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✦ UAE private sector

UAE annual leave: how many days has your employee earned?

Someone joined in January and asks in September how much leave they have. Someone else is resigning and wants the unused days paid. Enter the dates, the days already taken and any unpaid leave, and see the balance, the working, and an optional payout estimate.

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The direct answer

Private sector employees in the UAE get at least 30 days of paid annual leave for each year of extended service (Article 29, Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021). In the first year, leave is 2 days per month once service is more than six months. Enter the dates below and the calculator shows the balance, the working and an optional payout estimate. Every rule is an editable field, so a contract that gives more is easy to model.

In short

  • Under one year of service: 2 days per month, only once service is more than six months. At 8 months that is 16 days.
  • From one year: 30 days per year of service, plus a pro rata fraction for the part of a year when employment ends.
  • Unused days are paid out when a worker quits, usually on the basic wage. Carrying days into next year needs the employer's approval.

UAE annual leave calculator

Results update as you type. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

Use the last working day for a leaver.
Article 29 does not say. Check your contract.
Only with your employer's approval (Article 29, paragraph 5).
The estimate uses the basic wage, the prudent reading of the law.
An assumption for the daily rate, not a figure from the law.
Rule parameters (Article 29 defaults, editable)
The end of service fraction: 30 ÷ 12. Use 0 to count full years only.
The law says "more than six months", so 7 is the strict reading. Enter 6 to start at the sixth month.
It also updates without a click.
Annual leave balance

Not legal advice. A contract, a free zone regulation or a company policy can give more than the pre-set rule. Confirm the current text on mohre.gov.ae or u.ae.

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The formula, written out so you can test it

The calculator is a few lines of arithmetic that you can check with a pencil. This is what it does with the defaults.

  1. Find the effective start. Normally the first day of service. With "yes" for unpaid days, the start moves forward by the number of unpaid days.
  2. Count completed months M between the effective start and the calculation date. A month is complete when the day of the month has been reached, so 1 March to 30 September is 6 months and to 1 October is 7. If the end date is the last day of a shorter month, a start on a later day still counts: 31 January to 28 February is 1 month.
  3. Below 12 months: accrued days are 0 until M reaches the threshold (7), then M × 2.
  4. From 12 months: split M into whole years Y and leftover months R. Accrued = Y × 30 + R × 2.5, where the 2.5 is the pro rata fraction of the current year.
  5. Balance = accrued + carried-in days minus days taken. A negative balance means more has been taken than earned so far.
  6. Payout estimate (only if you enter a basic wage) = balance × wage ÷ 30, or 0 if the balance is not positive.

Nothing is rounded in the middle. The display shows two decimals.

Four worked examples

These use the defaults. They show what the formula does, not what a court would decide.

  • Joined 5 January 2026, calculated on 5 September 2026. 8 completed months, so 8 × 2 = 16 days. With 4 days taken the balance is 12.
  • Joined 5 January 2026, calculated on 5 June 2026. 5 completed months, below the threshold, so 0 days.
  • Joined 1 March 2023, calculated on 5 October 2026, 60 days taken. 43 completed months: 3 whole years (90 days) plus 7 leftover months at 2.5 (17.5 days) gives 107.5 days and a balance of 47.5. On an illustrative basic wage of AED 9,000 the daily rate is AED 300, so the estimate is AED 14,250. Set the leftover field to 0 to count only the 90 days of full years: balance 30, estimate AED 9,000.
  • Joined 1 October 2025, calculated on 5 October 2026, 30 unpaid days. Counting unpaid days as service: 12 months, so 30 days. Pushing the start forward by 30 days: 11 months, so 22 days. That 8 day gap is why the switch exists.

What Article 29 settles, and what you decide

The text of Article 29 is short. Reading it against the calculator shows three things it fixes and four it leaves open, and the open ones are where two careful people get different numbers.

Fixed by the text

  • The amounts. Not less than 30 days for each year of extended service, and 2 days for each month where service is more than six months and less than a year.
  • The last part of a year. A worker whose service ends before the balance is used gets leave for the parts of the last year spent at work (paragraph 1c and paragraph 9).
  • The wage. Paragraph 9 ties the leave wage for parts of the year to the basic wage. Using the basic wage for the whole payout is the common and prudent reading, so the calculator does that.

Left to you

  • How to count the part of a year. The article says "in proportion to the period he spent in work" and gives no formula. Months at 30 ÷ 12 is one reading. Counting calendar days gives a slightly different number. Pick one and use it for everyone.
  • The six month boundary. "More than six months" can mean month seven has begun, or six months and a day. The threshold field covers both.
  • Unpaid leave. Article 29 does not say whether unpaid days reduce the service that leave is earned on. The switch is yours to set from your contract.
  • The daily rate. The law names the basic wage but no divisor. Dividing by 30 is an assumption, and the field is editable.

Carry over, holidays and payment at exit

Paragraph 5 of Article 29 is the carry-over rule: the worker may, with the approval of his employer and in accordance with the regulations at the establishment, carry forward the annual leave balance or days of it to the following year. So the starting point is approval, and it belongs in your written policy. Paragraph 8 adds a limit on the employer: it may not stop a worker from using leave accrued for more than two years, unless the worker wishes to carry it forward or receive a cash allowance.

