Leave by country / Singapore
Singapore annual leave entitlement
How much paid leave people in Singapore 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.
Singapore guarantees 7 days of paid annual leave in the first year of service, rising by one day a year to 14 days from the eighth year, under the Employment Act, for every covered employee with at least three months’ service. Unused leave must generally be used within 12 months after the year it was earned, and accrued leave is encashed when employment ends except on dismissal for misconduct.
Disclosure: some software links on this page are affiliate links. If you sign up through one, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. We only recommend tools we have set up and used, and commission never affects placement or verdicts. Not legal advice: this page summarises publicly available state agency guidance for general information. Verify with the linked agency or an employment attorney before acting on it.
What the law actually says
The Employment Act gives every covered employee who has worked at least three months a paid annual leave entitlement that starts at 7 days in the first year of service and rises by one day for each further year to 14 days from the eighth year. Since 2019 the Act covers all employees except seafarers, domestic workers and civil servants, so the entitlement applies to professionals and managers as well. Employers routinely grant more — 14 to 18 days is the market norm for office roles — but 7 is the legal floor.
Worth knowing: Leave must be used within 12 months of the end of the year in which it was earned unless the employer agrees otherwise, and Ministry of Manpower guidance allows unused statutory leave to be forfeited after that. An employee dismissed for misconduct is not entitled to payment for unused leave.
What happens to unused leave in Singapore
Singapore expects annual leave to be taken within 12 months after the year it was earned; untaken statutory leave can be forfeited after that unless the employer agrees to carry it over. When employment ends the employee is entitled to encashment of unused, accrued leave — except where the dismissal is for misconduct.
When employment ends, untaken leave is normally paid for. Under Ministry of Manpower guidance, accrued but unused annual leave is encashed when employment ends, unless the employee is dismissed for misconduct, in which case it is forfeited. Compare 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 Singapore
- 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 Singapore
- 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 leave is normally paid for — check the conditions above and keep your own record of what you were owed.
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 Singapore 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 Singapore 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.
Singapore annual leave: common questions
How many paid annual leave days are employees entitled to in Singapore?
7 working days is the statutory minimum in Singapore, equivalent to 1.4 weeks on a five-day working week, under Employment Act 1968 (annual leave provisions). Employers and collective agreements may grant more, never less.
Must unused annual leave be paid out when employment ends in Singapore?
Usually. Under Ministry of Manpower guidance, accrued but unused annual leave is encashed when employment ends, unless the employee is dismissed for misconduct, in which case it is forfeited. During employment, statutory leave is meant to be taken as time off rather than exchanged for cash.
Can an employer in Singapore 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 Singapore?
No. Public holidays are separate from the 7-day statutory annual leave entitlement in Singapore.
Source
Primary source: Employment Act 1968 (annual leave provisions). Statutory minimums change, and collective agreements frequently exceed them — confirm against the current text before acting. See our methodology.