Annual leave in Malaysia: how many days, and what unused leave is worth

The tier depends on how long you have been employed by the same employer. These are minimums: your contract can give more. Sick leave and hospitalisation leave have their own tiers, shown alongside for comparison.

If your contract ends before you complete another 12 months of service, the leave for that last year is in direct proportion to the completed months of service. A fraction of under half a day is dropped; half a day or more counts as a full day.

Example: you joined on 1 March 2023 and your last day is 30 September 2026. That is 3 full years, so the tier is 12 days, and 7 completed months in the final year: 12 x 7 / 12 = 7, so 7 days. If you already took 3, 4 remain. With 5 completed months on the 8-day tier you get 3.33, rounded to 3 days.

Before the contract ends you may take that leave together with any leave still due from the previous 12 months. If the contract ends before you take it, the employer must pay your ordinary rate of pay for every untaken day. The exception is dismissal for misconduct under section 14(1)(a).

Leave is paid at the ordinary rate of pay. For an employee on a monthly rate, section 60I sets it as the monthly rate of pay divided by 26. On RM4,000 a month that is RM 153.85 a day, so the 4 untaken days in the example are worth RM 615.38.

"Wages" for this purpose means basic wages and other cash payments for work done, and excludes items such as annual bonuses, travelling allowances and the employer's own EPF contributions. An employer may use another formula only if it does not give a lower rate. While you are employed, you are treated as paid for annual leave if your monthly salary is not reduced for the days you take.

Both, for different purposes. Leave pay, overtime and other daily rates use the ordinary rate of pay: monthly wage / 26. Since 2023, section 18A sets a separate formula for a month you did not work in full because you joined after the 1st, left before the month ended, took unpaid leave or went on national service: monthly wages / number of days in that wage period x number of days you are eligible for.

So working the first 14 days of a 28-day February on RM3,000 gives RM 1,500.00. Work out your own figures with the daily rate of pay calculator, and the deductions on a full month with the salary calculator.

You must take each year's annual leave within 12 months after the end of that 12-month period of service. If you do not, the entitlement ends. The exception: if your employer asks you not to take some or all of it and you agree in writing, you are entitled to payment instead.

Two more rules can reduce the entitlement. Unpaid leave of more than 30 days in total in a 12-month period is not counted as service. Absence without permission and without reasonable excuse for more than 10% of the working days in a 12-month period removes that year's annual leave. If you fall sick or go on maternity leave during annual leave, those days count as sick or maternity leave and your annual leave is not used up.

The Act does not say how to prorate a new joiner's first incomplete year. Employers handle it differently, and your contract or handbook decides it, as long as you get at least the statutory leave for each 12 months of service.

Sick leave: 14, 18 or 22 days a calendar year by length of service, plus up to 60 days a year when a doctor certifies that hospitalisation is needed. Since 1 January 2023 the 60 days are separate, so the total can reach 74 to 82 days. A certificate from a registered medical practitioner, a medical officer or a dental surgeon is needed, and you must tell your employer within 48 hours.

Maternity leave: 98 consecutive days for each confinement, starting no earlier than 30 days before the birth. Maternity allowance at your ordinary rate of pay requires at least 90 days of employment with the employer in the 9 months before the birth and employment at any time in the 4 months before. It is not payable if you already have 5 or more surviving children, though the leave still applies. An employer may not dismiss a pregnant employee except for wilful breach of contract, misconduct or closure of the business.

Paternity leave: 7 consecutive days at the ordinary rate of pay for each confinement, for a married male employee who has worked for the employer for at least 12 months and has notified the employer at least 30 days before the expected birth or as early as possible after it, up to 5 confinements whatever the number of spouses. JTKSM says it starts on the date of birth and counts rest days and public holidays within the 7 days.

Part-time employees (working more than 30% but not more than 70% of a full-timer's normal hours) have their own scale under the Employment (Part-Time Employees) Regulations 2010: at least 6, 8 or 11 days of annual leave and 10, 13 or 15 days of sick leave for every 12 months, by the same length-of-service bands, also prorated in the year the contract ends.

Leave applies at any salary. What changes above RM4,000 a month, unless you do manual work, is that the Act's overtime, rest-day and public-holiday work rates and termination benefits no longer apply. See the overtime calculator for those rates. For take-home pay after EPF, SOCSO and PCB, use the salary calculator, and for typical salaries by job and state see average salary in Malaysia.