Leave by country / Israel
Israel annual leave entitlement
How much paid leave people in Israel 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.
Israel guarantees 12 working days of paid annual leave on a five-day week for the first five years of service, rising by seniority to 20 working days from the twelfth year, under the Annual Leave Law 5711-1951. Leave should be taken in the year it accrues, with limited carryover by consent, cannot be exchanged for cash while employed, and untaken leave must be redeemed in money when employment ends.
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What the law actually says
The Annual Leave Law sets the entitlement in calendar days including the weekly rest, so the working-day figure depends on the working week: on a five-day week it is 12 working days a year for the first five years of service, 14 in the sixth year, 15 in the seventh, then one more day each year up to 20 working days from the twelfth year. The 2016–2017 amendments raised the early-years entitlement to its current level. The law applies to all employees; collective agreements and contracts, especially in high-tech, commonly grant more. Leave is paid at the regular wage, and employees with a short working year receive a proportional share.
Worth knowing: Leave is meant to be taken in the year it accrues. With the employer’s consent an employee may take at least seven days and carry the rest into the next two years; leave not taken within that window is lost, though in practice redemption on termination is what most disputes concern.
What happens to unused leave in Israel
Israeli law expects annual leave to be taken in the year it is earned. An employee may, with the employer’s consent, take at least seven days and add the remainder to the entitlement of the following two years; beyond that the days lapse. Cash instead of leave is not allowed while the employment continues, but Section 13 requires redemption of untaken leave (pidyon chufsha) when the employee leaves, at the final wage.
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 Israel
- Write the entitlement into every contract. At least 12 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 Israel
- Check your contract gives at least 12 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 12-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 Israel 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 Israel 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.
Israel annual leave: common questions
How many paid annual leave days are employees entitled to in Israel?
12 working days is the statutory minimum in Israel, equivalent to 2.4 weeks on a five-day working week, under Annual Leave Law, 5711-1951 (as amended 2016–2017). Employers and collective agreements may grant more, never less.
Must unused annual leave be paid out when employment ends in Israel?
Yes. Payment in lieu of untaken statutory leave is required when the employment relationship ends in Israel. During employment, statutory leave must be taken as time off and cannot be exchanged for cash.
Can an employer in Israel 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 12-day entitlement in Israel?
No. Public holidays are separate from the 12-day statutory annual leave entitlement in Israel.
Source
Primary source: Annual Leave Law, 5711-1951 (as amended 2016–2017). Statutory minimums change, and collective agreements frequently exceed them — confirm against the current text before acting. See our methodology.