UAE labour law · updated 2026
Work out your leave salary, the cash you are owed for annual leave you did not take. Enter your basic salary and your unused days, and see the figure in AED.
Any annual leave you have not taken is paid out in cash when you leave, and it is worked on your basic salary.
This is an estimate based on UAE Labour Law (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021). For educational purposes only. Consult a licensed UAE advisor for your specific situation.
Five plain English answers to the questions people ask most about unused leave.
01
Leave salary is the money paid for annual leave you did not use.
When your job ends, any leave days you were entitled to but never took are paid out in cash. It sits as a separate line from your gratuity, and it is your right, not a bonus.
The sum is simple. Take your basic salary, divide it by thirty for a daily figure, and multiply that by the number of unused days.
02
A full year of service earns 30 days of annual leave.
That works out at about two and a half days for every month worked. Between six months and a year, leave builds up more slowly, at two days a month.
Under six months there is usually no annual leave entitlement yet, though your contract can always offer more than the legal minimum.
03
For unused leave paid at the end, only your basic salary is used.
This is an important detail that people miss. While you are employed and take your leave normally, it is paid on your full wage including allowances. The cash paid for an unused balance when you leave is worked on basic salary alone.
So if allowances are a large part of your package, the payout can look smaller than a normal paid leave month. That is the law, set out in Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021.
04
Your employer or HR system holds your leave balance.
Ask for it in writing before your last day, and check it against your own record of the leave you actually took. Balances are easy to miscount, especially across a long year.
If the numbers do not match, raise it early. Once you sign the final settlement, it is much harder to correct.
05
Leave salary is settled with the rest of your end of service money.
That includes your final salary, notice pay if any, and your gratuity, and it should arrive within the same window as those dues after your last working day.
Check the breakdown line by line. If the unused days or the daily figure look wrong, question it before you sign anything off.