Egypt is one of the most important hiring destinations in Africa and the Middle East, and any international employer bringing on Egyptian staff quickly runs into a distinctive feature of local law: annual leave entitlement that steps up automatically over time. Under Egyptian Labour Law No. 12 of 2003, employees start with 21 calendar days of paid annual leave per year, then move to 30 calendar days once they reach either ten years of total service or their fiftieth birthday — whichever comes first. Getting that transition right, and understanding the full set of employer obligations around payment and termination payouts, is essential for any business operating in Egypt.

This guide walks through the statutory framework in Articles 48 to 55 of Labour Law No. 12 of 2003, covering who is eligible, how leave is calculated and paid, and the compliance mistakes that most commonly cause disputes.

Key Takeaways

Egyptian Labour Law No. 12 of 2003 entitles employees to 21 calendar days of paid annual leave per year.
The entitlement increases to 30 calendar days once an employee has 10 years of total service (with any employer) or reaches age 50, whichever occurs first.
Leave entitlement is pro-rated for employees with less than one year of service.
Employers must pay employees their full wage during annual leave — not a reduced or basic-wage figure.
Unused annual leave must be paid out on termination of employment; this is a statutory right, not a discretionary benefit.

The Statutory Entitlement

Articles 48 to 55 of Egyptian Labour Law No. 12 of 2003 set the framework for annual leave across the Egyptian private sector.

Standard entitlement: 21 calendar days per year. Every employee who has completed one year of continuous service with their employer is entitled to 21 calendar days of paid annual leave per year. Egyptian law counts leave in calendar days rather than working days, so weekends and rest days falling within a leave period are included in the count.

Enhanced entitlement: 30 calendar days per year. The entitlement steps up to 30 calendar days per year when either of the following conditions is met:

The employee has accumulated 10 years of total service — this counts service with all employers combined, not just the current one.
The employee reaches age 50.

Whichever milestone arrives first triggers the upgrade. An employee who turns 50 after seven years with a single employer is entitled to 30 days from that birthday, regardless of their tenure with the current business.

This two-tier structure is notably different from how most regional leave systems work. For comparison, the UAE’s framework sets a flat 30 calendar days after one year of service, while Saudi Arabia’s system also uses a tiered model with an increase at five years. Egypt’s thresholds — ten years or age 50 — mean a larger proportion of employees remain on the lower tier for longer.

Eligibility

Egyptian Labour Law No. 12 of 2003 covers all employees working in Egypt under an employment contract. There is no distinction based on job grade, salary level, or contract duration — every employed person is entitled to annual leave from their first day of work.

Employees with less than one year of service are entitled to pro-rated annual leave. Rather than waiting until the twelve-month mark to take any leave, employees accrue entitlement from the start of employment in proportion to the time worked. An employee who has worked six months has accrued roughly half of the standard annual entitlement.

All employees — whether full-time or otherwise — are covered by the statutory minimum. Employment contracts and collective agreements can provide more generous leave, but they cannot fall below the statutory floor.

Compared with the South African leave framework, which uses a working-day calculation and a single flat entitlement, Egypt’s calendar-day approach combined with the long-service tier makes precise record-keeping especially important.

Employer Obligations

Egyptian law places a clear set of obligations on employers regarding annual leave. These are not optional benefits that can be waived in an employment contract — they are statutory minimums.

1. Grant the statutory minimum leave

Employers must grant at least 21 calendar days of annual leave per year to eligible employees, rising to 30 days when the ten-year service or age-50 threshold is met. Employers cannot require employees to forfeit annual leave or to work through the full leave entitlement without granting compensatory time.

2. Pay full wage during annual leave

Employees must receive their full wage while on annual leave. This means total remuneration, not just a basic salary figure. Any employer who reduces pay during a leave period or issues a partial payment is in breach of the Labour Law.

