Free tool
Singapore Annual Leave Calculator
Enter the day you started and this works out the paid annual leave the Employment Act guarantees you, pro-rated by completed months using MOM's formula. It gives you the legal floor. Your contract may well give more.
The date you started with this employer, not the date you signed.
Today, or your last day of service. A notice period you are serving counts.
In this leave year only. Leave it at 0 if you have taken none.
Fill this in and the same MOM pro-rating runs on your contractual figure.
Enter your first day of work to see the entitlement.
This is the legal floor, not your entitlement. Most Singapore employers give more than the Employment Act minimum. Where your contract is more generous, the contract is what you are owed. Check it before you rely on this number.
What the number means
The Employment Act sets a minimum, not a market rate. Seven days in your first year, one more for each additional year of service, 14 from the eighth year onward. Plenty of Singapore contracts start at 14 to 21 days, so for many people this calculator returns a number well below what they actually get. That is what it is for. It tells you the floor your employer cannot go under, and where your contract is more generous, the contract is what you are owed.
The floor matters in two places. A contract that says only "annual leave as per the Employment Act" is promising you this table and nothing more. And at the end of employment, unused leave is paid out, so the number of days you have earned stops being abstract.
The statutory entitlement, year by year
| Year of service | Days of paid annual leave |
|---|---|
| 1st year | 7 days |
| 2nd year | 8 days |
| 3rd year | 9 days |
| 4th year | 10 days |
| 5th year | 11 days |
| 6th year | 12 days |
| 7th year | 13 days |
| 8th year and thereafter | 14 days |
MOM: your year of service begins from the day you start work with your employer, so this table turns over on your work anniversary rather than on 1 January. Many employers run their leave year on the calendar instead. That is a contractual arrangement, so check which year your own leave is counted in.
The three-month gate
MOM states two things plainly: "You are entitled to paid annual leave if you have worked for your employer for at least 3 months", and "You can only apply for annual leave after working for 3 months." Below three completed months the calculator returns no entitlement, because there is no statutory entitlement to return. Pro-rating starts once the gate is cleared, and MOM adds that it applies even if you are still on probation.
How an incomplete year is pro-rated
For any year of service you have not completed, MOM pro-rates by completed months:
(Number of completed months of service / 12 months) x Number of days of annual leave entitlement
The rounding rule, in MOM’s words: "If the fraction of a day is less than one-half, round it down. If it is half or more, round it up to one day." So 3.33 days becomes 3, and 3.5 days becomes 4.
A completed month runs from your start date to the day before the same date in the next month. Part months are dropped entirely, and MOM is explicit about it: on an employee who started on 14 Mar 2014 and left on 31 Jul 2014, "14 Mar 2014 to 13 Jul 2014 = 4 completed months. The period from 14 to 31 July 2014 is disregarded as it is not a completed month."
MOM's own worked examples
These three are published by MOM with the numbers filled in. They are reproduced here so you can check our arithmetic against theirs rather than take our word for it.
A mid-year leaver
Started 14 Mar 2014, left service on 31 Jul 2014, entitled to 10 days of leave a year. That is 4 completed months of service.
(4 / 12) x 10 days = 3.33 days, rounded down to 3 days
Unpaid leave taken during the year
Entitled to 12 days a year, took 1 day of unpaid leave a month from January to April, 4 days in total. The entitlement from 1 January to 30 April is based on 3 completed months.
(3 / 12) x 12 days = 3 days
Resigning, with notice served
Entitled to 12 days a year, took 2 weeks of unpaid leave in March, resigned on 1 August and served one month of notice. The period from 1 January to 31 August excludes March and includes August.
(7 / 12) x 12 days = 7 days
Put any of the three into the calculator above and it returns the same answer. That is enforced, not hoped for: a regression check ships with this page and asserts these three numbers, so if our arithmetic ever drifts from MOM’s, the build fails.
Joining, leaving, and the days that do not count
- Joining part-way through a year
- Your first year is pro-rated on completed months from your start date. MOM notes this applies even while you are on probation, and that the three-month gate has to be cleared first.
- Leaving part-way through a year
- MOM: "If you have resigned, your notice period is included when calculating your pro-rated annual leave." The date to enter above is your last day of service, not the day you handed in the letter.
- Approved unpaid leave
- MOM: "You should exclude periods of approved unpaid leave when calculating your annual leave entitlement." In both of MOM’s worked examples the unpaid days come off the period first, and the completed months are counted on what is left.
- A half working day
- Leave taken on a half working day counts as a full day of leave, though MOM says your employer may choose to treat it as half a day. A Saturday you work from 9am to 1pm is still one full day of leave.
- Shifts longer than 8 hours
- One day of annual leave equals your actual working day. On a 12-hour shift, one day of leave is 12 hours.
Who this applies to
The Employment Act covers anyone working under a contract of service with an employer, local or foreign, full-time, part-time, temporary or contract, and paid hourly, daily, monthly or by piece. It does not cover seafarers, domestic workers, or statutory board employees and civil servants. If you are not covered, your annual leave is whatever your employment contract says it is.
