Jordan Labour Law 2027: Overtime at 125%/150% and 14–21 Days' Leave

Every overtime and leave figure in Jordan starts from the hours the Labour Law (No. 8 of 1996, as amended) allows. As of November 2026, the consolidated text published by the Ministry of Labour sets these rules:

• Article 56: no more than 8 hours a day or 48 hours a week, except where the law allows. Meal and rest breaks do not count, and the weekly maximum can be spread unevenly as long as work plus breaks stays within 11 hours a day.
• Article 58: the hours rules do not apply to people in general supervision or management of the business, or to staff whose work requires travel inside or outside Jordan.
• Article 60: Friday is the paid weekly rest day unless the nature of the work requires otherwise. With the employer's consent, rest days can be banked and taken within a month. Staff paid by the day or week earn rest-day pay after six consecutive working days, or pro rata after three or more.
• Article 55: an employer with ten or more workers must issue internal regulations setting working hours, daily and weekly breaks, and violations and penalties, approved by the Minister or his delegate.

The law sets the overtime rates, but the articles on hours do not spell out how to turn a monthly salary into an hourly rate. A common convention, and the one Odoo's Jordan payroll documentation uses for a daily rate, is the monthly wage divided by 30; divide again by 8 for the hour. Write your method into contracts and internal regulations, and confirm it with the Ministry or a labour lawyer.

Example: a monthly wage of JOD 600 gives JOD 20.000 a day and JOD 2.500 an hour. For a worker on the JD 290 minimum wage, which the Ministry says applies from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2027, the same method gives about JOD 1.208 an hour.

Article 59 sets two minimum rates, both on the worker's normal wage:

• Overtime on a working day, done with the worker's consent: at least 125% of the normal wage for each extra hour.
• Work on the weekly rest day, a religious feast or an official holiday: at least 150% of the normal wage for that work.

Article 57 lets the employer require extra hours, still paid as overtime, in two cases. First, the annual stock count, preparing the balance sheet and closing the accounts, or getting ready for a sale at reduced prices: no more than 30 days a year, and no more than 10 actual working hours on each of those days. Second, preventing loss of goods, avoiding the risks of technical work, or receiving, delivering or moving certain materials: no more than 30 days a year.

A worked month for the JOD 600 employee (JOD 2.500 an hour):

• 10 extra hours over five stock-count days of 10 hours each: 10 × 2.500 × 1.25 = JOD 31.250
• 6 hours on a Friday rest day: 6 × 2.500 × 1.5 = JOD 22.500
• 4 hours on an official holiday: 4 × 2.500 × 1.5 = JOD 15.000
• Overtime for the month: JOD 68.750, so gross pay is JOD 668.750

Copy this sheet into a spreadsheet, one row per employee per month:

• A. Monthly wage used as the overtime base (JOD)
• B. Hourly rate = A ÷ 30 ÷ 8
• C. Approved overtime hours on working days
• D. Approved hours on rest days, feasts and official holidays
• E. Overtime pay = (C × B × 1.25) + (D × B × 1.5)
• F. Days used this year under Article 57 (limit: 30 per case)

Plan overtime peaks in our 2027 budget template, and check how overtime sits next to social security deductions in our social security and payroll guide.

Article 61 gives every worker 14 days of fully paid annual leave per year of service, unless more is agreed, and 21 days after five continuous years with the same employer. Official holidays, religious feasts and weekly rest days inside the leave do not count as leave days. The other rules:

• Under a year of service: leave pro rata to the time worked (Article 61b).
• Carry-over: by agreement, to the following year only, and it lapses if that year ends without the worker asking for it. An employer who refuses a leave request until the two years pass faces a JD 100 fine and pays the leave in cash (Article 61c).
• Planning: in the first month of the year, the employer sets each worker's leave dates to suit the work and the worker's interest (Article 61d).
• Splitting: no part shorter than 2 days (Article 62).
• No waiver: any agreement to give up leave is void (Article 64).