3. Pro-rate leave for employees with less than one year of service

For employees who have not yet reached their one-year anniversary, employers must calculate and grant leave on a pro-rated basis. Record-keeping of start dates is essential to get this right, particularly when onboarding multiple employees at different times.

4. Pay out unused annual leave on termination

When an employment relationship ends — whether through resignation, dismissal, retirement, or any other reason — the employer must pay the employee for any accrued but untaken annual leave. This payment is calculated at the employee’s full wage rate and cannot be withheld or offset against other claims. Failure to make this payment is one of the most common sources of labour disputes in Egypt.

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Common Pitfalls

Even well-intentioned employers make mistakes with Egyptian annual leave. The following are the issues that most frequently lead to compliance failures and employee grievances.

Not applying the 30-day increase at the right time. The upgrade from 21 to 30 days is automatic under the law — it does not require an employee to request it or for the employer to formally acknowledge it. Employers who rely on employment contracts that simply state “21 days annual leave” without a mechanism to track the ten-year or age-50 trigger will routinely under-provide leave for longer-serving or older employees. Auditing your leave records against each employee’s total service history and date of birth is the only reliable way to catch this.

Not paying for unused leave on termination. Some employers treat unused leave as a benefit that expires when employment ends. Under Egyptian Labour Law No. 12 of 2003, this is not permitted. The obligation to pay out accrued, untaken leave on termination is absolute. Employers who discover at the point of an employee’s departure that leave records have not been maintained accurately will face an immediate liability calculation with no easy remedy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the 10-year service threshold apply only to the current employer?

No. The ten-year threshold counts total employment service across all employers, not just service with the current employer. If an employee has eight years of service with a previous employer and two years with you, they have crossed the ten-year threshold and are entitled to 30 calendar days of annual leave.

Can an employee carry over unused annual leave to the next year?

Labour Law No. 12 of 2003 does not prohibit carry-over, but the primary obligation is to grant leave within the relevant year. Employers should establish clear carry-over and expiry policies in employment contracts, within the limits the law permits, to avoid accumulating large untaken leave balances.

Is annual leave pay calculated on basic salary or total remuneration?

Total remuneration — the employee’s full wage. Egyptian law does not allow employers to pay only a base or basic-salary figure during annual leave. Any allowances or fixed components that form part of the regular wage should be included.

What happens if an employee falls sick during annual leave?

Egyptian Labour Law addresses sick leave separately from annual leave. If an employee becomes ill during a period of annual leave and can produce medical certification, there is a strong basis for treating that period as sick leave rather than consuming annual leave days. Employers should have a clear internal policy on this to avoid disputes.

Are public holidays counted within the 21- or 30-day annual leave entitlement?

Egyptian public holidays are generally treated separately from annual leave entitlement. Employees are entitled to their public holidays in addition to annual leave rather than as part of it. Employment contracts should make this distinction explicit.

Can an employer and employee agree to a different annual leave arrangement?

Employers and employees can agree on leave arrangements that are more generous than the statutory minimum — for example, a higher number of days or enhanced pay during leave. They cannot agree to anything that provides less than the statutory minimum. Any contract clause that purports to reduce leave below the statutory floor is void.

How Leave Balance Helps

Tracking Egypt’s two-tier annual leave system across a workforce — monitoring each employee’s total years of service, watching for the age-50 trigger, pro-rating entitlement for new starters, and calculating termination payouts — is the kind of administrative work that is easy to get wrong manually and time-consuming even when done carefully.

Leave Balance gives HR teams and business owners a single platform to manage all of this at a flat rate of $10 per month, with no per-employee fees and no limits on headcount. You can configure leave policies that reflect the 21-day and 30-day tiers, set automatic notifications when employees approach service milestones, and maintain a clear accrual record for every employee so that termination payouts are never a surprise.

The same platform handles leave management for teams across multiple countries, which makes it particularly useful for international businesses that need to track Egyptian labour law requirements alongside the rules in other jurisdictions — whether that is the UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, or anywhere else.