Rest days, statutory holidays and annual leave

The briefing on reading an offer, in the first batch, lists the statutory holidays and the number of days of annual leave. These notes cover the working rules: how a rest day is moved, what happens when you have to work on a statutory holiday, how holiday pay and annual leave pay are worked out, when money may stand in for leave, and how annual leave you have not taken is paid when you leave. They follow Chapters 1 and 4 of the Labour Department's A Concise Guide to the Employment Ordinance (version finalised in December 2025, checked 19 October 2026). Where a term of the contract is more favourable than the statutory standard, follow the contract.

The continuous contract comes first

Rest days and paid annual leave depend on a continuous contract. That means you have been employed by the same employer for 4 weeks or more, and either you work at least 17 hours in each week, or the hours over the 4 weeks come to not less than 68. The 68-hour rule applies from 18 January 2026. The statutory holidays themselves are for every employee. Holiday pay requires 3 months.

Rest days

1. You are entitled to not less than 1 rest day in every 7 days. A rest day is a continuous period of not less than 24 hours in which you are entitled not to work for the employer.
2. The employer appoints the rest day.
   1. A regular rest day: one notice from the employer is enough.
   2. An irregular rest day: the employer must give notice of that month's arrangement before the month begins. The notice may be oral, in writing, or by posting a roster.
3. Moving the day. With your agreement, another rest day may be appointed. It must fall in the same month and before the original rest day, or within 30 days after the original rest day.
4. Being compelled to work. The employer must not compel you to work on a rest day, except where machinery or plant has broken down, or in an emergency. If you are required to work, a substitute rest day must be appointed within 30 days after the original rest day, and you must be told within 48 hours after the original rest day.
5. Working by choice. Apart from a young person under 18 in an industrial undertaking, you may work on a rest day if you choose to. A term of the contract that pays a bonus, or an end-of-year payment, only if you work on a rest day is void.
6. Whether a rest day is paid is for the two sides to agree.
7. Penalties. Failing, without reasonable excuse, to grant a rest day, and compelling an employee to work on a rest day, each carry a maximum fine of HK$50,000.

Statutory holidays

1. From 2026 there are 15 days in all. From 2028, Good Friday is added, and the total is 16 days. From 2030, the day after Good Friday is added, and the total is 17 days. The employer chooses one of the Winter Solstice Festival and Christmas Day.
2. If you are required to work on a statutory holiday, an alternative holiday must be arranged.
   1. Where it is arranged within the 60 days before the statutory holiday, you must be notified at least 48 hours before the alternative holiday.
   2. Where it is arranged within the 60 days after the statutory holiday, you must be notified at least 48 hours before the statutory holiday.
3. If both sides agree, a substituted holiday may be arranged within the 30 days before or after the statutory holiday, or within the 30 days before or after the alternative holiday.
4. If a statutory holiday falls on a rest day, you take the day off on the next day. That next day must not be a statutory holiday, an alternative holiday, a substituted holiday, or a rest day.
5. The holiday cannot be bought out. Whether or not holiday pay is payable, the employer must let you take the statutory holiday, or arrange an alternative holiday or a substituted holiday. Money cannot stand in for it.
6. Penalty. Failing, without reasonable excuse, to let you take the day off, or to pay holiday pay, carries a maximum fine of HK$50,000.

Holiday pay

1. Who qualifies. You have been employed under a continuous contract for a full 3 months immediately before the statutory holiday.
2. The sum for each day. It is the average daily wages over the 12 months before the specified date. If you have been employed for less than 12 months, the shorter period is used. The specified date is the day of the statutory holiday. Where the holiday runs for more than 1 consecutive day, it is the first day.
3. When it is paid. At the latest, on the first pay day after the statutory holiday.
4. In the average daily wages, leave out any period for which you were not paid full wages, and leave out the sums for that period. That includes a rest day, a statutory holiday, annual leave, sick leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, sick leave for a work injury, leave taken with agreement, and a normal working day on which the employer provided no work.

