How Many Leave Days Are You Entitled to in South Africa?

Leave & BCEA 7 Sep 2026 · 9 min read · Updated: 13 Oct 2026 By Faheema Sheikh

Leave entitlement is one of the most misunderstood areas of South African employment law. Many employees believe they receive 15 or 21 days of leave, but are unclear on the difference. Others do not know when leave starts accruing, whether their employer can make them forfeit unused leave, or what a leave payout should be worth when they resign. This article answers all of it, using the exact provisions of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), Act 75 of 1997.

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Your Statutory Annual Leave Entitlement Under the BCEA

Section 20 of the BCEA sets the minimum annual leave entitlement. Your employer cannot give you less than this, but they can give you more. The entitlement is stated as 21 consecutive days per leave cycle. The leave chapter covers every employee who works 24 hours or more a month for the employer (Section 19(1)). Unlike the working-hours rules, it has no exclusion for senior managers or for earnings above the BCEA threshold.

Consecutive days ≠ working days. The BCEA uses "consecutive" calendar days deliberately. For a 5-day week employee, 21 consecutive days contains 6 weekend days, leaving 15 working days of actual paid leave. For a 6-day week employee, 21 consecutive days contains 3 Sundays, leaving 18 working days.

Annual leave by work pattern

Work pattern	Consecutive days (BCEA)	Working days	Accrual rate (if agreed)
5 days/week (Mon–Fri)	21 consecutive days	15 working days	about 1.27 days/month
6 days/week (Mon–Sat)	21 consecutive days	18 working days	about 1.53 days/month

A leave cycle is a 12-month period measured from the first day of employment (not necessarily the calendar year). After each completed cycle, the entitlement resets. Your employer must grant the leave within 6 months of the end of the leave cycle, so they cannot indefinitely defer it.

What if my contract gives me more leave?

Many employers offer 20 or more working days of annual leave, especially for professionals and senior staff. Any entitlement above the BCEA minimum is a contractual benefit, and your employment contract governs those additional days. The BCEA is a floor, not a ceiling.

How Does Annual Leave Accrue?

The Act does not require leave to be available upfront as a lump sum on your anniversary date. Section 20(3) speaks of leave "accumulated" in a cycle, and Section 20(4) gives the employer until 6 months after the cycle ends to grant it. The statutory entitlement is 21 consecutive days per leave cycle (Section 20(2)(a)), and by agreement it can build up progressively at 1 day for every 17 days on which you worked or were entitled to be paid (Section 20(2)(b)), or 1 hour for every 17 hours on the same basis (Section 20(2)(c)). On a 5-day week the day-based rate works out to about 1.27 days a month (260 ÷ 12, about 21.67 working days a month, ÷ 17), a little more than the 1.25 you get by spreading 15 working days evenly over 12 months.

Accrued leave days (by-agreement method) = Days worked or entitled to be paid ÷ 17

Or monthly equivalent:
· 5-day week: Months employed × 1.27 days (260 ÷ 12 ÷ 17)
· 6-day week: Months employed × 1.53 days (26 ÷ 17)

Accrual example: 7 months employed (5-day week)

Where leave accrues by agreement and you have been employed for 7 months on a 5-day week, your accrued leave is 7 × 1.27 = 8.9 days (rounded). If you have already taken 5 days of leave, your remaining balance is 8.9 − 5 = 3.9 days.

Item	Calculation	Result
Months employed	—	7 months
Monthly accrual rate (5-day week)	260 ÷ 12 ÷ 17	about 1.27 days/month
Total accrued	7 × 1.27	8.9 days
Leave already taken	—	5 days
Remaining leave balance	8.9 − 5	3.9 days

How much annual leave does an hourly-paid worker get?

Being paid by the hour does not change the entitlement. Every employee who works 24 hours or more a month, hourly-paid or not, is entitled to 21 consecutive days of annual leave on full pay per leave cycle (15 working days on a 5-day week). By agreement, that leave can instead accrue at 1 hour for every 17 hours worked. A full month on a 5-day week is about 21.67 working days, or roughly 173 hours at 8 hours a day, so it earns 173 ÷ 17 = about 10.2 hours of leave, or roughly 1.27 days. That is close to the 1.25 days a month you get by spreading 15 working days evenly over the year. The Act counts hours you worked or were entitled to be paid for, so a paid public holiday counts, not only the hours you actually worked.

