Sick Leave Hong Kong: Entitlement, Pay and Medical Certificates

If you are trying to understand sick leave Hong Kong rules in 2026, start by separating ordinary absence from statutory paid sick leave. Being too unwell to work does not automatically mean that every day away from work qualifies for statutory sickness allowance. Hong Kong uses an accumulation system: eligible employees build up paid sick days over time, and statutory payment applies only when the relevant legal conditions are met.

The core rules are quite specific. Under a continuous contract, you accumulate 2 paid sickness days for each completed month during your first 12 months of employment, then 4 days for each completed month thereafter. The balance can continue building throughout employment, but it cannot exceed 120 days at any one time. For an ordinary sickness absence to qualify for statutory sickness allowance, the period generally needs to be at least 4 consecutive days, you need sufficient accumulated paid sickness days, and the absence needs the appropriate medical documentation.

This distinction is particularly important for employees whose companies offer generous internal sick-leave policies. Your employer might pay you in full for a one-day illness even though that absence does not meet the normal statutory four-consecutive-day threshold. That is a contractual company benefit, not evidence that Hong Kong law gives every employee a fixed annual allocation of fully paid sick leave.

There is also a relevant 2026 change for part-time and irregular-hours employees. From 18 January 2026, the continuous-contract working-hours test was revised. An employee who has been continuously employed by the same employer for at least 4 weeks can meet the working-hours requirement by working at least 17 hours in each week or, where a week falls below 17 hours, by satisfying the applicable 68-hours-over-4-weeks test. This can affect whether an employee qualifies to accumulate statutory sickness days in the first place.

What Is the Sick Leave Entitlement in Hong Kong?

The statutory sick leave entitlement Hong Kong system is different from annual leave. You do not receive a fresh annual block such as “12 sick days per year”. Instead, you build a bank of statutory paid sickness days month by month while you remain employed under a continuous contract.

During the first 12 months of employment, you accumulate 2 paid sickness days after each completed month. This means that, assuming you have not used any statutory paid sickness days, you can have 24 days accumulated after completing the first 12 months.

From the 13th completed month onwards, the accumulation rate doubles to 4 paid sickness days for each completed month. If none have been used, the balance reaches 36 days after 15 completed months. Further accrual then moves into Category 2 until the overall statutory maximum of 120 days is reached.

Completed Employment Milestone	Accrual Rate	Total If None Used	Category Position
1 month	2 paid sickness days per completed month	2 days	Category 1
3 months	2 days per completed month	6 days	Category 1
6 months	2 days per completed month	12 days	Category 1
12 months	2 days per completed month	24 days	Category 1
13 months	4 days per completed month thereafter	28 days	Category 1
15 months	4 days per completed month thereafter	36 days	Category 1 reaches its 36-day maximum
16 months	4 days per completed month thereafter	40 days	36 Category 1 + 4 Category 2
24 months	4 days per completed month thereafter	72 days	36 Category 1 + 36 Category 2
36 months	4 days per completed month thereafter	120 days	Maximum statutory balance reached

Source basis: Hong Kong Labour Department sick-leave guidance and the current Concise Guide to the Employment Ordinance. Figures assume that no accumulated paid sickness days have been used.

How Are Paid Sick Days Accumulated?

The phrase paid sick days can be misleading if you think of it as an annual quota. Statutory paid sickness days accumulate throughout your employment, subject to the 120-day ceiling.

For example, suppose you start employment and complete 8 months under a continuous contract. At 2 days per completed month, you would have accumulated 16 statutory paid sickness days if none had been used.

After completing 12 months, the theoretical unused balance would be 24 days. During month 13, another 4 days are added after that month is completed, bringing the balance to 28. After month 15, the accumulated amount reaches 36 days.

That 36-day point matters because statutory paid sickness days are divided into two categories. Category 1 can first accumulate up to 36 days. Additional statutory sickness days then build in Category 2, which can hold up to 84 days. Together, the maximum is 120.

If you take qualifying paid sick leave, the relevant days are deducted from the statutory records maintained by the employer. Hong Kong employers are required to keep records showing paid sickness days accumulated in Categories 1 and 2, days taken, the category from which they were deducted, and the sickness allowance paid.

The employer’s statutory record should also be signed by the employee within 7 days after returning to work from paid sick leave, and the employee has the right to inspect that record. For HR teams, this is why a generic “sick leave balance” field is sometimes insufficient: a compliant record should distinguish Category 1 and Category 2.

What Is the Maximum Number of Paid Sick Days?

The statutory maximum is 120 accumulated paid sickness days at any one time.

This does not mean that 120 days are granted automatically when you join a company. You have to accumulate them month by month. If no days are used, a full 120-day balance can theoretically be reached after 36 completed months under the accrual pattern: 24 days during the first 12 months plus 96 days over the following 24 months.

