Annual Leave Entitlement in Egypt: Balances and Payout

Annual leave entitlement in Egypt's private sector is set by Article 124 of Labour Law No. 14 of 2025. An employee gets 15 paid days in the first year, 21 days from the second year, and 30 days after ten full years of service or once they pass the age of 50. Public holidays and weekly rest days inside a leave period do not count against that annual leave entitlement.

If you run HR for a team in Cairo alongside staff in Riyadh or Dubai, do not assume the Gulf rules carry over. Egypt has its own tiers, its own casual-leave rule and a three-year settlement duty. This guide covers the entitlement, a clean way to track the balance, and what you owe when someone leaves.

Short answer: 15 days in year one, 21 days from year two, 30 days after ten full years with one or more employers or after age 50, and 45 days for persons with disabilities and persons of short stature (Article 124). Seven extra days apply to hazardous work and remote areas designated by ministerial decree. Casual leave of up to 7 days a year, at most 2 at a time, is taken from the annual balance (Article 128). Employers must settle the balance, or pay for it, at least every three years (Article 125). This article is general information, not legal advice.

Annual leave entitlement in Egypt: the Article 124 tiers

The official text is published as a PDF by the Ministry of Labour (in Arabic). WageIndicator's Egypt annual leave page (also in Arabic) summarises the same 2025 rules. Here is the entitlement in one table:

Employee situation	Paid annual leave per year
First year of service	15 days
From the second year	21 days
Ten full years with one employer or more	30 days
Older than 50	30 days
Persons with disabilities and persons of short stature	45 days
Hazardous or unhealthy work, or remote areas (by ministerial decree)	+7 days on top of the above

Two details catch HR teams out. First, the ten years can be spread across several employers. A senior hire with long prior experience may be on 30 days from their first full year with you, so collect proof of prior service at onboarding.

Second, leave is counted without public holidays and weekly rest days. Five working days off around a weekend is five days of leave, not seven.

Staff with less than a year of service

If service is under a year, leave is proportional to the time worked, provided the employee has completed at least six months with the employer. The law does not prescribe the arithmetic, so most employers use completed months ÷ 12.

Worked example: an employee hired in February has completed 9 months by the end of the leave year. Entitlement = 15 × 9 ÷ 12 = 11.25 days. Decide in your written policy whether you round to 11 or keep the quarter day, and apply it the same way to everyone.

How to calculate annual leave balance, step by step

Keep one row per employee per leave year. The order of operations matters:

1. Entitlement. Apply the Article 124 tier for the employee's service and age, plus the 7-day uplift if their work falls under a ministerial decree.
2. Carried balance. Add unused days from earlier years that are still inside your settlement window.
3. Approved annual leave. Subtract working days only, never calendar days.
4. Casual leave. Subtract it too. Article 128 says casual leave counts against the annual entitlement.
5. Exclusions. Do not subtract exam days or the paid day for a child's birth (see below).
6. Closing balance. Record it, and have the employee sign it off at least once a year.

A worked example for an employee in their fourth year:

Line	Days
Entitlement (from year two)	21
Carried from last year	6
Available	27
Annual leave, two blocks (7 + 5)	−12
Casual leave, two occasions of 2 days	−4
Exam days (Article 126)	not deducted
Closing balance	11

If you still run this in a spreadsheet, our guide to building an employee attendance spreadsheet shows how to structure the daily sheet that leave is checked against.

Casual leave Egypt rules, and what never comes off the balance

Casual leave is time off for an unexpected reason. Article 128 allows up to 7 days a year, with a maximum of 2 days at a time, and counts those days against the annual entitlement. It is a slice of the 21 days, not a bonus on top.

Several kinds of absence do not reduce the annual balance:

• Exam days. Under Article 126, an employee sitting an exam gets paid study leave for the actual exam days, outside the annual balance. They must notify you at least ten days ahead and prove they sat the exam.
• The day a child is born. Article 128 grants a paid emergency day on the day of birth, outside the balance, up to three times over the employee's service.
• Sick leave. Article 131 governs it separately. An employee may ask to convert sick leave into annual leave if they have enough balance.

Your records need to separate approved casual leave from unauthorised absence and from lateness, because each has a different consequence. We cover absence and lateness in our article on attendance policy under Egypt's labour law.