How does unpaid leave (leave without pay, or LWOP) affect leave accrual?

The BCEA does not give you a right to unpaid leave. It happens by agreement with your employer, or when your paid leave has run out. The Act's one rule on the subject is Section 20(6): if you ask in writing, your employer must let you take annual leave during a period of unpaid leave. The Act does not say in so many words how unpaid leave affects annual leave, and we found no reported Labour Court or CCMA ruling on it, but two things follow from the Act's wording. A leave cycle is 12 months of employment with the same employer, so agreed unpaid leave does not by itself shorten the cycle or cut the 21 consecutive days. Where leave accrues by agreement at 1 day for every 17 days (or 1 hour for every 17 hours), the count is of days you worked or were entitled to be paid, so days of unpaid leave add nothing to accrual: on a 5-day week, 17 unpaid working days means about one day less accrued.

Some employers' policies go further, for example by reducing accrual for each block of continuous unpaid days. That is a term of your contract or leave policy, not of the BCEA, so check yours.

What Happens to Unused Leave When You Resign?

This is the question most employees ask first. The position under BCEA Section 40 is that on termination of employment (whether you resign, are retrenched or dismissed), your employer must pay out any accrued unused annual leave. However, following Jooste v Kohler Packaging (2004) and Hartley v SMD Trading Group CC (2024), this payout right is limited to the current leave cycle and the immediately preceding cycle only. Leave from older cycles that was not taken within 6 months of the cycle end is forfeited by operation of law and cannot be claimed on termination.

Leave payout formula

Daily rate = Monthly gross salary × 12 ÷ 260

Leave payout = Daily rate × Accrued unused leave days

The 260 ÷ 12 in the formula (about 21.67) is the average number of working days in a month on a 5-day week: 260 working days a year spread over 12 months. On a 6-day week the divisor is 26 (312 ÷ 12). Both are payroll conventions that follow the BCEA's deemed working week in Section 35.

Leave payout example: R22,000 salary, 8.5 days outstanding

Item	Calculation	Amount
Monthly gross salary	—	R22,000
Daily rate	R22,000 × 12 ÷ 260	R1,015.38
Accrued unused leave	—	8.5 days
Leave payout	R22,000 × 12 ÷ 260 × 8.5	R8,630.77

Section 40(c) sets the payout for the incomplete cycle you are in when you leave: 1 day's remuneration for every 17 days on which you worked or were entitled to be paid (or any basis at least as favourable to you), and only if you have been employed for longer than four months. Leave from a completed cycle that you have not taken is paid under Section 40(b) at your normal rate of remuneration (Section 21(1)).

Note that a leave payout on termination is taxed as normal income: PAYE is deducted at your normal marginal rate. It is not treated as a severance package for tax purposes.

Other Types of Leave Under the BCEA

Annual leave is the most important, but the BCEA provides three additional categories of statutory leave that every employee should know about.

Sick Leave: Section 22

You are entitled to 30 days paid sick leave per 36-month (3-year) cycle if you work a 5-day week, or 36 days for a 6-day week. The Act sets no separate yearly amount: over the three years that averages 10 days a year on a 5-day week (12 on a 6-day week), but you can use the days at any time in the cycle. In your first 6 months of employment, sick leave is limited to 1 day for every 26 days worked. Your employer may require a medical certificate for absences of 2 or more consecutive days, or on more than 2 occasions in any 8-week period.

Sick leave does not get paid out on termination. Whatever sick leave remains unused at the end of your 3-year cycle (or on resignation) is forfeited.

Family Responsibility Leave: Section 27

Employees who have been employed for longer than 4 months and work at least 4 days per week are entitled to 3 days paid family responsibility leave per annual leave cycle. Since 1 January 2020, when the birth of a child moved to parental leave, this leave applies when:

Your child is sick
A death occurs in the family: spouse, life partner, parent, adoptive parent, grandparent, child, adopted child, grandchild or sibling

Like sick leave, family responsibility leave does not accrue across cycles and is not paid out on termination.

