Macau Obligatory Holidays 2027

Macau publishes around twenty public holidays a year, but only ten of them are “obligatory” holidays under Article 44 of the Labour Relations Law (Law No. 7/2008). Those ten are the legal floor: every employee is exempt from work on them without losing basic remuneration, and the entitlement applies from the first day of employment — there is no probation requirement. The other ten public holidays are observed by the government and most of the city, but they are not part of the private-sector minimum.

Pay works differently depending on how you are paid. For monthly-paid employees, basic remuneration already includes obligatory holidays, weekly rest days, annual leave and paid sick leave, so resting on an obligatory holiday attracts no extra payment and no deduction. For employees paid by actual time worked or actual output — daily, hourly or piece rates — basic remuneration covers only the weekly rest day, so the employer must additionally pay one day’s basic remuneration for each obligatory holiday, even when the employee rests.

An employer can require work on an obligatory holiday without the employee’s consent only in three situations set out in Article 45: facing major loss or force majeure, an unforeseeable increase in workload, or where the employee’s work is indispensable to keeping the business running. When that happens the employee is entitled to a compensatory rest day designated by the employer within three months — the date must be set at least three days in advance — which by agreement may be replaced with one day’s basic remuneration. Monthly-paid staff receive an extra day’s basic remuneration or the compensatory day; time- and output-paid staff receive the normal pay for the work done plus one day’s basic remuneration or the compensatory day.

One more rule catches people out: if a paid weekly rest period overlaps an obligatory holiday, the overlapping day counts as the obligatory holiday, and the employer must arrange the weekly rest within the following thirty days. In other words the two entitlements do not cancel each other out.

Five of the ten obligatory holidays are fixed by the solar calendar and never move: New Year’s Day (Jan 1), Ching Ming (Apr 5), Labour Day (May 1), National Day (Oct 1) and Macao SAR Establishment Day (Dec 20). The other five follow the lunar calendar. In 2027 Lunar New Year’s first three days are 6, 7 and 8 February, the day after Mid-Autumn is 16 September, and Chong Yeung is 8 October.

Two dates in 2027 fall at the weekend and are worth noting. Lunar New Year’s second day, 7 February, is a Sunday, and Chong Yeung on 8 October is a Friday. Macau does not operate a Hong Kong-style substitution system for obligatory holidays; instead, where an obligatory holiday overlaps a paid weekly rest period, the day counts as the obligatory holiday and the employer must arrange the weekly rest within the following thirty days.

The ten public holidays outside the obligatory list in 2027 are the same set as every year: Good Friday, the day before Easter, Buddha’s Birthday, the Dragon Boat Festival, the day following National Day, All Souls’ Day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Winter Solstice, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Many employers grant all twenty days, but only the ten are the statutory floor.