Example: an employee on JOD 600 joined on 1 April 2026. Her 2026 entitlement is 14 × 9 ÷ 12 = 10.5 days; she takes 8 and, by agreement, carries 2.5 into 2027, where she earns 14 ÷ 12 = 1.1667 days a month. If she resigns at the end of June 2027 after taking 3 days, a pro-rata count leaves 2.5 + 7 − 3 = 6.5 days, which Article 63 says must be paid: 6.5 × JOD 20 = JOD 130. Someone who joined on 1 March 2022 reaches five years on 1 March 2027; decide in writing whether 21 days starts then or with the next leave year.

End of service: Article 32 gives a worker who is not covered by the Social Security Law one month's last wage for each year of service, pro rata for part years, so three and a half years on JOD 800 means JOD 2,800. Covered staff fall outside it, so their settlement is usually unused leave, the notice period and anything the contract adds. An open-ended contract ends with one month's written notice from either side (Article 23).

Beyond annual leave, the Labour Law sets these entitlements, as of November 2026:

• Sick leave (Article 65): 14 days a year on full pay, on a report from the establishment's approved doctor, plus another 14 days on full pay if the worker is in hospital. Establishments with more than 20 workers designate a special medical committee to approve reports.
• Maternity (Article 70): 10 weeks on full pay, at least 6 of them after the birth, and she may not work before that period ends.
• Nursing (Article 71): after maternity leave and within a year of the birth, paid nursing time of up to one hour a day in total.
• Paternity (Article 66): 3 days on full pay.
• Hajj (Article 66): 14 paid days once during service, after five continuous years with the employer; an approved labour-education course also earns 14 paid days.
• Study (Article 66): up to four months unpaid to study at an officially recognised university, institute or college.
• Childcare (Article 67): in an establishment with 10 or more workers, a woman can take up to a year of unpaid leave to raise her children, then return to her job.

For an insured private-sector employee, the Social Security Corporation's maternity insurance pays the leave: her insured wage at the birth ÷ 30 × 70 days. She needs 6 contributions in the 12 months before the leave (or coverage in the last 6 months), must be at work in the month of the birth and must prove the birth officially. The SSC deducts her 7.5% share of social security contributions from the allowance, and the employer pays its own share for the period. On an insured wage of JOD 600, the allowance is JOD 1,400 before that deduction.

Many official holidays and religious feasts move with the Hijri calendar, so add them to your HR calendar as soon as they are officially announced: work on them costs 150%, and they do not count against annual leave.

Spreadsheets break when someone passes five years of service, carries leave over or works a holiday. Odoo's own documentation describes the pieces that apply the rules every month:

• Annual leave accruals: in Time Off, an accrual plan can grant 1.1667 days a month, with a second milestone after 5 years from the start of the allocation for 21 days a year (1.75 a month). Carry-over can be capped and given a validity period, which you can set to mirror Article 61's one-year carry-over. Time Off also has a Public holidays setting for the official calendar.
• Overtime from attendance: no overtime rules come preconfigured in Attendances, so you create them. An overtime ruleset on Maximum Rate can hold a quantity rule (hours above the contract on any day, paid at 125%) and a timing rule for non-working days (150%). Set Extra Hours Validation to Approved by Manager so only approved hours reach payroll.
• Jordan payroll: the Jordan payroll localization, part of Odoo Enterprise, stores the 1.25 and 1.5 overtime rates as parameters, with overtime hours entered as payslip inputs. It defaults Number of Leave days to 14, gives 14 days of sick leave plus 14 if hospitalised, and computes monthly provisions for leave and end of service. Its Jordan Working Schedule is a 40-hour Sunday-to-Thursday week, so change it if your staff work six days.

Three settings to check before January:

• Raise each employee's Number of Leave days from 14 to 21 when they reach five years.
• Untick Is Eligible for EOS, which is ticked by default, for staff not owed end-of-service pay under Article 32 or their contract.
• Odoo documents its social insurance rules for Jordanian employees only, while the SSC also covers non-Jordanian workers; confirm how yours are handled.

Licence and setup costs are in our guide to Odoo cost in Jordan. METCH, an official Odoo partner serving Jordan, can set up these rules and test them against last month's manual payroll.