Maternity and Paternity Leave in Malaysia: 98 Days, 7 Days and How the Pay Is Calculated

Under the Employment Act 1955, a female employee in Malaysia gets 98 consecutive days of maternity leave (cuti bersalin) for each confinement, and a married male employee gets 7 consecutive days of paid paternity leave. Maternity pay (the "maternity allowance") is worked out at your ordinary rate of pay. If you're paid monthly, your employer simply keeps paying your full monthly salary, with no deduction for the leave.

This guide explains who qualifies, when the leave can start, how the pay is calculated for monthly-paid and daily-paid staff, how EPF applies, and the mistakes payroll most often makes. It has three worked examples in RM.

Maternity and paternity leave at a glance

• Maternity leave: at least 98 consecutive days per confinement (s.37(1)(d)). This was 60 days before the 2022 amendments (Act A1651).
• Maternity allowance (pay): your ordinary rate of pay for each of the 98 days, or a rate the Minister prescribes, whichever is higher (s.37(2)(b)).
• Who gets the pay: employed by that employer for at least 90 days in the 9 months before the birth, and employed by them at any time in the 4 months before the birth (s.37(2)(a)).
• No pay (leave only): if you already have five or more surviving children at the time of the birth (s.37(1)(c)).
• Paternity leave: 7 consecutive days, paid at the ordinary rate of pay, for up to five confinements in total regardless of the number of spouses. Requires 12 months with the same employer (s.60FA).
• Job protection: it's an offence to terminate a pregnant employee except for wilful breach of contract, misconduct or business closure (s.41A), and it's an offence to terminate her during maternity leave, except on closure of the business (s.37(4)).

Who is covered

The Employment Act applies in Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan. Sabah and Sarawak have their own labour ordinances, so check those if you work there.

The salary limit doesn't apply here. The First Schedule's "more than RM4,000 a month" rule only removes overtime, rest-day and public holiday pay provisions. Maternity protection (Part IX) and paternity leave (s.60FA) apply whatever your salary. The one group the First Schedule excludes from both is domestic employees.

Your contract can give you more than the Act, such as a longer leave period or paternity leave before 12 months' service, but never less. Any term where you give up these rights is void (s.43).

When maternity leave can start and end

• Earliest start: 30 days before the birth. If you stop work earlier than that, the extra days aren't maternity leave and carry no maternity allowance (s.37(1)(b) and (bb)).
• Latest start: the day after the birth.
• Employer-directed start: if the employer's doctor certifies that late pregnancy stops you from doing your job properly, the employer can require you to start leave at any time in the 14 days before the birth.
• Coming back early: you may return before the 98 days end, with your employer's consent and a doctor's certificate that you're fit to work (s.37(1)(aa)).

The 98 days are consecutive calendar days. Rest days and public holidays inside the period are part of the 98 days, not added on top. The weekly rest day rule (s.59) doesn't apply while you're on maternity leave.

Notice you need to give

• Tell your employer about the expected birth, and the date you plan to start leave, within the 60 days before the expected confinement. If you start leave without telling them, your allowance can be suspended until you do (s.40(2)).
• If you resign or leave and expect to give birth within 4 months, tell the employer you're pregnant before you go. Otherwise you lose the maternity allowance from that employer (s.40(1)).
• Notice can be written or verbal, to your supervisor or a person the employer names. A late or imperfect notice doesn't cancel your claim unless the employer was actually prejudiced by it (s.40(5)–(7)).

How maternity pay is calculated

Monthly-paid: if you keep receiving your full monthly wages during the leave, the law treats that as your maternity allowance (s.37(2)(c)). There's nothing to compute. Payroll just mustn't deduct anything for the leave days.

Daily-paid, hourly-paid or piece-rate: the allowance is 98 × ordinary rate of pay (ORP). Under s.60I(1C), ORP = total wages earned in the previous wage period ÷ the number of days actually worked in that period. Leave out pay from an approved incentive scheme and pay for work on rest days or public holidays, and leave out rest days and public holidays from the day count.

When it's paid: the allowance that falls in each wage period is paid as if it were wages for that period, within the usual s.19 deadline (normally within 7 days after the wage period ends). So a daily-rated mother receives it month by month, not as one lump sum (s.38).

If more than one employer is liable (for example, you changed jobs in the 9 months before the birth), the total you can claim across all of them is capped at what one employer would pay. The paying employer can recover a share from the others (s.37(2)(d) and (3)).

Worked example 1: monthly-paid employee

Nurul earns a basic salary of RM3,500 a month, has worked at her company for three years and expects to give birth on 10 March 2026. She notifies HR in January and starts maternity leave on 1 March 2026, which is within 30 days of the birth.