Annual leave carry over in Egypt and the three-year settlement

Article 125 is where most disputes are decided. Its rules, in plain terms:

Rule	What Article 125 says
Who sets the dates	The employer, according to business needs; leave may not be interrupted except for strong business reasons
Annual minimum	The employee must take 15 days a year, including at least 6 consecutive days
Settlement	The employer must settle the balance, or the pay in lieu, at least every three years
Leaving the company	If employment ends before the balance is used, the employee is owed pay for it
Written refusal	An employee who refuses in writing to take leave scheduled and notified by the employer loses the right to pay for it
Protected groups	Leave may not be split, combined or postponed for children, persons with disabilities and persons of short stature

So yes, days above the 15-day minimum can roll forward. But a balance cannot grow forever. Put a fixed settlement date in your policy, no later than every three years, and decide whether you settle by scheduling leave or by paying for it.

Unused annual leave payout in Egypt

When employment ends with days still on the balance, the employee is owed pay for them. Article 2 of the same law treats a month as 30 days unless agreed otherwise. On that basis, a day's pay is the monthly wage ÷ 30.

Worked example: a monthly wage of 12,000 EGP gives 400 EGP a day. An employee leaving with 11 unused days is owed 11 × 400 = 4,400 EGP. Whether the base is basic or gross pay is a question for your accountant or an employment lawyer before you pay. For daily and hourly rates in more depth, see our guide to calculating working hours and pay. The leave payout is one line of a wider leaver process, covered in our employee offboarding checklist.

Common mistakes with leave balances

• Counting calendar days. Deducting weekends and public holidays breaks Article 124 and overstates usage.
• Treating casual leave as extra. The 7 days sit inside the annual entitlement.
• Ignoring prior service. Ten years "with one employer or more" means a job-hopper can still reach 30 days.
• Back-filling absences as leave. Turning an unauthorised absence into annual leave weeks later, without a signed agreement, corrupts the record.
• Letting balances snowball. After three years the settlement duty applies, often with a cash cost nobody budgeted.
• No sign-off. A balance the employee signs once a year prevents most year-end arguments.

To see leave and overtime side by side in one monthly view, read our piece on overtime and leave tracking for SMBs.

How Yawmy helps

Every leave balance rests on one daily question: was this person at work today? Yawmy does not advertise a leave-balance module on its website, but it answers that daily question. Based on what the site publishes:

• Staff clock in and out from Telegram or from the free iOS and Android app, with a GPS check-in and an office geofence.
• A live dashboard shows attendance, lateness and working hours for each employee and each department.
• Month-end payroll is calculated with lateness and absence deductions applied automatically.
• You can start Yawmy free, and a paid plan covers unlimited employees.

That daily record is what you reconcile your leave register against. Every day without a check-in should be explained as approved leave, casual leave or absence. To compare attendance options first, start with our guide to employee attendance software in Egypt.

FAQ

How many annual leave days do employees get in Egypt?

Under Article 124 of Labour Law No. 14 of 2025: 15 days in the first year, 21 days from the second year, and 30 days after ten full years with one or more employers or after age 50. Persons with disabilities and persons of short stature get 45 days, and hazardous work or remote areas named by ministerial decree add 7 days.

Does casual leave reduce the annual leave balance in Egypt?

Yes. Article 128 allows up to 7 days of casual leave a year, at most 2 days at a time, and states that these days are counted from the annual leave entitlement.

Can annual leave be carried over to the next year?

Days above the mandatory minimum can be carried, but not indefinitely. Article 125 requires every employee to take 15 days a year, including 6 consecutive days, and obliges the employer to settle the balance or pay for it at least every three years.

Is unused annual leave paid out when an employee leaves?

Yes. Article 125 says that if employment ends before the balance is used, the employee is owed the pay for it. The exception is leave the employee refused in writing to take after the employer scheduled and notified it.

Do public holidays count as annual leave days?

No. Article 124 excludes official holidays, public occasions and weekly rest days from the calculation of annual leave. Count only working days inside the leave period.

Written by Nada Hassan, HR-Tech Strategist, Yawmy. This article is general information, not legal advice.

Want a daily attendance record you can check every leave balance against? See how Yawmy works and start free.