Notice period calculator
Enter the date you started the job and the date you were given notice. If your contract sets a notice period, enter that too. The calculator shows the legal minimum notice your employer must give, the notice that applies once your contract is taken into account, and the last day of your notice.
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What the calculator assumes
- You are an employee and your employer is ending your job, by dismissal or redundancy.
- Your service runs from your start date to the date you were given notice, and only complete years count.
- Your notice starts on the day after you were told. Acas says this is the rule when a contract does not say otherwise.
- Any contract notice you enter is in whole weeks.
- You work, or are paid for, the whole notice period.
The legal minimum
The notice your employer must give depends on how long you have worked for them. Under a month, there is no legal minimum. From one month up to two years, it is one week. From two years, it is one week for each complete year of service, and it stops growing at twelve weeks, which you reach after twelve years.
Only complete years count, so the months after your last work anniversary add nothing. Acas gives the example of someone with four years and nine months of service, who is entitled to four weeks.
Your contract can give you more notice than this, but never less. When the two differ, you get the longer one. The result shows both, so you can see which one sets your last day.
Working out the last day
Notice counts from the day after you are told. Two weeks' notice given on a Monday starts on the Tuesday and ends on the Monday two weeks later.
If notice comes in a letter, it may start later. Acas says a written notice period starts once you have had a reasonable time to read it, for example after you get home from holiday.
When you resign
The calculator works out the notice an employer gives. When you hand in your own notice, GOV.UK says you must give at least one week once you have been in the job for more than a month. Your contract can ask for more. You usually get your normal pay while you work your notice. Your employer can pay you in lieu of notice only if your contract allows it or you agree.
What it leaves out
- Dismissal for gross misconduct, where Acas says no notice or notice pay is due.
- An agreement between you and your employer to shorten the notice.
- Agency workers, casual workers and people on zero-hours contracts, who Acas says are unlikely to count as employees.
- Northern Ireland. The rules on this page come from GOV.UK and Acas, and nidirect publishes the guidance for Northern Ireland.
If you are being made redundant, the redundancy pay calculator works out the statutory payment from your age and years of service. GOV.UK says statutory holiday you have not taken is paid when you leave, and the holiday entitlement calculator works out your leave for a part year. To see what a week of notice pay is worth after tax, use the take-home pay calculator.
Official guidance
- Redundancy: notice periods on GOV.UK
- Notice when being dismissed or made redundant on Acas
- Handing in your notice on GOV.UK
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