UK notice period calculator

What this calculator does

Notice periods come up at the worst possible moments — when you are being let go, or when you have just accepted something better and need to know how soon you can start. Either way you want a number quickly, and you want to know whether the number you have been given is right.

This calculator gives you the statutory minimum: how many weeks' notice your employer must give you based on your length of service, and how much you must give them.

Using it

Complete years of service

Count only whole years of continuous employment with this employer. Three years and eleven months is three years for this purpose — the law does not round up.

"Continuous" means without a genuine break in employment. Changing role, getting promoted, or being transferred to a new owner under TUPE does not reset the clock. A resignation followed by a rehire usually does.

Plus extra months

This only matters in your first year, because statutory notice starts after one month's service. Above a year it makes no difference to the answer.

What your employer owes you

The rule builds in two stages, and then stops.

• Under one month: no statutory notice at all
• One month to two years: one week
• Two to twelve years: one week for every complete year
• Twelve years or more: 12 weeks, and it stops rising

The chart above the calculator shows this as a staircase that climbs one step per year and then flattens. Twenty years of service earns the same twelve weeks as twelve years does. That cap surprises long-serving employees, and it is one of the strongest arguments for checking whether your contract promises something better.

What you owe your employer

Just one week, once you have been employed for a month — however long you have worked there. That is the statutory minimum for employees, and it is the same at one year as at twenty.

In practice almost nobody only gives a week, because most contracts ask for more. A month is common; three months is normal for senior roles. Those clauses are enforceable, so read your contract before you hand in your resignation and certainly before you agree a start date elsewhere.

When your contract overrides the law

Contractual notice and statutory notice sit alongside each other, and the more generous one applies.

If your contract gives you three months and the statutory minimum is four weeks, you get three months. If your contract says one week and you have ten years' service, you get ten weeks, because the contract cannot undercut the statutory floor.

Notice clauses are often asymmetric — your employer owes you three months, you owe them one. That is perfectly legal, and worth noticing when you sign.

Three ways notice can run

Once notice has been given, there are three quite different things that can happen next. All of them end your employment on the same date.

Which route applies depends on your contract and on what your employer decides. Only payment in lieu ends your employment immediately.

You work your notice

The default. You carry on as normal, get paid as normal, and leave on the last day of the notice period.

Payment in lieu of notice

Often shortened to PILON. Your employer pays you for the notice period instead of having you work it, and your employment ends straight away. They can only do this if your contract allows it, though in practice it is frequently agreed anyway because it suits both sides.

You should receive what you would have earned over the notice period. It is taxed as normal pay.

Gardening leave

You remain employed and keep getting paid, but you are told not to come to work. Your notice period still runs down, and crucially you are still bound by your contract while it does — including confidentiality and any restrictions on working for a competitor.

Employers use it when they do not want a departing employee near clients, systems or sensitive information during their final weeks.

Notice pay and tax

Notice pay is earnings. Income tax and National Insurance are deducted in the normal way, whether you work your notice or are paid in lieu of it.

This catches people out in redundancy situations, where statutory redundancy pay is tax free. If you receive a single lump sum covering both, the redundancy element and the notice element are taxed differently, and your employer should show them separately.

To see what a notice payment actually leaves you with, put the annual equivalent into our take-home pay calculator.

When no notice is due

An employer can dismiss without notice for gross misconduct — serious things like theft, violence, fraud or a serious breach of trust. This is called summary dismissal.

It is claimed more often than it is justified. Gross misconduct has to be genuinely serious, and a fair process should still be followed. If you believe it has been used to avoid paying notice, Acas offers free impartial advice, and there are strict time limits for employment tribunal claims — usually three months less one day from the dismissal.

Fixed-term contracts that simply reach their agreed end date are a different case again: notice provisions depend on what the contract says.

What this calculator cannot do

It gives the statutory minimum only. It cannot know what your contract promises, and for most people the contract is the number that actually applies.