Once the balance reaches 120 days, you do not keep adding 4 days every month indefinitely on top of that balance. The statutory maximum applies at any one time.

The number is also not the same as “120 fully paid days”. Statutory sickness allowance is generally calculated at four-fifths of average daily wages, not 100% of normal pay. A company can offer full-pay sick leave under its own policy, but that is a more favourable contractual benefit.

For employees, this is a useful distinction when reviewing an employment offer. A policy saying “full-pay sick leave: 12 days per year” is describing an employer benefit. It is not simply restating the statutory 120-day accumulation system.

Company Sick Leave vs Statutory Sick Leave

Company sick leave can be more generous than the statutory minimum. Many Hong Kong employers choose to provide full pay for short illnesses, waive the four-day threshold for certain absences or grant a fixed number of company-paid sick days each year.

For example, an employment contract might provide:

• one-day sick leave on full pay with an appropriate medical certificate;
• 12 full-pay company sick days per calendar year;
• full salary during the first part of an extended illness before moving to statutory sickness allowance; or
• a more flexible medical-certificate policy for very short absences.

Those arrangements can be perfectly valid because they improve the employee’s position. However, HR should not confuse the company’s enhanced benefit with statutory sickness allowance.

If you are absent for 2 days with influenza and your company pays you in full, you have received paid company sick leave. Under the ordinary statutory sickness-allowance test, a 2-day absence does not meet the usual requirement of at least 4 consecutive days. The company payment is therefore better than the statutory minimum.

This distinction also matters when comparing employers. One company’s “10 sick days” may mean 10 days on full pay every year, while another company’s policy may mainly rely on the Employment Ordinance’s statutory sickness-day bank. The headline number alone does not tell you which benefit is better.

When Does Paid Sick Leave Hong Kong Qualify for Sickness Allowance?

Paid sick leave Hong Kong under the Employment Ordinance is not triggered by illness alone. For an ordinary sickness absence, three core statutory conditions generally need to come together.

1. You are employed under a continuous contract.
2. The sick leave is at least 4 consecutive days.
3. You have enough accumulated paid sickness days and the required medical support.

The 4-day requirement is the source of many payroll misunderstandings. A valid medical certificate for one day does not automatically mean the employee is entitled to statutory sickness allowance for that one-day absence.

There are specific exceptions relating to pregnancy. For a female employee’s absence for pregnancy check-ups, post-confinement medical treatment or miscarriage, each qualifying day can be treated as a sickness day without requiring the ordinary 4-consecutive-day minimum, provided the other statutory requirements are satisfied and the appropriate medical or attendance documentation is produced.

There are also circumstances where sickness allowance is not payable even though the employee is ill. These include situations where the employee, without reasonable excuse, refuses treatment by a company doctor under a medical scheme recognised by the Director of Health or disregards that doctor’s advice; where the sickness day falls on a statutory holiday for which the employee is entitled to holiday pay; or where compensation is payable under the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance.

The amount of statutory sickness allowance is not full salary. The daily rate equals four-fifths of the employee’s average daily wages over the 12-month period preceding the sickness day or the first sickness day where there is more than one consecutive sickness day. If the employee has been employed for less than 12 months, the shorter employment period is used.

Calculation Item	Illustrative Example	Calculation	Result
Monthly wages	Fixed monthly wages	Input	HK$30,000
12-month wages	No variable pay in this simplified example	HK$30,000 × 12	HK$360,000
Periods and wages to disregard	None in this simplified example	0 days / HK$0	None
Average daily wages	365-day reference period	HK$360,000 ÷ 365	HK$986.30
Daily sickness allowance	Four-fifths of average daily wages	HK$986.30 × 4 ÷ 5	HK$789.04
4 qualifying sickness days	Four consecutive days	HK$789.04 × 4	HK$3,156.16

In real payroll, you cannot always take monthly salary, multiply it by 12 and divide by 365. The calculation may need adjustments where the employee had periods without wages or without full wages.

The statutory disregarding rules can affect rest days, statutory holidays, annual leave, sickness days, maternity leave, paternity leave, work-injury sick leave, agreed leave and normal working days where no work was provided, where the employee was not paid wages or full wages. The corresponding sums paid for those periods also need to be excluded from the average-wage calculation.

This is especially relevant for commission-based or variable-pay employees. If your earnings fluctuate significantly, your sickness allowance should not necessarily be calculated from basic salary alone. The statutory definition of wages and the 12-month averaging mechanism need to be applied to the actual payroll record.

Sickness allowance must be paid no later than the normal pay day. A company can choose to pay more than four-fifths—for example, maintaining full salary—but it should not pay less than the statutory amount where all eligibility conditions are satisfied.

