Annual leave in Albania: how many days is an employee entitled to, and how are they paid?

In Albania, paid annual leave is at least 22 working days for each working year, under Article 92 of the Labour Code, as amended by Law no. 91/2024. Public holidays are not counted within it. Someone who has not worked a full year gets days in proportion, and during the leave they are paid the salary they would receive while working.

Until August 2024, the Code required “no less than 4 calendar weeks”. Law no. 91/2024, published in the Official Gazette on 9 August 2024 and in force 15 days after publication, replaced this with “22 working days”. With a 5-day working week, this makes 4 weeks and 2 days. The law also removed the requirement that leave should never be given in less than one uninterrupted calendar week. Some information pages, including the State Labour Inspectorate’s page on the employment contract, still say 4 weeks; the text of the law applies, and it is also in the updated Code that the Inspectorate itself publishes.

How many days of annual leave the Labour Code gives

The Code sets the minimum. The collective or individual contract may give more days (Article 92), but not fewer. The main rules are these:

An employee cannot waive the mandatory rights of the Code, and settlement agreements before the labour inspector do not apply to paid annual leave (Article 11). The employer also keeps a register for each employee, with the start date of work, the leave days owed, the dates they were taken and the pay given for them (Article 95).

Annual leave is not the only paid leave. Article 96 gives 5 days of paid leave for the employee’s marriage or for the death of a spouse, cohabiting partner, or direct ascendants or descendants, and 3 days of paid leave for the spouse or cohabiting partner when a child is born. For the mother, the rules on maternity leave apply, which social insurance pays. Work on public holidays is not leave, but is compensated with a supplement on the pay and time off, as we explain in overtime (in Albanian).

How annual leave is calculated for a part year

When an employee has not worked a full year, leave is calculated in proportion to the time worked (Article 92). The formula is simple: leave days = 22 x months worked / 12. If the contract gives more than 22 days, put the contract number in the formula. The examples here count the working year as the calendar year, from 1 January to 31 December.

An employee who starts on 1 May has 8 months of work to the end of the year, so 14.67 days of leave. The Code does not say how parts of a day are rounded. We would write the rule into the contract or the internal regulations, rounding up in the employee’s favour, so that the question does not come up only when they leave.

Days on a medical certificate count as working time, so they do not reduce the leave. We explain how they are paid in medical certificates (sick leave) (in Albanian).

How annual leave is paid in Albania

Article 94 of the Labour Code sets the leave pay as follows:

• The leave pay is what the employee would receive if they were not on leave, and it is the salary they have at the time they take the leave.
• If the salary varies, as with commissions or piece-rate pay, the leave pay is calculated on the monthly average of the previous year.
• When the employee also receives pay in kind, such as food or accommodation, fair compensation is added for this part, according to criteria set by the Council of Ministers.
• The pay for the leave is paid to the employee at the time the leave is taken.
• If during the leave the employee does paid work for others, against the legitimate interests of the employer, the employer may refuse to pay for the leave or ask for the advance pay back.

The Code defines salary as the basic salary plus allowances of a permanent nature (Article 109). One-off bonuses, such as the 13th-month salary (in Albanian), have their own rules.

How annual leave shows on the payroll list

For an employee with a fixed monthly salary, leave does not change the payroll list (the monthly payroll declaration): leave days are paid as working days, with the same gross salary. Contributions and personal income tax (TAP) are withheld as in any other month, because Article 117 requires the employer to deduct them from the salary. For a salary of 80,000 lek gross, the employee receives 64,540 lek net in the month on leave too; for your own salary, see the salary calculator. You will find the contribution rates and the ceiling in social and health contributions 2026.

Only the records change: in the attendance sheet, the days are marked as annual leave, so that the Article 95 register and the remaining days come out right. For pay with commissions, the base is the monthly average of the previous year: if a sales agent received 1,080,000 lek gross in total in 2025, the leave pay in 2026 is calculated on 90,000 lek a month.

For the business, leave is a cost without work: 12 months are paid, but fewer days are worked. We calculate how this affects the cost per hour of work in how much an employee costs in 2026.

Unused leave and leaving the job

Leave is given during the working year or by the end of the first quarter of the following year (Article 93). For calendar year 2026, the deadline is 31 March 2027. The Code has another deadline too: the right to leave that is not given by the employer or not taken by the employee lapses within three years of the day it arises.

During the employment relationship, leave is not replaced with money. When the relationship ends and the employee has unused days, they are entitled to compensation equal to the pay for those days (Article 94).

Worked example: the remaining days when an employee leaves

Arta has a gross salary of 90,000 lek a month and her contract gives her the legal minimum, 22 working days. She leaves on 30 September 2026. During 2026 she has taken 8 days of leave, and she took all of her 2025 leave.

1. Entitlement for 2026: 22 x 9 / 12 = 16.5 days, for the 9 months January-September.
2. Unused days: 16.5 - 8 = 8.5 days.
3. Daily pay: the Code gives no formula. With an average of 22 working days a month, as in our calculator, 90,000 / 22 = 4,090.91 lek. If the contract or the internal regulations set another method, that one is used.
4. Compensation for the leave: 8.5 x 4,090.91 = 34,773 lek gross, on top of the September salary.

We record this amount as a separate line in the final payroll list, because Articles 118 and 119 require the employer to give the employee a breakdown of every element of the pay. The Code does not cover the opposite case, when the employee has taken more leave than they were owed; before deducting anything from the final salary, talk to your accountant or lawyer.

The recommended solution: leave and the payroll list in devBooks

devHR keeps the staff’s clock-ins and clock-outs, shifts and leave, on the web and on mobile, and passes the data to devBooks. The devBooks human resources and payroll module calculates the payroll list with bonuses, deductions and the calendar of public holidays, and with the posting schemes you configure it goes into the accounts by itself. You set the number of days in the contract and the rounding rule; the program does not replace the contract or the internal regulations.

Sources

• The Labour Code, updated 2024 (State Labour Inspectorate)
• QBZ (Official Publications Centre): Law no. 91/2024 on the changes to the Labour Code (annual leave of 22 working days)
• How much an employee costs in Albania in 2026
• Medical certificates: the payment rules (in Albanian)
• The gross to net salary calculator

To see how leave and your staff’s payroll list are kept in devBooks, see devBooks pricing or write to us for a demo with your own data.