Maternity and Parental Leave: Shared Entitlement Since October 2025

The old maternity/parental split (4 months for the birth mother, 10 days for the other parent, 10 weeks for an adoptive or commissioning parent) was struck down as unconstitutional discrimination by the Constitutional Court in Van Wyk and Others v Minister of Employment and Labour [2025] ZACC 20 (3 October 2025). Since that ruling, two employed parents are collectively entitled to 4 months and 10 days of parental leave, to divide between themselves as they choose: concurrently, consecutively, or any combination, each parent's own share taken as one consecutive block. A single parent (no second employed parent involved) gets the full 4 months and 10 days individually. This applies equally to biological, adoptive and commissioning (surrogacy) parents. There's no longer a separate, shorter "parental leave" category for the non-birth parent.

The leave itself is unpaid by the employer, as before. UIF benefits are the only income replacement available, but the Constitutional Court specifically declined to set an interim rule for how the UIF Act's benefit provisions apply to this new shared structure: that question is left to Parliament, which has 36 months (to roughly October 2028) to legislate permanently. Don't assume the old flat-66%-of-income maternity benefit applies unchanged to a shared claim. See our dedicated Maternity & Parental Leave guide for the full mechanics, the 4-week employer notice requirement, and what's still unresolved.

Common Leave Questions Answered

Can my employer tell me when to take leave?

Yes, within limits. The BCEA allows employers to determine leave schedules by agreement or by giving employees reasonable notice. Many employers enforce an annual shutdown over December/January and require employees to use their leave during that period. This is legal, provided you receive at least the BCEA minimum entitlement somewhere in the cycle. If you are on unpaid leave and still have paid annual leave, you can insist on taking it: ask in writing and your employer must grant it (Section 20(6)).

Can unused leave be forfeited?

Yes, under Hartley v SMD Trading Group CC (2024), applying the earlier principle in Jooste v Kohler Packaging (2004), statutory annual leave not taken within 6 months after the end of the leave cycle is forfeited as a matter of law. The BCEA requires employers to grant leave within that 6-month window; if the employer failed to do so, the employee may have a claim for the employer's breach, but the leave itself lapses. On termination, claims for accrued leave value are limited to the current cycle and the immediately preceding cycle only. Leave from older cycles cannot be recovered.

Does my employer have to pay out leave if I am dismissed for misconduct?

Yes. Section 40 of the BCEA applies regardless of the reason for termination. Even if you are dismissed for misconduct, your employer must pay out any accrued unused annual leave. The only deductions allowed from it are those Section 34(1) permits: a debt you agreed to in writing, or a deduction required or permitted by a law, collective agreement, court order or arbitration award.

What is the minimum notice required before taking annual leave?

The BCEA does not specify a minimum notice period for taking annual leave. This is left to agreement between employer and employee or the employer's leave policy. In practice, most employers require written leave applications 1 to 4 weeks in advance. Your employer can refuse a specific leave request on operational grounds but must grant the leave at another reasonable time, no later than 6 months after the cycle ends.

How many days of leave do part-time employees get?

The BCEA covers part-time employees as well as full-time ones. Where leave accrues at 1 day for every 17 days worked, a part-time employee who works fewer days per week simply accrues fewer days per cycle. There is no separate calculation for part-timers.

Can my employer pay me instead of giving me leave?

Generally no. The BCEA prohibits employers from paying employees "in lieu of" annual leave during employment. You must actually take the leave. The only time a monetary leave payout is permitted is on termination. If your employer has been paying you "leave pay" without you actually being off work, this may not constitute a valid leave arrangement and you may still be owed the time off.

Leave Reference Table: 2026 Summary

Leave type	Entitlement	Cycle	Paid?	Paid out on termination?
Annual leave (5-day week)	15 working days	12 months	Yes	Yes, unused days paid out
Annual leave (6-day week)	18 working days	12 months	Yes	Yes, unused days paid out
Sick leave (5-day week)	30 days	36 months	Yes	No, forfeited on termination
Family responsibility leave	3 days	12 months	Yes	No, forfeited on termination
Maternity/parental leave (shared)	4 months + 10 days, split between two employed parents (full amount if a single parent)	Per event	No (UIF claimable, mechanics unresolved)	N/A

Frequently Asked Questions

How many leave days am I entitled to per year in South Africa?