Part 4 of the Act is a narrower group inside that, and it is what decides the carry-forward rule below. Part 4 covers a workman earning a monthly basic salary of $4,500 or less, and an employee who is not a workman but is covered by the Act and earns a monthly basic salary of $2,600 or less. Basic salary excludes overtime, bonus, annual wage supplement, productivity incentive payment, reimbursement for special expenses and all allowances.
The entitlement table itself is not limited to Part 4. It applies to employees covered by the Act who have worked at least three months. Part 4 status changes what happens to the days you do not use.
Carry-forward and forfeiture
- If you are covered under Part 4
- Your employer must allow you to carry forward any unused annual leave to the next 12 months. MOM’s example: leave earned in 2022 and left unused must be carried into 2023, and if it is still unused on 31 December 2023 it can be forfeited.
- If you are not covered under Part 4
- MOM sends you to your employment contract, which decides whether unused leave is encashed, carried forward or forfeited. There is no statutory carry-forward for this group.
- Days above the statutory entitlement
- Also the contract, even for a Part 4 employee. MOM: if the number of days of unused annual leave exceeds the statutory entitlement, check your contract on how that leave should be treated.
- When statutory leave can be forfeited
- MOM gives two grounds: being absent from work without permission or reasonable excuse for more than 20% of the working days in the month or year, and being dismissed on the grounds of misconduct.
Encashment when employment ends
- The rule
- MOM: "If your employment is terminated except for termination due to misconduct, your employer must pay you for unused annual leave at the gross rate of pay based on your last drawn salary." Terminated for misconduct, and unused leave is forfeited instead.
- Offsetting notice with leave is a different thing
- With your employer’s agreement you can use annual leave to offset the notice period and bring your last day forward. MOM is explicit that leave used this way is not paid for by the employer. Applying for approved leave during the notice period is the other case, and that does not shorten the notice.
- Absent without leave
- MOM: if you were absent for more than 2 working days continuously without approval you have breached the contract, you must pay salary in lieu of notice, and your employer is not required to encash your annual leave.
- Why this page returns days and not dollars
- MOM names the rate as the gross rate of pay based on your last drawn salary, but does not publish a daily-rate formula on its annual leave pages. We are not going to invent one. Ask your employer to show the gross rate of pay they used, and check it against your payslip.
This page, the guide and the planner
- This calculator: How many days the law gives you, for a full or a part year.
- Annual leave in Singapore: The background: what the entitlement means, how it accrues, and how employers actually treat it.
- Leave optimizer: Which days to book once you know your balance, so a few leave days buy the longest breaks around public holidays.
What this does not do
- It calculates entitlement, not your balance. Days you have already taken are between you and your leave system.
- It counts your leave year from your work anniversary, which is MOM’s basis. If your employer runs a calendar leave year, set the dates above to that year instead and count the completed months inside it.
- It returns days, never dollars, for the reason given above.
- Public holidays are separate and are not deducted from annual leave. There are 11 gazetted ones a year, and they do not come out of this number.
Common questions
How many days of annual leave am I entitled to in Singapore?
Under the Employment Act, an employee who has worked for their employer for at least 3 months is entitled to 7 days of paid annual leave in the first year of service, rising by one day for each additional year, to 14 days from the eighth year onward. Many employers give more by contract, and where the contract is more generous the contract applies.
How is annual leave pro-rated in Singapore?
MOM pro-rates by completed months: (number of completed months of service / 12 months) x days of annual leave entitlement. If the fraction of a day is less than one-half it is rounded down, and if it is half or more it is rounded up to one day. A part month is disregarded.
Do I get annual leave in my first 3 months?
No. MOM states that you are entitled to paid annual leave once you have worked for your employer for at least 3 months, and that you can only apply for annual leave after working for 3 months. Once the gate is cleared the entitlement is pro-rated on your completed months, including while you are on probation.
What happens to unused annual leave when I resign?
MOM: if your employment is terminated except for termination due to misconduct, your employer must pay you for unused annual leave at the gross rate of pay based on your last drawn salary. Your notice period is included when the pro-rated entitlement is worked out. If you are dismissed for misconduct, unused leave is forfeited.
Can my employer forfeit my annual leave?
Statutory annual leave can be forfeited if you are absent from work without permission or reasonable excuse for more than 20% of the working days in the month or year, or if you are dismissed on the grounds of misconduct. If you are covered under Part 4 of the Employment Act, unused statutory leave must otherwise be carried forward to the next 12 months, and can be forfeited if it is still unused at the end of that period.
Is 14 days the maximum annual leave in Singapore?
It is the maximum the Employment Act requires, reached in the eighth year of service. It is not a cap on what you can be given. Employers are free to offer more, and many do, so the figure in your contract is the one that governs when it is higher.
Do public holidays come out of my annual leave?
No. Singapore’s 11 gazetted public holidays are separate paid days off and are not deducted from your annual leave entitlement.
Sources
- MOM: annual leave eligibility and entitlement (table, pro-ration, rounding, unpaid leave, notice)
- MOM: annual leave in special situations (carry-forward, forfeiture, half days, AWOL)
- MOM: termination with notice (encashment at the gross rate of pay, offsetting notice)
- MOM: who the Employment Act covers, and who is covered under Part 4
This page is information, not legal or employment advice. It states the statutory position and links every rule to the Ministry of Manpower page it comes from. Your employment contract governs where it is more generous, and MOM is the authority on the current rules.