Egypt Public Holidays & Annual Leave 2026: The Full Calendar + Who's Owed What (Free Tracker)
In Egypt, annual leave depends on service and age, not a flat number: employees earn 15 days in year one, 21 days from year two, and 30 days once they pass 10 years of service or turn 50. Get the entitlement or a public-holiday date wrong and you either underpay staff or leave a shift with no cover.
This guide gives you both halves of the answer — the statutory leave ladder under Labour Law No. 14 of 2025, and the full 2026 public-holiday calendar with the movable Islamic dates flagged. Figures here are drawn from Law 14/2025 and published holiday sources; treat any legal or payroll decision as one to confirm with your accountant or lawyer against the latest official decree.
How much annual leave are Egyptian employees owed? (Law 14/2025)
Under Labour Law No. 14 of 2025 (in force since 1 September 2025), paid annual leave scales with length of service — and there's a loyalty and an age uplift built in. A first-year hire is not owed the same as a ten-year veteran, and getting this right is the difference between a clean file and a dispute.
Here is the full ladder:
| Tenure / status | Annual leave days |
|---|---|
| Year 1 (first year of service) | 15 days |
| From year 2 onward | 21 days |
| After 10 years' service or age 50+ | 30 days |
The 30-day tier triggers on either condition — ten years with the employer, or reaching 50 — whichever comes first. So a 51-year-old you hired last year still qualifies for 30 days, even though they're in year one with you. Track both the hire date and the birth date, because the age trigger is easy to miss.
Entitlement is only half the picture — how it converts to pay flows through gross salary, income tax and social insurance. If you want to sanity-check a leave day's value against take-home pay, run the numbers in our Egypt salary calculator.
Egypt public holidays 2026: the full calendar
Egypt's public holidays split into two groups. Civil holidays sit on fixed calendar dates you can plan a year ahead. Islamic holidays are moon-sighted, so the exact days shift and the Egyptian Cabinet announces the official days off each year — plan around them, but don't print them as final.
The fixed civil holidays for 2026:
| Holiday | 2026 date |
|---|---|
| Coptic Christmas | Jan 7 |
| Revolution Day / Police Day | Jan 25 |
| Sinai Liberation Day | Apr 25 |
| Labour Day | May 1 |
| June 30 Revolution | Jun 30 |
| Revolution Day (National Day) | Jul 23 |
| Armed Forces Day | Oct 6 |
| Sham El-Nessim | Monday after Coptic Easter (spring; movable) |
The moon-sighted Islamic holidays are approximate and may shift a day or two:
| Holiday (approx. — subject to moon sighting) | 2026 window |
|---|---|
| Ramadan begins | ~Feb 19 |
| Eid al-Fitr | ~Mar 20–22 |
| Eid al-Adha | ~May 27–29 |
| Islamic (Hijri) New Year | ~Jun 17 |
| Prophet's Birthday (Mawlid) | ~late Aug |
For the full statutory backdrop behind these days off — contracts, notice, probation and more — see our Egypt Labour Law 2025 employer guide.
Carry-over, sick and casual leave — and planning around holidays
Annual leave and public holidays are the parts with hard numbers. Carry-over, sick leave and casual leave are where teams get tripped up, because the day counts depend on your contracts, internal policy and the current regulations — so verify the specifics rather than assume a figure.
A practical planning checklist for 2026:
- Log each employee's hire date and date of birth, so the 21-day and 30-day tiers trigger automatically.
- Map the fixed civil holidays into your roster now; pencil in the moon-sighted Islamic ones as provisional.
- When a public holiday falls on a rest day, confirm your make-up-day or pay treatment against the latest decree — don't assume.
- Write down your carry-over policy: how many unused annual-leave days roll into 2027, and the cut-off. Confirm the exact statutory cap with your lawyer.
- Keep sick and casual leave on a separate ledger from annual leave; their day counts follow your contract and current law, not the annual-leave ladder.
- Book cover for the Eid windows early — they're the longest closures and the ones most likely to shift by a day.
Worked example: a 52-year-old hired in March 2026 is owed 30 days annual leave — the age-50 trigger applies immediately, even though it's her first year with you. A 26-year-old in her second year is owed 21.
Want it all pre-filled? Our free Egypt 2026 Leave & Public-Holiday Planner lays out the leave ladder and the full calendar in one sheet — grab it from the download below and adapt it to your team.
Egypt 2026 Leave & Public-Holiday Planner
The annual-leave ladder, the full 2026 public-holiday calendar (with the moon-sighted dates flagged), and a simple leave tracker in one sheet.
The honest catch
A calendar and a leave ladder make you faster and more compliant — but they're still a spreadsheet. They don't watch a new hire cross into their 21-day tier, they don't stop a holiday clash with an approved leave request, and they don't carry a leave balance through to the payslip.
That's the gap The Five HR closes: hiring, employee records, leave and Egyptian payroll live in one bilingual workspace, so an approved day off and a public holiday both land on the right payroll run without re-keying anything.
Run hiring, leave and Egyptian payroll in one place — free for 2 months
The Five HR connects recruitment, employee records and Egypt-ready payroll in one bilingual workspace. Start free for two months, no card required.
Start free for 2 monthsLeave & holidays 2026 — quick answers
How many annual leave days are Egyptian employees entitled to in 2026?
Under Labour Law 14/2025: 15 days in the first year of service, 21 days from the second year onward, and 30 days once an employee completes 10 years of service or reaches age 50 — whichever comes first. Confirm accrual details with your lawyer against the latest official text. (These tenure tiers match <a href="https://iclg.com/briefing/22865-key-changes-under-egypt-s-new-labor-law-no-14-of-2025/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ICLG's summary of Egypt's Labor Law 14/2025</a>.)
What are the public holidays in Egypt for 2026?
Fixed civil days off include Coptic Christmas (Jan 7), Revolution/Police Day (Jan 25), Sinai Liberation (Apr 25), Labour Day (May 1), June 30 Revolution, Revolution/National Day (Jul 23) and Armed Forces Day (Oct 6), plus Sham El-Nessim (the Monday after Coptic Easter). Islamic holidays — Eid al-Fitr (~Mar 20–22), Eid al-Adha (~May 27–29), the Hijri New Year (~Jun 17) and the Mawlid (~late Aug) — are moon-sighted and confirmed each year by the Egyptian Cabinet.
Are the 2026 Islamic holiday dates final?
No. Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, the Islamic New Year and the Prophet's Birthday are set by moon sighting and can shift one to two days. The Egyptian Cabinet announces the official paid days off each year, so treat the dates here as approximate and confirm against that decree before finalising rosters or payroll.
Does an older new hire still get 30 days of annual leave?
Yes. The 30-day tier triggers on either 10 years of service or reaching age 50 — the conditions are an OR. So an employee aged 50 or over qualifies for 30 days even in their first year with you. Track both hire date and date of birth so the tier applies automatically.