Annual Leave & Public Holidays Malaysia 2026: Entitlements, Carry Forward & Encashment

Quick Answer: Employees in Malaysia get 8 days of paid annual leave a year in their first two years with an employer, 12 days from two to five years and 16 days after five, under section 60E of the Employment Act 1955. They are also entitled to 11 paid public holidays a year, five of them fixed by law. Working a public holiday pays two extra days' wages.

Key fact	Rule (Employment Act 1955)
Annual leave, under 2 years' service	8 days a year (section 60E)
Annual leave, 2 to 5 years	12 days a year
Annual leave, 5 years or more	16 days a year
Unused annual leave	Lost 12 months after the leave year, unless paid in lieu by written agreement
Paid public holidays	11 a year, 5 compulsory (section 60D)
Working on a public holiday	Holiday pay plus two days' wages; overtime at 3 times the hourly rate
Sick leave without hospitalisation	14, 18 or 22 days a year by length of service (section 60F)
Hospitalisation leave	Up to 60 days a year

Checked against the Employment Act 1955 (reprint incorporating amendments to 1 January 2023) and the Prime Minister's Department's 2026 federal public holiday schedule on 1 October 2026.

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How many days of annual leave do you get in Malaysia in 2026?

It depends on how long you have worked for the same employer. Section 60E(1) sets the minimum:

Continuous service with the same employer	Paid annual leave per 12 months
Less than 2 years	8 days
2 years to less than 5 years	12 days
5 years or more	16 days

These are minimums. Your contract can give more; it cannot give less.

Three rules sit alongside the table:

• Annual leave is on top of rest days and public holidays (section 60E(1A)).
• Getting sick on leave gives the days back. If you fall sick, or go into labour, during annual leave, those days become sick or maternity leave and the annual leave is treated as not taken (section 60E(1B)).
• Long unauthorised absence can cancel it. If you are absent without permission and without reasonable excuse for more than 10% of working days in the 12 months, you lose that year's annual leave.

The entitlement applies to every employee on a contract of service, whatever their salary. The RM4,000 wage limit in the First Schedule does not remove annual leave, public holidays or sick leave; it only removes some overtime and holiday-pay rules. Domestic employees are excluded from these leave provisions.

How is annual leave calculated when you leave a job?

In the year your contract ends, you get leave in proportion to the months you completed. Any fraction of half a day or more counts as a full day; anything less is dropped.

For example, an employee with under two years' service who resigns after seven completed months earns 8 × 7 ÷ 12 = 4.67 days, which rounds to 5 days.

Under section 60E(2A), before you leave you may take both the leave due from the previous year and the leave accrued in the current year. If the contract ends before you take it, section 60E(3A) requires the employer to pay you your ordinary rate of pay for each day.

What happens to unused annual leave?

The Act sets a deadline. Under section 60E(2), the employer must grant and you must take the leave within 12 months after the end of each 12 months of service. If you do not, you lose it.

There are two ways around that:

• Payment in lieu. You are paid instead if, at your employer's request, you agree in writing not to take some or all of your leave.
• Your contract or company policy. Many employers allow you to carry some days into the next year. The Act sets the minimum, so a more generous policy applies.

Which public holidays are you entitled to?

Section 60D gives every employee 11 paid public holidays a year. Five are compulsory:

1. National Day (Hari Kebangsaan)
2. Birthday of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong
3. Birthday of the Ruler or Yang di-Pertua Negeri of the state where you mainly work, or Federal Territory Day if you work in a Federal Territory
4. Workers' Day (Labour Day)
5. Malaysia Day

Your employer chooses the other six from the gazetted holidays and must display a notice of them at the workplace before the year begins. You also get any extra holiday declared for that year under section 8 of the Holidays Act 1951.

If a public holiday falls on your rest day, or on another public holiday, the next working day becomes a paid holiday. If it falls while you are on sick leave or annual leave, you get another day off instead.

What are the federal public holidays in 2026?