It cannot tell you whether a dismissal was fair, whether a redundancy process was properly run, or whether you have a claim. Those are questions for Acas or an employment solicitor, and they are time-limited.

It applies to employees. Workers and the genuinely self-employed have different, usually weaker, notice rights.

Two worked examples

The contract cannot undercut the statutory floor, so the longer period wins. A clause promising less than the legal minimum is simply unenforceable.

Here the contract is more generous, so it applies. Note that this cuts both ways — if the contract requires three months from you as well, you owe that too.

Notice during probation

Probation periods have no special legal status. The statutory rules apply from one month's service exactly as they do afterwards, so after a month you are owed at least a week.

Many contracts set a shorter contractual notice during probation — a week either way is common. That is lawful as long as it does not fall below the statutory minimum for your length of service, which in the first two years is one week.

What probation does not do is remove your right to notice, or to be paid for it.

Before you resign

A short checklist, because this is the point at which notice periods cause people real problems.

• Read the notice clause in your contract before agreeing a start date anywhere else. Three months is common at senior level and it catches people out.
• Resign in writing and state your intended last working day, so there is no dispute about when the clock started.
• Check any holiday you have accrued. You may be able to take it during your notice, or be paid for it at the end.
• Ask whether they will agree a shorter notice period. Employers frequently will, particularly if you are leaving on good terms. Get the agreement in writing.
• Check for restrictive covenants if you are moving to a competitor. These survive your employment ending.

Leaving without working your notice is a breach of contract. In practice employers rarely sue, but they can withhold pay for time not worked, and it can sour a reference.

Notice and redundancy together

If you are being made redundant, notice and redundancy pay are separate entitlements and you should receive both. Neither replaces the other.

The tax treatment differs, which is worth understanding before you look at a single lump sum and assume it is all yours. Statutory redundancy pay is tax free; notice pay is taxed as normal earnings. Your employer should show the two elements separately on your final payslip.

Our redundancy pay calculator covers that side of it.

Questions people ask

How much notice must my employer give me?

The statutory minimum is one week after a month's service, then one week for each complete year you have worked there, up to a maximum of twelve weeks.

So two years of service earns two weeks, ten years earns ten weeks, and twenty years still earns twelve — the cap stops it rising.

How much notice do I have to give?

Just one week, once you have been employed for a month — however long you have worked there. That is the statutory minimum for employees.

Most contracts ask for more, often a month or three months for senior roles, and that is enforceable. Check your contract before you resign.

My contract says something different. Which one applies?

Whichever is more generous to you. Statutory notice is a legal floor, not a target. A contract can promise more notice than the law requires, and if it does, the contract wins.

A contract cannot give you less than the statutory minimum. If it tries to, that clause is unenforceable and the statutory figure applies.

What is payment in lieu of notice?

Your employer pays you for your notice period instead of having you work it, and your employment ends straight away. They can only do this if your contract allows it, though in practice it is often agreed anyway.

You should receive what you would have earned during the notice period. It is normally taxed in the usual way.

What is gardening leave?

You stay employed and keep getting paid, but you are told not to come to work. Your notice period still runs down, and you are still bound by your contract while it does — including any restrictions on working for a competitor.

Employers use it when they do not want a departing employee around clients or confidential information.

Can I be dismissed without any notice?

Only for gross misconduct — serious things like theft, violence or a serious breach of trust. This is called summary dismissal.

It is often claimed and less often justified. If you think it has been used unfairly, Acas gives free impartial advice, and there are strict time limits for employment tribunal claims — usually three months less one day.

Does notice pay get taxed?

Yes. Notice pay is treated as earnings and is taxed and has National Insurance deducted in the normal way, whether you work your notice or are paid in lieu of it.

This is different from statutory redundancy pay, which is tax free.

Do I still get notice if I am being made redundant?

Yes. Notice and redundancy pay are separate entitlements and you should receive both. You are also owed pay for any holiday you have built up and not taken.

Use our redundancy pay calculator to work out that part.