There is also employment protection attached specifically to paid sickness days. Except for summary dismissal due to serious misconduct, an employer is prohibited from terminating an employee’s employment on a paid sickness day. This is another reason why HR should distinguish an ordinary absence, company sick leave and a statutory paid sickness day correctly in the records.

When Do You Need a Sick Leave Certificate?

Employees commonly use the phrase sick leave certificate or “sick leave paper” in Hong Kong. The Employment Ordinance generally uses the term medical certificate.

For statutory sickness allowance, the documentation rules depend partly on whether the paid sickness days fall within Category 1 or Category 2.

Category 1 is the first 36 accumulated statutory sickness days. These paid sickness days require a medical certificate issued by a registered medical practitioner, registered Chinese medicine practitioner or registered dentist.

Category 2 contains the next 84 days. It becomes relevant when the sickness days taken exceed the paid sickness days remaining in Category 1. If the employer requires supporting documentation for Category 2, the employee should produce the specified medical certificate issued by the relevant registered medical professional attending the employee as an out-patient or in-patient in a hospital. The employer can also request a brief record of the investigation carried out and the treatment prescribed by the certificate issuer.

By 2026, electronic medical certificates issued through the Hospital Authority are also an established part of the process. Hospital Authority electronic medical certificates carry digital signatures and can be used for sick-leave applications. They are stored in HA Go and include an encrypted QR code for verification. In 2026, Hospital Authority maternity/sick leave certificates and maternity leave certificates have also been fully incorporated into the electronic-certificate system.

What Should a Medical Certificate Show?

For Employment Ordinance purposes, a medical certificate should specify:

• the number of days on which the employee is unfit for work; and
• the nature of the sickness or injury because of which the employee is unfit for work.

This is more precise than saying that an employee merely “visited a doctor”. An attendance record showing that you went to a clinic is not necessarily the same as a medical certificate certifying that you were unfit for work for a specified period.

There are separate provisions relating to pregnancy examinations. A qualifying pregnancy-related medical examination can also be supported by the relevant certificate of attendance issued by a registered medical practitioner, registered Chinese medicine practitioner, registered midwife or registered nurse.

If you receive an electronic certificate from the Hospital Authority, you can use the electronic version for a sick-leave application. There is no general rule that an HA certificate loses legal effect simply because it has a digital signature rather than a traditional handwritten signature.

For employees, it is still sensible to keep your own copy. Do not rely entirely on being able to retrieve a document later after a dispute has started.

Category 1 vs Category 2 Paid Sickness Days

Point	Category 1	Category 2	Practical Meaning
Maximum accumulated amount	36 days	84 days	Combined statutory maximum is 120 days.
When used	Used first	Applies when sickness days taken exceed the paid sickness days remaining in Category 1	Employers should track the categories separately.
Medical certificate	Required from a registered medical practitioner, registered Chinese medicine practitioner or registered dentist	If required by the employer, specified certificate from a registered practitioner attending the employee as an out-patient or in-patient in a hospital	Documentation requirements are not identical.
Additional medical record	No separate ordinary requirement for a treatment record	Employer may request a brief record of the investigation and treatment prescribed	Category 2 may involve additional documentary evidence.
Certificate content	Number of days and nature of sickness or injury causing unfitness for work	Same core certificate information where a certificate is required	“Sick leave certificate” is the common phrase; “medical certificate” is the statutory terminology.

Source basis: Hong Kong Labour Department sick-leave FAQ, current Concise Guide and paid-sickness-day record guidance.

Category 1 and Category 2 are not medical severity ratings. Category 2 does not mean that your illness is necessarily more serious. The categories exist because statutory sickness days are accumulated and administered in two separate blocks.

That distinction is important. An employee with a relatively minor but prolonged recurring condition could eventually use Category 2 days, while another employee with a very serious first illness might still be using Category 1 because that is where the accumulated balance sits.

For HR, the categories should therefore not be used as informal labels such as “ordinary illness” and “serious illness”. They are statutory record-keeping categories.

What If You Do Not Have a Medical Certificate?

If you are using Category 1 statutory paid sickness days, an appropriate medical certificate is required. Without it, you will generally not meet the documentary condition for statutory sickness allowance.

Category 2 is more nuanced because the Employment Ordinance provides that the specified medical certificate should be produced if required by the employer, with the possibility of the employer also requesting the brief investigation and treatment record.

This does not mean that an employer must pay every undocumented absence. It means you should check both the statutory category and the employer’s internal sick-leave procedure rather than applying a simple “no certificate = never paid” rule to every possible case.

A company may also have a policy requiring documentation for absences that do not qualify for statutory sickness allowance. For example, an employer could offer one-day company-paid sick leave but require a medical certificate under the employment contract or staff handbook. That is a company procedural requirement relating to its more favourable benefit.

