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Ireland: no standard week in law, and ten public holidays counted separately

Like Britain, Ireland sets no statutory standard week. The Organisation of Working Time Act 1997 caps the average week at 48 hours over a reference period and stops there, so 39 hours is a contract convention rather than a legal figure. It is also the detail most often got wrong when an Irish salary is run through a British or American calculator: the difference between 39 and 40 is about 2.5% on the hourly rate, and between 39 and 37.5 about 4%.

The more useful contrast with Britain is on the other side of the calculation. Ireland's statutory leave is four working weeks, twenty days, and its ten public holidays sit beside them and are counted separately. Britain's is 5.6 weeks, twenty-eight days, but that figure may absorb the bank holidays rather than sitting beside them. Thirty paid days off against twenty-eight, even though the British headline number is the larger of the two.

Irish public holidays also come with a choice the employer makes: a paid day off, an extra day's annual leave, an additional day's pay, or a paid day off within the following month. Whichever is chosen, the day is paid, so the calculator treats all ten as paid time not worked.

There is no statutory overtime premium. Any enhanced rate is contractual, and the only floor is that total pay must stay above the National Minimum Wage across the hours actually worked, which is worth checking against the rate per hour worked shown above if you routinely work unpaid extra hours on a salary.

For how the calculation works, the formula behind it and what it leaves out, see the full guide.

Data sources

  • Irish working time and holiday entitlement

    Effective 1997-03-01 onward · retrieved 2026-08-30

    The Act sets a maximum average week rather than a standard one.

    How we checked these figures

    Statutory annual leave is four working weeks, and there are ten public holidays a year.

    Current

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