Annual leave for domestic workers: 21 days, the cycle, and when you pay it out

Annual leave is the entitlement most employers believe they understand and most get slightly wrong. The rules are short, but the details - when leave must be taken, when it is paid and when it may be paid out - are where disputes start.

How much leave

• The standard rule: 21 consecutive days of fully paid leave in each annual leave cycle. Because this counts calendar days, it equals three weeks: 15 working days if your employee works five days a week, 9 if three days.
• The alternative: by written agreement, one day of leave for every 17 days worked, or one hour for every 17 hours worked. Common for part-time and newly started employees.
• The cycle: 12 months, counted from the day your employee started - not the calendar year.

When leave must be taken

• You decide the timing, but only after consulting your employee. A dated, written leave plan avoids arguments.
• Within six months after the cycle ends. Leave not given by then is a breach, even if your employee never asked.
• Not during notice. You may not tell an employee to take leave while working out a notice period, unless the leave was already due to start.
• Leave can be split only by agreement. Without agreement, the 21 days are taken as one block.

How leave is paid

• Before the leave starts. The pay for the leave days is due in advance, or on the normal pay day if your employee asks.
• At the normal rate. Pay each leave day at what your employee would have earned that day.
• Show it on the payslip: leave taken and leave balance, so both of you can see them.

A worked example at the minimum wage

Take an employee on the national minimum wage of R30.23 an hour, five days and 45 hours a week, about R5,894.85 a month. Twelve months are complete and no leave has been taken:

• Leave owed: 21 calendar days = 15 working days
• One day's pay: R5,894.85 x 3 / 13 / 5 = R272.07
• Pay for the leave block: 15 x R272.07 = R4,081.05

Because it is a fully paid block, this is not extra cost on top of salary - your employee simply does not work, and you still pay the normal wage. The cost to plan for is a stand-in, if you need one. Try your own figures:

Calculator by CalcSA - open the leave pay calculator if it does not load.

And the leave built up so far for a shorter period of service:

Calculator by CalcSA - open the leave accrual calculator if it does not load.

Paying leave out instead of letting it be taken

• Not allowed while the job continues. You may not pay your employee instead of giving the leave, even if your employee asks for the cash.
• Allowed when the job ends. Any leave built up and not taken is paid out in the final pay. See notice, severance and final pay.
• Part-year: on leaving, the balance is worked out from the days or hours your employee actually worked in the cycle.

Common mistakes

• Treating leave as a December-only gift. The cycle runs from the start date, so leave falls due at different times for each employee. For the year-end angle, see bonus and leave pay at year end.
• Paying cash for leave in the middle of the job. It does not discharge the leave owed.
• Counting 21 working days. It is 21 calendar days, so 15 working days on a five-day week.
• Mixing up sick and annual leave. They are separate entitlements; see sick and family responsibility leave.
• No written record. Keep the dates taken and the balance for at least three years, and put the rules in the employment contract.

General information, not legal advice. Every figure we use is on the rates page with its source.