How to calculate annual leave: the 20-day minimum, the pro-rata entitlement for mid-year hires, the indemnity based on the last 3 months and the rules for part-time work.
Translated from Romanian. This article covers Romanian labour and tax law; the Romanian version is canonical and is updated first.
Calculating annual leave looks simple until you meet the first real case: someone who joined in August, someone on a part-time contract, or someone going on leave right after a month with a lot of overtime. Each of these situations has its own rule. Here is the calculation, step by step.
The Labour Code (Codul Muncii) guarantees a minimum of 20 working days of annual leave per year, for a full calendar year worked. A collective or individual agreement may grant more — the minimum cannot be reduced.
Two rules that are frequently forgotten:
Certain categories are entitled to additional days: employees with disabilities, young people under 18, and those working in hard, harmful or dangerous conditions.
The most common case. If the employee has not worked the full year, the entitlement is granted in proportion to the period actually worked.
The practical formula:
days due = (annual leave days ÷ 12) × number of months worked
Example. An employee entitled to 20 days per year, hired on 1 August, works 5 months to the end of the year: 20 ÷ 12 × 5 = 8.33 days, so roughly 8 days for that year.
The same logic applies on leaving the company: the pro-rata entitlement is calculated up to the termination date, and untaken days are compensated in cash.
During leave, the employee receives an indemnity, not automatically their “usual salary”. The calculation rule:
The safeguard for the employee: the amount calculated this way is compared with the base salary, premiums and permanent allowances due for that period under the contract — and the higher of the two is paid. In practice, an employee cannot lose out by going on leave.
What does not count towards the base: occasional bonuses, irregular premiums, meal vouchers. Confusing permanent and occasional elements is the most common source of miscalculation.
The indemnity is paid, as a rule, at least 5 working days before the leave starts.
This is where the most widespread misinterpretation occurs. An employee on a part-time contract — whether they work 2, 4 or 6 hours a day — is entitled to the same minimum number of days of leave as a full-time employee: 20 working days for a full year.
What is adjusted is not the number of days but the salary entitlements, which are granted in proportion to the time actually worked. In other words: the same number of days off, an indemnity proportional to the contracted hours.
The situation is different if the work is performed on only a few days a week — then leave is calculated in proportion to the number of days actually worked.
How many days of annual leave does an employee get per year? A minimum of 20 working days for a full calendar year. More may be granted by contract, and some categories (disability, young people under 18, hard conditions) are entitled to additional days.
How is the annual leave indemnity calculated? The daily average of earnings over the last 3 months (base plus permanent premiums), divided by the working days in those months, multiplied by the number of leave days. It is compared with the contractual entitlements for the period and the higher amount is paid.
What happens to untaken leave at the end of the year? It is not lost: it is carried over and must be granted, as a rule, within the following 18 months. It is compensated in cash only on termination of the contract.
Can annual leave be paid out in cash? Not during the contract. The only situation in which cash compensation is permitted is the termination of the employment relationship, whatever the reason.
How is leave calculated for an employee on a part-time contract? They receive the same minimum of 20 working days as a full-time employee. What is granted proportionally is the salary entitlements, not the number of days.
For the general framework of the right to leave see annual leave in 2026, and for compensation on departure — payment for untaken leave.
The pro-rata calculation, the 3-month average and the comparison with contractual entitlements are exactly the kind of operations that spreadsheets do “approximately” — until someone spots a difference on the payroll. Workly’s Leave module automatically calculates the pro-rata entitlement for people hired during the year, keeps the balance up to date for every employee, and flags days approaching the carry-over deadline.
Requests are submitted and approved digitally, and approval is reflected instantly in the balance and in the time records — no parallel files, no lost emails, so the days paid on the payroll match the days approved in the system. Computing the indemnity (the 3-month average with permanent premiums included) and compensating untaken days on termination are currently handled as adjustments — automating them is in progress. For the question “how many days do I have left?”, the internal assistant Modi answers deterministically, from the employee’s real data — with no external LLM, so no risk of an invented figure.
Informational article, accurate at the date of publication. Not legal advice. Annual leave rules depend on the specific situation and may change — always check the framework in force (the Labour Code) or consult a specialist before making a decision.
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