The reverse can also happen. A company may allow an employee to take one or two days off without a medical certificate under an internal wellness or casual sick-leave policy. Those days should not automatically be confused with statutory paid sickness days under the Employment Ordinance.

If you are unable to obtain the certificate immediately because you were admitted to hospital, severely unwell or faced another genuine practical problem, notify HR promptly rather than waiting until your return. A delayed conversation is much harder to resolve than a timely explanation supported by later documentation.

How to Apply for Sick Leave in Hong Kong

If you need to apply for sick leave, treat the statutory rules and the company’s reporting procedure as two separate layers. Hong Kong law determines whether you qualify for statutory sickness allowance; your employment contract or employee handbook usually tells you who to notify, when to notify them and how to submit documents.

• Tell your manager or designated contact as early as reasonably possible. If you know before your normal start time that you are too unwell to work, notify the person specified in your company’s policy rather than simply failing to appear.
• Follow the company’s reporting channel. Some employers use email, an HR system, WhatsApp, a hotline or a combination of these. Use the official method where possible so there is a record.
• Give a practical indication of the expected absence. You do not need to write a long medical explanation to your entire team. Tell the appropriate manager or HR contact whether you expect to be off for one day, several days or until further medical review.
• Seek medical attention where appropriate. If you expect to claim statutory sickness allowance, the medical-certificate requirements matter. Do not assume that a pharmacy receipt or a message saying you were unwell is equivalent to the required certificate.
• Check the dates on the medical certificate. Make sure the certified period corresponds with the days you are claiming as sick leave.
• Submit the certificate according to company procedure. If your employer accepts electronic documents, a valid electronic Hospital Authority certificate can be used for sick-leave application purposes. Keep your own copy.
• Check whether the absence is at least 4 consecutive days. For ordinary illness, this is a central statutory sickness-allowance condition. A shorter absence can still be legitimate sick leave under company policy, but it normally does not meet the statutory payment threshold.
• Check your accumulated paid sickness-day balance. Having a 4-day medical certificate does not create paid sickness days if you have not accumulated enough statutory entitlement.
• Do not assume statutory sickness allowance equals full salary. The legal rate is generally four-fifths of average daily wages. Your employer may top it up to full pay if its policy is more generous.
• Ask HR which category is being used if you have substantial accumulated or previously used sick leave. Category 1 and Category 2 have different documentation arrangements and should be recorded separately.
• Keep evidence of submission. Save the email, HR-system confirmation or message showing that your medical certificate was provided.
• Review your payslip. If the absence qualifies for sickness allowance, check that the amount is consistent with the statutory average-wage method or a more favourable company arrangement.
• Raise discrepancies early. If payroll treats a qualifying 4-day period as entirely unpaid despite sufficient sickness-day entitlement and medical documentation, ask HR how the calculation was made.
• Do not mix work injury and ordinary sick leave. An injury arising out of and in the course of employment may fall under the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance rather than ordinary sickness allowance rules.
• Do not assume a statutory holiday should also receive sickness allowance. Where the sickness day is a statutory holiday for which you are entitled to holiday pay, separate statutory rules apply.
• If you are pregnant, check the special rules for medical examinations and related absences. The ordinary 4-consecutive-day threshold does not apply in the same way to qualifying pregnancy check-ups, post-confinement treatment or miscarriage-related sickness days.

For a practical example, suppose you have been with your employer for 10 completed months and have never used a statutory paid sickness day. You would theoretically have accumulated 20 days. You then become ill and receive an appropriate medical certificate covering 5 consecutive days.

You have sufficient accumulated days, the ordinary 4-day threshold is met, and you have the relevant certificate. Subject to the other statutory conditions, those 5 days can qualify for sickness allowance. The employer should calculate the daily rate at four-fifths of your relevant 12-month average daily wages—or the shorter period because you have not yet been employed for a full 12 months—and pay the allowance no later than the normal pay day.

Now change the example. You are absent for only 2 days. Your employer may still approve the absence, and a generous company policy may even pay both days in full. However, the ordinary statutory 4-consecutive-day requirement has not been met, so you should not describe the payment as automatically required statutory paid sick leave Hong Kong.

This is the underlying logic behind the system: being medically unfit for work establishes the reason for absence; accumulated paid sickness days and the statutory qualifying conditions determine whether the absence attracts sickness allowance.

For HR professionals, accurate record-keeping is just as important as approving leave. Maintain commencement dates, continuous-contract status, Category 1 and Category 2 accumulation, paid sickness days taken, medical documentation, the sickness allowance paid and the calculation basis. This is particularly important when employees have variable wages or long service histories.

For employees, keep your own records too. Know whether your company offers a benefit above the statutory minimum, understand how many days have been deducted and keep copies of medical documentation. Most sick leave Hong Kong disagreements become easier to resolve once everyone separates company policy, statutory qualification and payroll calculation instead of treating them as one issue.

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