The employer is obliged to pay in cash and in advance the wage for the annual leave period to each employee who uses annual paid leave, before the relevant employee starts his or her leave.
In the calculation of this wage, the wages received for overtime, premiums, the wages and social benefits received by workers who work in preparation, completion and cleaning works outside normal working hours as permanent workers of the workplace, and the wages given for national holidays, week holidays and general holidays are not to be taken into account.
The wage to be paid for the leave period of an employee who is not based on a specific wage on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, but is paid for an unspecified period and amount such as piece rate, commission wage, profit participation and percentage wage, is calculated by dividing the wage earned in the last year by the days actually worked.
However, if the employee’s wage has been increased within the last year, the leave wage is calculated by dividing the wage received between the beginning of the month when the employee went on leave and the date of the increase by the days worked in the same period.
Where the percentage procedure is applied, this wage is paid by the employer, apart from the money collected from the percentages.
Weekly holidays, national holidays and general holidays that coincide with the annual paid leave period must be paid separately.
Calculation of annual leave wage
The worker’s annual leave wage can be calculated with the following formula:
Annual leave wage = Number of leave days x Daily wage – Income and stamp tax deductions
Example: Let’s assume that there is a worker who has been working for four years in the workplace belonging to the legal entity titled A Inc., with a gross salary of 60,000 TL and an average premium of 10,000 TL, although it varies from month to month. The employee in question will be entitled to 14 days of annual paid leave in accordance with the Turkish Labour Code.
The annual leave wage of this worker will be calculated as follows:
60,000 / 30 = 2,000 (Gross daily earning)
2,000×14 = 28,000 TL – Income and stamp tax deductions
The 10,000 TL premiums received by the worker will not be taken into account in the calculation of the annual paid leave fee.
