns or hours, the same source explains that pay is averaged over the 13 weeks before the leave. The regulations that set the normal weekly and daily rates say the averaging excludes overtime.
A simple example: over the 13 weeks before your holiday you earned €5,200 in regular pay. That averages €400 a week, so a week of leave is paid at €400. If you take three days, a daily rate derived from your normal working pattern applies, so keep your payslips to hand when you check the figure.
Part-time workers
Part-time workers get the same conditions as full-time colleagues, on a pro-rata basis. The INMO, the nurses' union, notes that part-timers should keep accurate records of hours worked to be sure the leave allowance is right. That advice suits anyone on irregular hours, whatever their sector. A running log of hours, matched against payslips, settles most disputes before they begin.
Public holiday pay
Public holidays are not part of your four weeks. There are 10 public holidays a year in Ireland, including New Year's Day, the February St Brigid's Day holiday, St Patrick's Day, Easter Monday, the May, June and August holidays, the October holiday, Christmas Day and St Stephen's Day. Some of the dates move each year, so check the current calendar rather than relying on last year's.
What the benefit can be
For each public holiday, you are entitled to one of the following, as set out by Citizens Information:
- a paid day off on the holiday
- a paid day off within a month of the holiday
- an additional day of annual leave
- an additional day's pay
Your employer chooses which, though many contracts or handbooks fix the usual approach. Ask early, because the choice affects when you get the time or money.
Who qualifies
Full-time employees have an immediate entitlement. Part-time workers qualify if they have worked at least 40 hours in total in the five weeks before the public holiday. That 40-hour test can catch people on very low hours, so if you are close to the line, check your record.
Working on the day, or not
The rules depend on whether it is a day you would normally work:
| Situation | What you are owed |
|---|---|
| You work the public holiday, and it is a day you normally work | An extra day's pay (or one of the other forms of benefit above) |
| You do not normally work that weekday, and you have worked at least 40 hours in the previous five weeks | One fifth of your normal weekly pay |
The second line is the one that surprises part-timers. Say you work Monday to Wednesday and earn €300 a week. The public holiday falls on a Friday, which you never work. If you meet the 40-hour test, you receive one fifth of €300, which is €60, and that is your benefit for the day.
If instead the holiday is a Monday and you normally work Mondays but are rostered off, you have a paid day off with no loss of pay. If you are asked to work it, you get the extra day's pay on top.
Carrying over leave and taking it
Leave is meant to be taken within the leave year. By agreement, it can be taken within six months afterwards, and any carry-over beyond that also needs to be agreed. So the answer to "do I lose my holidays if I do not take them?" is that it depends on agreement. Do not assume untaken leave rolls over automatically, and get any carry-over in writing, by email if nothing else.
It is also usually the employer who decides when leave is taken, after consulting you and taking account of your needs and the needs of the business. A practical way to avoid a year-end pile-up is to plan the four weeks early and book at least two of them before the summer.
What happens when you leave a job
When employment ends, the employer must pay for any annual leave you have accrued and not taken. The same guidance confirms this: the employer must pay for untaken annual leave on termination, and public holiday entitlements that have built up are part of the final calculation too.
To check the figure on your final payslip:
- Work out your total entitlement for the leave year so far, using whichever of the three methods gives you more.
- Subtract the leave you have already taken.
- Multiply the remaining hours or days by your normal rate, averaged over 13 weeks if your pay varies.
- Add any public holiday benefit that has not been given.
If you think the figure is wrong, raise it in writing with your employer first. If it is not resolved, you can bring a complaint to the Workplace Relations Commission, which handles annual leave disputes.
Common mistakes employers make
If you run a business with staff, most problems come from a handful of habits:
- Treating casual or part-time staff as outside the rules. They accrue leave from day one.
- Using basic pay only. If pay varies, you need the 13-week average, and mixing up what counts and what does not is where underpayments arise.
- Forgetting public holiday benefit for part-timers who do not work that day. The one-fifth rule applies even if the person was never rostered.
- Not tracking accrued leave. Without records, the final-pay calculation becomes guesswork.
- Letting leave pile up. Large unpaid balances become a cash cost on exit.
A payroll system that logs hours, leave taken and public holidays per employee removes most of this risk. Our take-home pay calculator is useful on the employee side for seeing how pay for a given period converts to net, after PAYE, USC and PRSI.
Our perspective: leave is a payroll control, not an admin chore
We run payroll for Irish SMEs, contractors and startups, and holiday pay is one of the places where businesses quietly build a liability. A small employer rarely gets this wrong on purpose. It goes wrong because hours sit in one spreadsheet, leave in an email chain and pay in a payroll run, and nobody connects the three.
Our view is that holiday entitlement should be calculated from the same records that produce the payslip. When hours worked feed the leave balance automatically, you can see what each employee has accrued at any point in the year. That matters when someone resigns, when you plan cash flow for a quieter summer, or when your management accounts need an accurate figure for accrued holiday pay.
The same principle runs through everything we do: bookkeeping, payroll, VAT and compliance should be connected, not separate events. A payroll mistake on leave is rarely just a payroll mistake. It shows up in your wage costs, your cash forecast and your end-of-year numbers.
For employees, our advice is simpler. Keep your payslips, note your hours if they vary, and use the three methods above to check you are getting the best figure.
— Stratancy
Getting payroll and holiday pay right with us
If you employ people, or you are a director paying yourself through payroll, our payroll service is priced at €25 per month per employee or director. It sits alongside our monthly accounting packages, which start from €129 per month for sole traders and from €159 per month for limited companies, and you can compare them on our pricing page. Our ACCA-qualified accountants work on Xero, QuickBooks and Sage, so your hours, leave and pay stay in one place.
FAQ
How many days of holiday do you get in Ireland?
Most employees get four working weeks of annual leave a year, which is 20 days on a five-day week. Public holidays come on top as a separate entitlement. Your contract may give you more than the statutory minimum.
How do I calculate holiday pay in Ireland?
Work out your entitlement using each of the three methods and take the highest: 1,365 hours worked for four weeks, a third of a week for each month of at least 117 hours, or 8% of hours worked, capped at four weeks. Then pay the leave at your normal weekly rate, averaging over the previous 13 weeks if your pay varies. The worked examples above show the sums.
Am I paid for a bank holiday I do not work?
Usually yes, in one form or another. You get a paid day off, a paid day off within a month, an extra day of annual leave or an extra day's pay. If it is not a day you normally work and you have worked at least 40 hours in the previous five weeks, you get one fifth of your normal weekly pay.
Do I lose my holidays if I do not take them?
Leave should be taken within the leave year. By agreement it can be taken within six months, and further carry-over must also be agreed. Get any agreement in writing, and raise it with your employer before the year ends.
Do I get paid for unused holidays when I leave?
Yes. The employer must pay for annual leave you have accrued but not taken when your employment ends. If the amount on your final payslip looks short, ask for the calculation in writing.
Sources
- Annual leave, Citizens Information
- Public holidays, Citizens Information
- Annual Leave, Workplace Relations Commission
- S.I. No. 475/1997, Organisation of Working Time (Records) and related regulations, Irish Statute Book
- Part-time workers, INMO