Zero-Hours Contract Earnings Calculator

Zero-hours contracts do not guarantee any minimum working hours, which makes income unpredictable from week to week. Workers on these contracts still hold statutory employment rights, including the National Minimum Wage for every hour worked, paid annual leave of 5.6 weeks pro rata, rest breaks, Statutory Sick Pay if you qualify and protection from discrimination. A written statement of terms is due from day 1, so if you have never been given one, that is the first thing to chase.

Holiday entitlement for zero-hours workers is calculated as 12.07% of the hours worked, which is the equivalent of 5.6 weeks a year once you spread 28 days of leave across 232 working days. On £1,000 of earnings that accrues £121 of holiday pay. It can be paid as rolled-up holiday pay included in each pay packet, or banked and taken as time off, and the method has to be stated clearly in the contract. For irregular hours the pay itself has to reflect a 52-week reference period of normal earnings, so a quiet fortnight before your leave should not drag the payment down.

This calculator estimates annual earnings, holiday pay and statutory entitlements from your average weekly hours and hourly rate, then shows the tax and NI that come off. Watch the Lower Earnings Limit, £129 a week (£6,708 a year) in 2026/27, as well: earnings between it and the £242 Primary Threshold cost you no NI but still count as a qualifying year toward the State Pension, while weeks below it do not, so years spent on low or patchy hours can quietly leave gaps in your record.

Certain practices persist despite being unlawful. Exclusivity clauses, which try to stop you taking work elsewhere, have been unenforceable since May 2015, so you are free to hold more than one contract. Others sit in a greyer area and are harder to challenge, such as scheduling that leaves you unable to plan, or hours being cut back sharply as an informal form of discipline after you turn a shift down.

Worker status is worth checking rather than assuming, because what the contract calls you is not decisive. Many people described as zero-hours workers are legally workers, and some are employees with full statutory protection. The tests look at how much control the employer exercises, whether there is mutuality of obligation, how far you are integrated into the business and whether you work exclusively for them. Cases involving Uber in 2021 and Pimlico Plumbers clarified where the lines fall, and gig workers and long-serving temps often turn out to have more rights than their paperwork implies.

A larger change is coming with the Employment Rights Act 2025. Employers will have to offer qualifying zero-hours and low-hours workers guaranteed hours reflecting what they regularly work over a reference period, rather than workers having to ask, and the same package brings a right to reasonable notice of shifts and payment when a shift is cancelled or cut short at short notice. The government's September 2026 timeline puts these measures in 2027, with exact dates to follow consultation, so none of them is in force yet.