Holiday pay on leaving: work out what you are owed

How it is calculated

The site's code applies both legal methods (service-public.gouv.fr, rule in force since 25 June 2008) and keeps the more favourable one. One-tenth method: 10% of the gross pay of the reference period, multiplied by the share of days left over days earned (25 working days for a full year). Salary maintenance: monthly gross multiplied by the days left and divided by 21.67, the average number of working days in a month (urssaf.fr).

If you do not know the exact pay for the period, the tool takes twelve times the monthly gross; enter the real sum in the options if you had bonuses, overtime or a pay rise. The net figure is estimated by the modele-social engine: it calculates the last month's pay with and without the holiday pay, and the difference gives what is left after employee contributions, before income tax.

What the result includes

So that two people get the same figure from the same gross pay, the site always calculates from the same baseline situation. Each line can be changed in the calculator's options where it matters.

• General social security scheme (régime général), rates as of 26 October 2026 (rules from modele-social, the engine behind URSSAF's simulator).
• Permanent full-time contract (CDI), 35 hours a week, i.e. 151.67 h a month, paid over 12 months.
• Non-cadre by default (cadre status is one button away), collective agreement set to the general rules (“droit commun”).
• Company health cover (mutuelle) of €40 a month, of which €20 is deducted from pay, URSSAF's default setting; zero is possible in the options.
• Outside Alsace-Moselle (option available), without meal vouchers or benefits in kind.
• Before income tax: tax withheld at source depends on your household and comes on top (see the “net after tax” tool).
• Minimum wage (SMIC) since 1 June 2026: €12.31 gross per hour (service-public.gouv.fr).
• Both methods shown, the more favourable kept; working days (Monday to Friday), earned and left.
• Estimated net on the last salary, employee contributions included, before tax.

Limits

A correct calculation for a typical situation is not your payslip. Here is what the tool does not know, so that you read the result as a reliable order of magnitude, not a promise.

• Collective agreement: sector minimums, seniority bonuses, compulsory thirteenth month and specific provident schemes are not taken into account (general rules only).
• Bonuses, variable pay, overtime, benefits in kind: left out, except in the tools that ask for them.
• Health cover and provident scheme: your actual contribution may be different; change it in the options.
• Alsace-Moselle: the option adds the local scheme's health contribution, without its other specifics.
• Public sector not covered: civil servants' pay scales and contributions follow other rules.
• Simplified tax: no tax reductions or credits, no exceptional income; the engine's “tax” module is flagged as experimental by URSSAF.
• Six-day weeks and agreements that count differently (extra days for split leave, seniority leave): convert them or add them yourself to the days left.
• Reference period: the tool uses a single period; if you have leave from two periods (carry-over and current period), add up the days and the pay.
• Fixed-term contracts: the end-of-contract bonus is part of the one-tenth basis; the end-of-CDD tool counts it, this one does not.

Pay by days left

For €3,000 gross a month, 25 working days earned over a period paid €36,000: both methods, the pay kept and the estimated net, calculated by the site's code and engine.

When the pay is owed

Each month of work earns 2.08 working days of holiday. When the contract ends before you have taken them, the employer pays them to you: that is pay for untaken holiday, owed whatever the type of termination and even in the event of serious misconduct. It counts holiday from the current period and the carry-over from the previous one. It appears on the final settlement, next to the last salary, the notice period and, depending on the case, the redundancy pay, the rupture conventionnelle payout or the end-of-contract bonus. If you are the one leaving, the guide on resigning and final pay details everything in that last payment.

Checking your final settlement

Find your holiday balance on your last payslip (the “CP acquis” or “solde CP” line), note whether it is in working days or six-day weeks, then compare the “indemnité compensatrice de congés payés” line of the final settlement with the tool's result. A gap of a few euros often comes from bonuses counted or not in the reference period; a larger gap deserves a question to the employer before signing the settlement receipt. The holiday pay guide explains accrual, the reference period and split leave; the final settlement guide says how to challenge a line.

To place the last salary itself, the gross-to-net converter gives the net of the monthly gross entered; for a fixed-term contract, the end-of-CDD tool adds the end-of-contract bonus to the basis.