• 98 consecutive days from 1 March: March (31) + April (30) + May (31) = 92 days, plus 1–6 June = 98. Her leave runs 1 March – 6 June 2026, and she's back at work on 7 June.
• March, April and May payslips: full RM3,500 each month. June is also a full month's salary, because she's either on leave or working every day.
• EPF is still deducted on RM3,500: RM385 employee (11%) / RM455 employer (13%) each month. KWSP lists "wages for maternity leaves" as payments liable for EPF contribution.
• PCB is worked out as usual, because the maternity pay is her normal salary.

If her employer had cut her March pay "because she was on leave", that would be an underpayment of the maternity allowance. That's an offence under the Act, and the employer can be ordered to pay the difference.

Worked example 2: daily-rated employee

Kavitha is a daily-rated production operator. In February her payslip showed RM2,280, which included RM180 for work on a rest day. She actually worked 25 days, not counting rest days and public holidays. She has worked for the factory for two years.

• ORP = (RM2,280 − RM180) ÷ 25 days = RM2,100 ÷ 25 = RM84 a day
• Maternity allowance = 98 × RM84 = RM8,232
• It's paid with each normal pay run, for the leave days that fall in that wage period. For example, a 31-day month fully on leave = 31 × RM84 = RM2,604.
• EPF is deducted on each month's maternity pay, like her normal wages.

Worked example 3: qualifying for the pay

Aisyah expects to give birth on 10 March 2026. Whether she gets maternity pay depends on when she joined:

• Joined 1 December 2025: employed 1 December – 9 March = 31 + 31 + 28 + 9 = 99 days. That's at least 90 days in the 9 months before the birth, and she was employed in the last 4 months, so she gets 98 days' leave with full pay.
• Joined 1 January 2026: 31 + 28 + 9 = 68 days. She's still entitled to 98 days' maternity leave, but not to maternity allowance from this employer, unless her contract or company policy is more generous. If she worked for a previous employer in the 9 months before the birth, that employer may be liable instead.

Paternity leave: 7 days

A married male employee is entitled to 7 consecutive days of paid paternity leave for each confinement, if:

• he has worked for the same employer for at least 12 months immediately before the leave starts, and
• he notified his employer of his spouse's pregnancy at least 30 days before the expected birth, or as early as possible after it.

The entitlement is limited to five confinements, however many spouses he has.

Example: Amir earns RM5,200 a month and has been with his company for 18 months. His wife gives birth on a Thursday and he takes 7 consecutive days off. His salary is paid in full, with no deduction. For a daily-rated employee, the pay would be 7 × ORP. For a monthly-paid employee, the ORP is RM5,200 ÷ 26 = RM200 a day, so the leave is worth 7 × RM200 = RM1,400 of salary.

If Amir had only 10 months' service, the Act wouldn't give him paternity leave yet. Many employers still give it as a policy, so check your handbook.

How it fits with other leave

• Annual leave: if you go on maternity leave during annual leave, the maternity leave is granted instead, and those days count as annual leave not taken (s.60E(1B)). See our annual leave guide.
• Sick leave: you can't claim paid sick leave for days you're receiving maternity allowance (s.60F(4)).
• After the 98 days: if a doctor certifies that an illness from the pregnancy and birth keeps you off work, your employer can't terminate you or give you notice until you've been absent for 90 days after the eligible period (s.42(1)).

Common mistakes

• Counting 98 working days. It's 98 consecutive calendar days, including weekends and public holidays.
• Still using 60 days. That was the old rule before the 2022 amendments. 98 days is the statutory minimum now.
• Assuming staff earning more than RM4,000 aren't covered. The RM4,000 threshold affects overtime and holiday-pay rules only. Maternity and paternity leave apply at any salary.
• Deducting pay for the leave days of a monthly-paid employee. The full monthly salary is the maternity allowance.
• Using ÷30 or ÷22 for a monthly-paid employee's daily rate. The Act uses ÷26 for ORP. For daily-rated staff, use the s.60I(1C) average from the previous wage period.
• Skipping EPF on maternity pay. KWSP treats it as wages, so both shares are due.
• Refusing paternity leave to someone with 12 months' service because the birth fell at a busy time. The entitlement is statutory.

Checking your payslip

During maternity leave, a monthly-paid employee's payslip should look like any other month: same basic salary, the usual EPF, SOCSO, EIS and PCB lines, and no "unpaid leave" deduction. Run your salary through the KiraBoss salary calculator to check the take-home figure. If an employer joins or leaves partway through the month, the prorated salary guide explains the s.18A formula.

This guide is general information based on the Employment Act 1955 (reprint as at 1 August 2023), not legal advice. Your contract or a collective agreement may give more. For a dispute, contact the Labour Department (JTKSM).