Over two-thirds of full-time employees are planning to roll at least one day of annual leave into their next holiday period after a temporary law was passed by the government back in March allowing workers to carry over up to four weeks’ paid holiday.
According to personal finance comparison website finder.com, this is equivalent to 20 million UK adults, if all of the workers who intend to carry over holiday are given permission to do so by their employers.
The research found that employees who plan to shift some of their annual leave to next year will roll over an average of 5.11 days, with almost two in five full-time workers (37 per cent) intending to take in excess of five days over.
On average, a full-time employee gets paid £117 per day, meaning those who do not take all of their annual leave are essentially working an extra 5.11 days and will be losing out on £598 this year. This will even out over the next year, whereas in previous years they would have lost out on this income if they did not use all their annual leave.
However, businesses will experience the cost of this new law during their next annual leave period when employees are working less for the same pay. This could cost businesses across the UK a total of £12 billion, if all employers allow their employees who wanted to roll annual leave over to do so.
Londoners plan to carry over the most days this year, at 7.66, with 81 per cent of full-time workers in the capital saying they intend to take at least one day forward.
At the other end of the scale is East Anglia, as residents there only plan to take an average of 3.87 days of annual leave into the next period. This region also has the highest number of residents that will take no leave forward, with over two fifths of those from East Anglia saying they intend to do this.
Millennials plan to carry over the most days, with full-time workers in this generation taking an average of 5.65 days forward. While generation Z has the largest proportion of people rolling annual leave into the next period, with over three quarters planning to do this.
The full research cane be viewed here
