Leave by country / Brazil
Brazil annual leave entitlement
How much paid leave people in Brazil get, what happens to unused days, and what you owe when someone leaves — in plain English, whether you run a team there or work on one.
Brazil guarantees 30 calendar days of paid annual leave — around 22 working days on a five-day week — after each 12 months of service under Articles 129–130 of the CLT, paid with a one-third bonus. Up to 10 days may be sold back to the employer; leave not granted within the following 12 months must be paid double; and untaken and proportional leave is paid out with the one-third bonus when employment ends.
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What the law actually says
After each 12 months of service (the período aquisitivo) an employee earns 30 calendar days of férias — about 22 working days on a five-day week — reduced on a sliding scale if they had more than five unjustified absences in the year. The employer must grant the leave within the following 12 months (the período concessivo), may split it into up to three periods by agreement with one of at least 14 days, and must pay the leave salary plus the constitutional one-third bonus two days before it starts.
Worth knowing: If the employer fails to grant leave within the concessive period, Article 137 requires it to be paid at double rate — so untaken leave in Brazil gets more expensive rather than forfeited. On termination the employee receives pay for any full leave period still owed plus proportional leave for the incomplete cycle, each with the one-third bonus.
What happens to unused leave in Brazil
Brazilian leave does not lapse: if the 30 days are not granted within the 12-month concessive period, Article 137 obliges the employer to pay the leave at double rate and the employee can ask the labour court to fix the dates. At the end of employment, any full leave period still owed (férias vencidas) and the proportional leave of the current cycle (férias proporcionais) are paid, each with the constitutional one-third bonus.
When employment ends, the untaken balance must be paid. This is the rule across the European Union and Australia, and it is the sharpest contrast with the United States, where whether unused time is paid out depends entirely on which state the employee works in.
If you run a team in Brazil
- Write the entitlement into every contract. At least 22 days; more is fine, less is void. Collective agreements may add to it.
- Track accrual and carryover to the day, with a record of every approval. When someone leaves, the untaken balance is money you owe, and you will need to show how you got to the number.
- Budget for the payout. Every unused day on the books is a liability at that person's current pay rate — it does not disappear at year end.
If you work in Brazil
- Check your contract gives at least 22 days. Anything less is unenforceable.
- Keep your own record of approved leave. Payroll systems get changed; your notes don't.
- When you leave, untaken statutory leave must be paid out. It cannot be forfeited.
Countries with the same 22-day minimum
Calculating an employee's balance
Entitlement is the starting point; the working number is what an individual has actually accrued at a given date. Our accrual calculator converts an annual entitlement into a per-pay-period figure and a current balance.
Tracking Brazil leave correctly
Because untaken leave is money the employer owes, the balance has to be provable. Spreadsheets fail at exactly the moment they matter — when someone disputes what they were owed on their last day and nobody can reconstruct the record.
For a single-country team, Leavo handles Brazil accrual rules, carryover and approvals with a full audit trail. If you employ people in more than one country, statutory entitlements, carryover rules and payout obligations differ in every one — that is the case for a platform like Deel that handles multi-country employment rather than leave alone. We compare the options in our leave management software guide.
Brazil annual leave: common questions
How many paid annual leave days are employees entitled to in Brazil?
22 working days is the statutory minimum in Brazil, equivalent to 4.4 weeks on a five-day working week, under Consolidação das Leis do Trabalho (CLT), Arts. 129–130, 137, 143 and 146. Employers and collective agreements may grant more, never less.
Must unused annual leave be paid out when employment ends in Brazil?
Yes. Payment in lieu of untaken statutory leave is required when the employment relationship ends in Brazil. During employment, cash-out is limited: up to one third (10 days) may be sold back to the employer at the employee’s request.
Can an employer in Brazil refuse a leave request?
An employer can usually influence when leave is taken for operational reasons, but cannot deny the entitlement itself. The right to the minimum number of days is statutory and cannot be contracted away.
Do public holidays count towards the 22-day entitlement in Brazil?
No. Public holidays are separate from the 22-day statutory annual leave entitlement in Brazil.
Source
Primary source: Consolidação das Leis do Trabalho (CLT), Arts. 129–130, 137, 143 and 146. Statutory minimums change, and collective agreements frequently exceed them — confirm against the current text before acting. See our methodology.