Leave by country / Hong Kong
Hong Kong annual leave entitlement
How much paid leave people in Hong Kong 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.
Hong Kong guarantees 7 days of paid annual leave after 12 months of continuous service, rising by one day a year from the third year of service to 14 days at nine years, under the Employment Ordinance. Statutory holidays are separate. Untaken leave is paid in lieu when employment ends; while employed, only the part of the entitlement above 10 days can be exchanged for pay.
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What the law actually says
Employees under a continuous contract earn paid annual leave after each 12 months of service: 7 days for the first two years, rising by one day a year from the third year to a maximum of 14 days at nine years. Leave is taken within the following 12 months at a time agreed or fixed by the employer with 14 days’ notice, and must include a continuous period of at least 7 days once the entitlement exceeds 10 days. Statutory holidays are separate and do not count towards it.
Worth knowing: An employee may agree to accept payment in lieu of the part of the entitlement exceeding 10 days, but not of the first 10 days. On termination, payment in lieu of all untaken leave is due, calculated on the average daily wage of the previous 12 months; an employee with between 3 and 12 months’ service in the leave year also receives pro-rata annual leave pay unless summarily dismissed.
What happens to unused leave in Hong Kong
Hong Kong requires annual leave to be granted within the 12 months following the leave year in which it was earned, so balances are not meant to roll on indefinitely. Only the part of the entitlement above 10 days can be exchanged for pay by agreement while employed. Untaken leave is paid in lieu when the contract ends, at the average daily wage of the preceding 12 months.
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 Hong Kong
- Write the entitlement into every contract. At least 7 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 Hong Kong
- Check your contract gives at least 7 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 7-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 Hong Kong 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 Hong Kong 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.
Hong Kong annual leave: common questions
How many paid annual leave days are employees entitled to in Hong Kong?
7 working days is the statutory minimum in Hong Kong, equivalent to 1.4 weeks on a five-day working week, under Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57), Part VIIIA. Employers and collective agreements may grant more, never less.
Must unused annual leave be paid out when employment ends in Hong Kong?
Yes. Payment in lieu of untaken statutory leave is required when the employment relationship ends in Hong Kong. During employment, cash-out is limited: only for days beyond 10 in a leave year, by agreement.
Can an employer in Hong Kong 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 7-day entitlement in Hong Kong?
No. Public holidays are separate from the 7-day statutory annual leave entitlement in Hong Kong.
Source
Primary source: Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57), Part VIIIA. Statutory minimums change, and collective agreements frequently exceed them — confirm against the current text before acting. See our methodology.