Additional leave compliance rules and complexities

Annual leave

Employees in China work 8 hours a day, 5 days per week. Overtime is generally limited to one hour a day, though on rare occasions it can stretch to 3 hours a day, so long as it doesn’t exceed 36 hours per month. Annual leave is determined by the employee’s length of employment. For the first year in a role, they have no leave entitlement. They get 5 days’ annual leave a year after this, and when they’ve been in the role for more than 10 years, they get 10 days’ annual leave. This is increased once more to 15 days’ annual leave once they’ve been in the role for more than 20 years.

Chinese workers are also entitled to up to 10 days’ marriage leave (the exact amount varies from city to city), and up to 3 days’ bereavement leave.

Sick leave

Sick leave also varies depending on how long the employee’s been in a role. If they’ve been in the role for 2 years or less, they can take up to 6 months of sick leave at 60% of their regular wages. The proportion of wages they receive increases steadily in line with the amount of time they spend in the job until, once they’ve been in the role for 8 years or more, they get 100% of their regular wages. For long-term illnesses lasting more than 6 months, new employees get 40% of their regular wages, which grows to 50% once they’ve spent more than a year in the role, and 60% once they’ve spent 3 years or more in the role.

Maternity and paternity leave

Female employees can take up to 98 days of maternity leave, and some cities offer additional maternity leave if the woman gives birth after the age of 23. Fathers can take 10 days of paid paternity leave.