What is accrued annual leave?

Accrued annual leave means the amount of paid time off that an employee has earned over time as they work. When an employee starts at a new job, they typically accrue their holiday entitlement, meaning they don’t receive the full amount all at once. For example, if an employee receives 28 days of annual leave per year, they might accrue 2.33 days per month.

An organisation’s ‘leave year’ might start on January 1st (or April 1st to coincide with the start of a new financial year in the UK) – so an employee who starts employment in December or March is not going to be entitled to the full 28 days with such little time left to use it. An accrual system like this helps to stagger employees’ leave, ensuring they can use it regularly throughout the year and helping organisations to prevent too many employees being on leave all at the same time. Any unused leave is either lost or rolled over into the next year, depending on an organisation’s policy.