The Executive Regulations (Cabinet Resolution 1 of 2022) can add detail on carry-over and cash allowances. Public commentary describes a cap of half the annual leave, but the figure is not in the Article 29 text, so this page does not build it in. Check the current wording on mohre.gov.ae before you set a cap in a policy. The calculator has no cap: you enter the days that were approved.

Paragraph 7 matters for counting taken days: official holidays that fall inside a worker's annual leave are included in the leave period, unless the contract or the establishment's rules are more favourable. If you apply that, count those holidays among the days taken.

When a worker quits, paragraph 9 gives the wage for accrued leave days not yet used, and ties the leave wage for parts of the year to the basic wage. The calculator applies the basic wage to the whole payout. For dismissal cases, check mohre.gov.ae. That is the payout line in the calculator.

End of service gratuity is a separate calculation. Use the end of service calculator (Arabic) or the English UAE gratuity calculator. Unused leave pay and gratuity are separate lines on a settlement.

Who this page is for, and who it is not

It is written for the owner or office manager of a small private sector company who needs a defensible number quickly. It is not for government employees, and free zones or specific sectors may have their own rules, so ask the authority that regulates your licence. If a contract says more than the statutory minimum, enter the contract figure.

There is also a broader annual leave calculator for the UAE and Saudi Arabia. This page is the UAE only version with unpaid leave, carried days and payout in one form.

After the calculator: what HR FLARE can and cannot do

The calculator answers one person on one day. A team needs the same answer every month, and a spreadsheet tends to drift. HR FLARE is a place to keep the record. It is not a legal engine.

  • It can take a leave request from an employee (a free-text reason is required), route it to a manager, and update the balance when it is approved. Leave can be a yearly grant or a monthly accrual, and unused days can carry over.
  • You set the numbers. You choose the days and the accrual, for example 2 days a month. There is no built-in UAE rule set, so the checks above still apply.
  • It does not decide whether unpaid days reduce service, whether a carry-over was approved, or what a fair part-year method is.
  • Public holidays are not deducted from a balance in HR FLARE, which differs from paragraph 7 above. If you follow that paragraph, adjust the balance by hand.
  • Payroll is records and payslips only. A leave payout figure is something you enter. There is no tax calculation and no filing.
  • Schedules are self-planned by each person. There is no manager-built rota.

It is free to get started for up to 5 employees, with flat paid plans above that on the pricing page. The product is hosted in Europe and DSGVO-ready.

Sources

Sources checked on 5 October 2026. The article and paragraph numbers on this page are those of the official English text of Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021 on the regulation of employment relationships, which is a non-official translation. The Arabic text prevails.

UAE annual leave questions, answered

How many days of annual leave do I get in the UAE private sector?
At least 30 days of paid leave for each year of extended service, under Article 29 of Federal Decree-Law 33 of 2021. A contract may give more, and the calculator lets you change the number.
Do I get leave before completing one year of service?
Yes, after the first six months. Article 29 gives 2 days for each month where service is more than six months and less than a year. Eight completed months therefore gives 16 days, and five completed months gives none. Whether the seventh month must have started is a reading question, so the calculator asks for 7 completed months by default and lets you enter 6.
What happens to the part of a year at the end of employment?
Article 29 gives leave for the parts of the last year spent at work if service ends before the balance is used, in proportion to the period worked. It gives no formula. The calculator spreads 30 days over 12 months, which is 2.5 days per leftover month. Treat that as an estimate and set the field to 0 to count full years only.
Does unpaid leave reduce my annual leave?
Article 29 does not say. The calculator makes it your choice: with the switch on, unpaid days push the service date forward, and the 30 unpaid day example moves 30 days of leave to 22. Check your contract or ask MOHRE before applying it to a real person.
Can I carry unused annual leave to next year?
Only with the employer's approval. Article 29, paragraph 5, lets the worker carry the balance or days of it to the following year with the employer's approval and under the establishment's regulations. The Executive Regulations may add detail, so check the current text on mohre.gov.ae. Enter carried days in the calculator only where they were approved.
Is unused leave paid out when employment ends, and on which salary?
Paragraph 9 of Article 29 covers a worker who quits before using accrued days: the worker gets the wage for them, and the leave wage for parts of the year is calculated according to the basic wage. For dismissal cases, check mohre.gov.ae. The calculator applies the basic wage to the whole payout, the common and prudent reading, as balance times monthly basic wage divided by 30. The divisor of 30 is an assumption and can be edited.
Do public holidays or sick days during leave count as leave days?
For public holidays, Article 29, paragraph 7, says official holidays falling inside the leave are included in the leave period, unless the contract or the establishment's rules are more favourable. The calculator does not model this, so count them among the days taken if you apply it. Sick days are not covered here. HR FLARE does not deduct public holidays from a balance.
Does annual leave count toward end of service gratuity?
No, gratuity is a separate calculation with its own rules. See the end of service calculator linked above. Unused leave pay is its own line on a final settlement.

Keep reading

End of service calculator (Arabic)Gratuity, the other half of a final settlement Annual leave: UAE and Saudi ArabiaThe shorter, two country calculator HR software in DubaiFor small businesses PricingFree for up to 5 employees

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