Holiday	Date in 2026
Chinese New Year (two days)	17 and 18 February
Hari Raya Aidilfitri (two days)	21 and 22 March
Workers' Day	1 May
Hari Raya Haji	27 May (28 May in some states)
Wesak Day	31 May
Birthday of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong	1 June
Awal Muharam	17 June
Maulidur Rasul	25 August
National Day	31 August
Malaysia Day	16 September
Deepavali	8 November (all states except Sarawak)
Christmas Day	25 December

Source: Jadual Hari Kelepasan Am Persekutuan 2026, Prime Minister's Department. Dates of Islamic holidays and Deepavali are subject to change. Each state also has its own holidays.

How much are you paid for working on a public holiday?

If your employer requires you to work on a paid holiday, section 60D(3) says you get your normal holiday pay plus two days' wages at your ordinary rate of pay. That is why people speak of "triple pay". Overtime beyond your normal hours that day is paid at no less than three times your hourly rate.

For employees on a monthly salary, the Act's ordinary rate of pay is the monthly wage divided by 26 (section 60I(1A)).

Worked example. Mei Ling is a composite case, not a real person. She works as a customer service executive at a logistics company in Johor Bahru, earning RM2,600 a month, with Sunday as her rest day. Deepavali falls on Sunday 8 November 2026, so Monday 9 November becomes her paid holiday. Her employer asks her to work that Monday for her normal eight hours plus two hours of overtime.

Item	Calculation	Amount
Ordinary rate of pay	RM2,600 ÷ 26	RM100 a day
Hourly rate	RM100 ÷ 8 hours	RM12.50
Extra pay for working the holiday	2 × RM100	RM200
Overtime on the holiday	2 hours × 3 × RM12.50	RM75
Extra on top of her monthly salary		RM275

Her normal holiday pay is already included in her monthly salary. The holiday-work pay rules in section 60D(3) do not apply to employees earning more than RM4,000 a month, unless they are in manual or other First Schedule work. Higher earners should check their contract.

How much sick leave do you get?

Under section 60F, after examination by a registered doctor or dental surgeon, you get paid sick leave of:

Service with the employer	Sick leave without hospitalisation	If hospitalisation is needed
Less than 2 years	14 days a year	Up to 60 days a year
2 to less than 5 years	18 days a year	Up to 60 days a year
5 years or more	22 days a year	Up to 60 days a year

You must inform your employer, or try to, within 48 hours of starting sick leave. If you do not, or your leave is not medically certified, the days count as absence without permission.

How do you make sure you get your leave?

1. Check your service date. Your entitlement steps up at two and five years.
2. Ask for the holiday notice. Your employer must display the six chosen public holidays before the year starts.
3. Apply for leave in writing and keep the approvals.
4. Plan the year. Unused leave expires 12 months after the leave year unless you agree in writing to be paid instead.
5. When resigning, list your unused days and ask whether you will take them or be paid for them.
6. If your employer refuses your rights, complain to the Labour Department (JTK).

What mistakes do employees and employers make?

• Thinking high earners lose annual leave. The RM4,000 threshold removes holiday-work pay rules, not leave itself.
• Assuming leave carries over automatically. By law it expires 12 months after the leave year, unless policy says otherwise.
• Forgetting replacement holidays. A holiday on a rest day moves to the next working day.
• Not telling the employer within 48 hours of falling sick. The days can be treated as absence.
• Treating gig work as employment. Platform and freelance workers are not employees, so they have no statutory annual leave; see the Gig Workers Act 2025 for what they do get.

Where to go next

• See every type of leave in our types of leave guide.
• Expecting a baby? Read about maternity and paternity leave.
• Doing gig work? Check your rights under the Gig Workers Act 2025.
• Want an employer with better leave? Browse jobs on SuperJobs.

Sources

All checked 1 October 2026.

• Employment Act 1955 (Act 265), reprint incorporating amendments to 1 January 2023: sections 60D, 60E, 60F and 60I, and the First Schedule.
• Jadual Hari Kelepasan Am Persekutuan 2026, Cabinet, Constitution and Intergovernmental Relations Division, Prime Minister's Department.
• Holidays Act 1951 (Act 369), section 8.