Holiday and housing are the two parts of farm pay that most often go wrong, usually without anyone meaning them to. Here is how the rules work for a livestock farm in 2026, and where the four nations differ.
Farm workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year, capped at 28 days. Casual and part-year workers accrue 12.07% of hours worked for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, and regular overtime belongs in holiday pay. A house or cottage counts towards the minimum wage only up to the accommodation offset of £11.10 a day (£77.70 a week) from April 2026. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own holiday tables and housing rules. See the agricultural minimum wage guide for the hourly rates.
Almost every worker is entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year, farm staff included, whether full time, part time or casual. For a five-day week that is 28 days, and the statutory entitlement is capped at 28 days, so a stockman on a six-day week does not get 33 under the general law. Part-timers get the same 5.6 weeks pro rata: three days a week is 16.8 days.
Bank holidays do not have to be given as paid leave. You may count them inside the 28 days if the contract says so, which is sensible on a livestock farm because someone will be feeding on the day. The usual trap is a contract saying "28 days including bank holidays" and a rota where the bank holiday was worked and never replaced. The days are still owed.
Holiday keeps building while a worker is off sick or on maternity, paternity or adoption leave. England no longer has a farm-specific holiday order, so on an English holding the general rules are the floor and the contract can only add to them. The agricultural minimum wage by nation guide explains why the other three nations differ.
For leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, irregular hours and part-year workers accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours actually worked in each pay period. That is 5.6 weeks divided by the 46.4 weeks left once holiday is taken out. Work 150 hours in a month and you have built up about 18 hours.
The definitions matter. An irregular hours worker has paid hours that are wholly or mostly variable under their contract. A part-year worker is required to work only part of the year, with gaps of at least a week when they neither work nor get paid. A harvest hand or a lambing helper on a six-week contract fits. A permanent stockman on set hours normally does not, however long his days get at calving.
Employers may also use rolled-up holiday pay: at least 12.07% added to each payslip as a separate line, only for irregular hours and part-year workers, and only where the leave year began on or after 1 April 2024. My advice is to use it for short seasonal contracts and tell the worker in writing that they can still take time off. It does not remove the duty to pay holiday pay in weeks they are off sick.
Holiday is paid at normal pay, not just basic. GOV.UK says normal pay includes commission, regular overtime and payments linked to length of service, while bonuses are usually left out. Where pay varies, the rate is the average of the previous 52 weeks, counting only weeks in which the worker was paid and looking back up to 104 weeks to find them. Weeks off sick or on statutory leave are left out.
Overtime paid regularly through the year, such as early starts, weekend feeding or the long days at calving and lambing, belongs in holiday pay. A one-off payment does not. The trap is a payslip template that pays holiday at plain basic rate. For a worker who regularly does overtime that is an underpayment, and it builds quietly. Show holiday pay as its own line, and ask your accountant or payroll provider if you are unsure how to average a particular worker. The farm bookkeeping basics guide shows where wages sit in the books.
Each devolved order sets its own holiday terms. Check the one for your holding, and treat these figures as the position in October 2026.
In Great Britain, accommodation you provide can count towards minimum wage pay, but only up to a fixed amount. From April 2026 the accommodation offset is £11.10 a day, or £77.70 a week. If you charge no more than the offset, the charge has no effect on the minimum wage test. If you charge more, only the excess is treated as coming out of pay: £13.10 a day is £2 over, and that £2 reduces the pay that counts. If the housing is free, the offset is added to pay, for the days provided in the pay period. Only accommodation counts. Food, a vehicle and childcare vouchers do not.
Geography is the trap. £11.10 is the GB figure. The Welsh order uses its own offsets, £1.97 a week for a house and £6.31 a day for other accommodation, the daily one needing at least 15 hours worked that week. Northern Ireland's 2025 order allowed up to £54.71 a week for newer workers, and in January 2026 the Board proposed £60 a week from April 2026. I could not confirm the final 2026 wording, nor a Scottish accommodation figure, so read those orders before setting a charge.
Keep them for six years, as with other minimum wage records; our wage records guide sets out the rest. For holiday: the contract terms, leave year dates, hours worked each pay period for casuals, holiday taken and paid, and the basis of any average. For tied housing: the address, move-in date, any charge and how it is taken, and the days provided each pay period. A short accommodation agreement signed by both sides is worth having, because a charge nobody wrote down is the hardest to defend.
A son or daughter paid a wage on ordinary terms is generally in the same position as any worker; see employing family members. Pensions are a separate duty: auto-enrolment for farm employers. This is not legal advice, so for a dispute speak to ACAS or an employment adviser. FarmHQ, which is in pre-launch beta, keeps timesheets and wages beside the livestock and money records; see pricing.
They can, if the contract says so. Bank holidays do not have to be given as paid leave, so an employer may include them within the 5.6 weeks (28 days for a five-day week). If you ask someone to work a bank holiday that was counted in their entitlement, they are still owed the day.
Only for irregular hours and part-year workers, and only where their leave year began on or after 1 April 2024. The extra must be at least 12.07% of pay, shown as a separate line on every payslip. For regular-hours staff, holiday must be paid when it is taken.
Only up to the offset. In Great Britain it is £11.10 a day (£77.70 a week) from April 2026. If housing is free, that amount is added to pay for the minimum wage test. If you charge more than the offset, only the excess counts as a deduction from their pay.
Yes. Irregular hours and part-year workers accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours they work, for leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024. It can be paid when they take holiday or rolled up into each payslip. Either way it must be recorded.
No. The Agricultural Wages (Wales) Order 2025 uses its own offsets: £1.97 a week for a house and £6.31 a day for other accommodation, the daily figure needing at least 15 hours worked that week. Always check the order for the nation your holding is in.