Notice is asymmetric, and most people do not realise how much.
Your employer owes you one week for each complete year of service, once you have two years’ service. Below two years but above one month, it is one week. The maximum is 12 weeks.
You owe your employer one week, once you have a month’s service — however long you have worked there. Twenty years’ service still means one week.
| Length of service | Employer must give | Employee must give |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1 month | None | None |
| 1 month to 2 years | 1 week | 1 week |
| 2 years | 2 weeks | 1 week |
| 5 years | 5 weeks | 1 week |
| 10 years | 10 weeks | 1 week |
| 12 years or more | 12 weeks | 1 week |
This comes from section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, and article 118 of the equivalent Northern Ireland Order.
Work out your own notice period
One week per complete year from two years, capped at 12. Your contract may require more. An employee resigning owes one week however long they have worked.
Your contract can require more, never less
Statutory notice is a floor. Contracts commonly require one or three months from both sides, and senior roles often require six.
Where the contract says more than the statute, the contract applies. Where it says less, the statutory minimum applies and the clause is unenforceable to that extent.
Check your contract first. For anyone with under 12 years’ service, a “one month” contractual clause almost certainly exceeds what the law requires.
When no notice is owed
Gross misconduct. An employer can dismiss without notice for gross misconduct — theft, violence, serious breaches of trust. This is summary dismissal. The employer must still investigate properly and follow a fair procedure; “gross misconduct” is not a phrase that removes the need for fairness.
Under a month’s service. No statutory notice either way.
Fixed-term contracts ending on their agreed end date, though statutory notice can still apply in some circumstances.
Notice counts towards continuous service
This is the detail with real money attached.
Your statutory notice period counts towards your continuous employment. If working your notice takes you past a work anniversary, your service length for redundancy purposes increases.
Someone with 9 years and 11 months of service and 10 weeks’ statutory notice reaches 10 years before their employment ends. That is an extra year in the redundancy calculation, and if a birthday falls in that window that moves them from the 22–40 band into the 41-plus band, it is worth considerably more.
Statutory redundancy pay is calculated on the basis that statutory notice was given, so this should be handled correctly. It is worth checking that it has been. See our guide to notice periods and redundancy pay.
Garden leave
Garden leave means serving your notice away from the workplace, still employed and still paid. You remain bound by your contract, including confidentiality and any duty of loyalty, and you generally cannot start another job.
Your employer needs a contractual right to place you on garden leave. Without one, requiring it may be a breach — though in practice few people object to being paid not to work.
Pay in lieu of notice
Instead of working your notice, your employer may pay you for it and end your employment immediately. This requires a contractual PILON clause, and the payment is taxed in full as earnings.
See our guide to pay in lieu of notice.
What you are paid during notice
Normally your usual pay. Where your pay varies, or where you are off sick or on family leave during notice, statutory rules can require a minimum based on average weekly earnings.
Holiday continues to accrue during notice, and your employer can require you to take accrued leave during it, provided they give notice of at least twice the length of the leave.
If you leave without giving notice
Technically a breach of contract. In practice employers rarely pursue it, though they can in principle claim for losses caused.
What an employer cannot do is withhold pay for work you have already done as a penalty. Deductions from wages need a contractual right or your written agreement, and must relate to an actual loss.
Resigning: practical points
- Put it in writing, with a date
- Notice normally runs from the day after it is given, unless the contract says otherwise
- Once given, notice cannot usually be withdrawn without your employer’s agreement
- Check whether accepting a payment in lieu changes your termination date, and whether that matters for service length
Sources
- Handing in your notice — GOV.UK
- Employment Rights Act 1996, section 86 — legislation.gov.uk
- Notice periods — Acas
Checked against source on 30 August 2026. This is general guidance, not legal advice.
Written by Nathan Cole
I built the calculators on HoursHQ and check every statutory figure against GOV.UK, Acas and the legislation itself before it goes live. Where the law is genuinely unclear, I say so rather than guessing.