An example, with assumed figures. Over the past 12 months there are 365 days. Leave out 52 rest days, 15 statutory holidays, and 10 days of annual leave. That leaves 288 days. The wages for those 288 days total HK$360,000. Average daily wages are 360,000 ÷ 288 = HK$1,250. Holiday pay for each day of a statutory holiday is HK$1,250.

Paid annual leave

1. The number of days. You earn it for each completed 12 months. Year 1 and year 2: 7 days each. Year 3: 8 days. After that, 1 further day each year. From year 9: 14 days.
2. When it has to be taken. After each completed 12 months, it must be taken within the following 12 months.
3. The dates. The employer consults you and then appoints the dates, with written notice at least 14 days ahead. A shorter period is allowed if both sides agree.
4. Taking it in separate spells, where you ask for that:
   1. If the annual leave is not more than 10 days, not more than 3 days may be taken separately, and the rest must be consecutive.
   2. If the annual leave is more than 10 days, at least 7 days must be consecutive, and the rest may be taken separately.
5. If a rest day or a statutory holiday falls during annual leave, that day counts as annual leave. The employer must appoint another rest day or another statutory holiday.
6. Annual leave pay. It is the average daily wages over the 12 months before the specified date. The specified date is the day of the annual leave, or the first day. It must be paid at the latest on the first pay day after the annual leave.
7. Money in place of leave. You may choose to accept a payment in place of part of the annual leave, but only the part above 10 days. The first 10 days have to be taken as leave.
8. Penalties. Failing to let you take annual leave, and failing to pay annual leave pay, each carry a maximum fine of HK$50,000.

Untaken annual leave when the job ends

1. The leave year. It is the 12 months from the day the employment began, and from each anniversary of that day.
2. Annual leave still untaken after a full leave year. Whatever the reason the contract ends, the employer must pay wages in its place. The specified date for the calculation is the date the contract ends.
3. In the current leave year you have been employed for 3 months or more, but for less than 12 months. Apart from summary dismissal for serious misconduct, pro-rata annual leave pay is due. The formula is: days employed in the current leave year ÷ 365 × the number of days of annual leave for that year.
4. In the current leave year you have been employed for less than 3 months. There is no pro-rata payment for that year. Untaken annual leave carried forward from the previous leave year is still paid.

An example, with assumed figures. You resign on day 146 of your 3rd leave year, a year in which you are entitled to 8 days, and 2 days from the previous year are still untaken. The pro-rata part is 146 ÷ 365 × 8 = 3.2 days. Add the 2 untaken days. The total is 5.2 days of annual leave pay.

A common leave year

1. The employer may appoint any continuous period of 12 months as a common leave year for all employees, for example the calendar year. The employer must give written notice 1 month ahead, or post a notice at the place of work.
2. If you have not completed 12 months inside the common leave year, the entitlement is pro-rata, and a fraction is rounded up to a whole number. The Concise Guide's example: you start on 1 September, and the common leave year is the calendar year. 122 ÷ 365 × 7 = 2.34 days, which rounds up to 3 days. You may take those days in the following year, or combine them with the following year's annual leave.

Disputes that come up often, and a check of your own

1. The company says that annual leave is forfeited if you do not take it. The law requires the employer to let you take it within the following 12 months. If the employer does not arrange it, that may be unlawful. When you leave, annual leave from a completed leave year that you have not taken must be paid as wages.
2. The company pays a holiday allowance in place of a statutory holiday. That is buying out the holiday, and it is not lawful.
3. Annual leave pay is worked out on basic salary alone. Annual leave pay is the average wages over 12 months. Which payments count is set out in Appendix 1 of the Concise Guide. Whether commission, or a recurrent allowance, is included follows the definition in Appendix 1.
4. Holiday pay and annual leave should be clear on the payslip. Check the payslip each month. If a sum is short, raise it in writing, and do it promptly.

Sources

• Labour Department, A Concise Guide to the Employment Ordinance, Chapter 1, Chapter 4, and Appendix 1 (version finalised in December 2025, checked 19 October 2026)