Under the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), Section 20, you are entitled to 21 consecutive days of annual leave per leave cycle. For a 5-day work week employee, this equals 15 working days. For a 6-day work week employee, this equals 18 working days. Your employment contract may provide more than this statutory minimum.

How does annual leave accrue in South Africa?

Check your payslip against about 1.27 days a month on a 5-day week (1.53 on a 6-day week). That is the by-agreement rate under Section 20(2)(b) of 1 day for every 17 days worked or paid (260 ÷ 12, about 21.67 working days a month, ÷ 17), so after 7 months you should see about 8.9 days accrued, less any taken. An employer that spreads 15 days evenly over the year credits 1.25 a month instead. If yours credits the full 15 days on day one, that is an advance under your contract, not the statutory rate.

How much annual leave does an hourly-paid worker get in South Africa?

Hourly-paid workers get the same statutory leave as everyone else: 21 consecutive days on full pay per leave cycle. If leave accrues by agreement at 1 hour for every 17 hours, work it out from your hours: 120 hours in a month earns about 7.1 hours of leave (120 ÷ 17), and hours you are entitled to be paid for, such as a paid public holiday, count too.

Does unused annual leave get paid out when you resign in South Africa?

Yes, but not for every day you ever banked. Section 40 of the BCEA makes the payout compulsory, and only leave from your current cycle and the one before it counts; older cycles lapsed 6 months after their cycle ended (Hartley, 2024). For a partly completed cycle you must have been employed for longer than four months. On R22,000 a month with 8.5 days outstanding that is R22,000 × 12 ÷ 260 × 8.5 = R8,630.77, taxed as ordinary income.

How many sick leave days am I entitled to per year in South Africa?

There is no separate yearly amount, so you are not limited to 10 days in any one year. Under BCEA Section 22, the limit is per 36-month (3-year) cycle: 30 days paid sick leave on a 5-day week (an average of 10 a year) or 36 days on a 6-day week (12 a year). In the first 6 months of employment, sick leave is limited to 1 day for every 26 days worked.

Can my employer refuse to pay out leave when I resign?

No. Under BCEA Section 40, paying out accrued unused leave on termination is a statutory obligation, and your employer cannot withhold it. If your employer refuses, you can lodge a complaint with the Department of Employment and Labour or the CCMA.

What is the difference between annual leave and unpaid leave in South Africa?

Annual leave is statutory paid leave: your employer pays your full salary while you are on leave. Unpaid leave is additional leave taken with your employer's agreement but without pay. The BCEA only guarantees paid annual leave. Unpaid leave is generally at your employer's discretion, though Section 20(6) says that if you ask in writing, your employer must let you take annual leave during a period of unpaid leave. On the wording of Section 20(1), agreed unpaid leave does not by itself shorten your leave cycle, but under the 1-day-per-17-days method, days of unpaid leave do not count towards accrual, and some employers' policies reduce accrual further, so check your contract.

What is family responsibility leave in South Africa?

3 paid days per annual leave cycle, not per event, for employees employed by that employer for longer than 4 months who work at least 4 days a week, when your child is sick or on the death of a spouse or life partner, parent, adoptive parent, grandparent, child, adopted child, grandchild or sibling. The birth of a child no longer qualifies: since 1 January 2020 that falls under parental leave. You can take a whole or part day, your employer may ask for reasonable proof before paying it (s27(5)), and unused days lapse at the end of the cycle.

Does annual leave still accrue while I'm on maternity leave?

Where leave accrues by agreement at 1 day for every 17 days, generally not while the leave is unpaid: only days you worked or were entitled to be paid count, so unpaid maternity leave adds nothing under that method. However, many employment contracts and collective agreements continue accrual during maternity leave as a contractual benefit, so check your contract or company policy. Under the default 21-day entitlement, the leave cycle is 12 months of employment, and the Act does not spell out how a period of maternity leave affects it.

Is my annual leave pro-rated if I started partway through the year?

Yes. Annual leave accrues from your first day of employment, not from the start of a calendar year. If you joined mid-cycle, your leave builds up proportionally from that date at the by-agreement rate (about 1.27 days per month for a 5-day week, or 1.53 for a 6-day week), so there is no need to wait for a new calendar year before leave starts accruing.