NHS Bank Holiday Pay: 60% Rate & Time Off in Lieu Explained

If you work shifts in the NHS, bank holidays are some of the best paid hours you will work, but the rules confuse a lot of people: is it double time, do you also get the day back, and does Christmas pay more? This guide answers each of those using the national Agenda for Change rules, and shows the arithmetic so you can check it against your own payslip.

The NHS bank holiday rate: time plus 60%

Bank holiday working sits in the highest of the three Section 2 unsocial hours categories. It is paid as a percentage on top of your normal basic hourly rate for your band and pay point, so the cash value scales with your salary.

If a bank holiday falls on a weekend, you are not paid the enhancements twice. The categories are mutually exclusive per hour, so a Sunday that is also a bank holiday is still just the 60% rate. Our unsocial hours guide sets out all three rates and how the rate changes at midnight.

To see which bank holidays your own rota lands on and what they add to your year, the Pro view of the NHS Rota Calculator counts the real dates, and the free version builds your typical month.

Worked example: a Band 5 nurse on a bank holiday

Take a Band 5 nurse on pay point 2 (£34,592 a year, £17.69 an hour). Here is the same shift on an ordinary weekday and on a bank holiday:

The same 8 hours pays about £85 more on a bank holiday, simply because of the date. Figures are rounded to the nearest penny and use the basic hourly rate only. They do not include any local payments, High Cost Area Supplement or tax.

Which days count as a bank holiday?

The recognised public holidays for the nation you work in. In England and Wales that means New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, the early and late May bank holidays, the Summer bank holiday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, plus any extra one-off holiday that is declared. Scotland and Northern Ireland have slightly different lists, including St Andrew's Day and St Patrick's Day respectively. Your trust's official list is the one that counts.

Bank holiday pay vs time off in lieu

These are two different things and people often mix them up:

• The enhancement is extra pay for the hours you work on the day: the 60%.
• Your bank holiday entitlement is leave, commonly around 8 days a year for a full-time member of staff, pro-rated if you work part-time. If you work on the day, you are generally given that time back as time off in lieu, or it is counted against your leave.

So working a bank holiday normally means you are paid the 60% for the hours and you get the entitlement back another day. How your trust records and books the time off varies, so check your local policy. Our annual leave entitlement guide covers how bank holiday days sit alongside your base leave.

If you work 12-hour shifts, a night shift across midnight or part-time hours, see our guide to bank holiday pay on 12-hour shifts and TOIL.

Who gets bank holiday enhancements?

Section 2 applies to staff employed in NHS organisations in England on the Agenda for Change terms and conditions (Handbook paragraph 2.2), and its rates table covers Bands 1 to 9: Band 1 gets 94% on Sundays and public holidays, Band 2 gets 83%, Band 3 gets 69% and Bands 4 to 9 get 60%. Doctors and dentists are on a separate contract. NHS bank staff on Agenda for Change bank terms are normally paid the same enhancements on top of their bank rate. See the full breakdown in our unsocial hours guide and our comparison of bank vs agency pay.