Hong Kong Employment Ordinance: Employer Basics (2026)

At a glance

Day counts, rules and penalties are as most recently published by the Labour Department.

The “continuous contract” is the switch for the whole set of rules

Plenty of owners assume that a part-timer, casual or temporary worker does not need the full treatment.

In fact it turns on the pattern of employment, not the job title.

The original threshold was known as “418” — employed continuously by the same employer for four weeks or more, working at least 18 hours a week. From 18 January 2026 it becomes “468”: at least 17 hours a week, or, in a week with fewer than 17 hours, at least 68 hours in that week together with the immediately preceding three weeks.

The change relaxes the threshold, which means more part-time employees fall within the protections. If you engage part-timers on variable hours, that arithmetic needs redoing.

Once the line is crossed, the whole set of protections follows. Employees below the line are still covered by parts of the Ordinance (payment of wages, for instance), but annual leave, statutory holidays and sickness allowance do not apply.

Wages have a statutory deadline

Wages must be paid as soon as practicable after the end of the wage period, and in any event within 7 days.

Which means “once the customer pays us” is not a legally sustainable reason. Withholding wages is itself prosecutable.

The other thing that has to be on time is MPF contributions — each month’s contribution on or before the 10th of the following month. Two different deadlines; do not conflate them.

Leave: three kinds, kept separate

Statutory holidays — 15 days a year from 2026 (Easter Monday added), rising to 16 in 2028 and 17 in 2030. These are days specified by law and an employer cannot substitute money for them. Note that statutory holidays differ from general holidays (17 days) — most commercial employers follow general holidays, but the law only requires 15.

Rest days — not less than 1 in every 7 days. A rest day is not a holiday; it is a separate requirement.

Paid annual leave — by length of service: 7 days in each of the first two years, 8 in year 3, rising annually to 14 from year 9.

These are three independent requirements, and it is the total that makes up what an employee is entitled to. Owners frequently treat “the company closed for three days at Lunar New Year” as annual leave deducted; that does not work.

For the distinction, see statutory holidays, general holidays and annual leave.

How is sick leave calculated?

An employee engaged under a continuous contract who takes 4 or more consecutive days of sick leave, has accrued sufficient paid sickness days, and can produce a registered medical practitioner’s certificate is entitled to sickness allowance — four-fifths of average daily wages.

Note that “4 consecutive days” threshold: one or two days of sick leave generally does not qualify for sickness allowance (absent specific circumstances). Paid sickness days accrue month by month; they are not all available on day one.

Employees’ compensation insurance: the one thing you cannot skimp on

Full-time, part-time or temporary, an employer must take out employees’ compensation insurance for every employee. No exceptions.

This carries the heaviest penalties of all these duties and is the last one to economise on — because if an employee is injured and you have no cover, the compensation falls on you. See can you skimp on employees’ compensation insurance.

And there is a separate set on the tax side

The Employment Ordinance is the Labour Department’s. But hiring also triggers the IRD’s requirements:

• New employee → IR56E
• Every April → the employer’s return (BIR56A) with an IR56B for each employee
• Leaving → IR56F (filed one month before employment ends)
• Leaving Hong Kong → IR56G

The Labour Department, the MPFA and the IRD are three authorities with three sets of deadlines. Satisfying one does not take care of the other two.

The practical approach

Before you hire your first person, set all of this up at once: a clear employment contract, employees’ compensation insurance in force, an MPF scheme arranged, and payday and filing dates in the calendar.

Every hire after that is the same process repeated, with nothing to work out from scratch.

Want to hand over the payroll, contributions and filings that come with hiring? Talk to us, or get started.

This is general information and does not constitute legal advice. Day counts, thresholds and penalties are as set out in the Employment Ordinance and as most recently published by the Labour Department; for a dismissal dispute or an injury case, consult a professional.