Last Updated: October 14, 2026 Reading Time: 8 min

The 2027 federal leave year does not start on January 1. For employees on OPM's listed schedule it starts Sunday, January 10, 2027 and ends Saturday, January 8, 2028, and the deadline to schedule use-or-lose leave in writing is November 27, 2027. Confirm your agency's payroll schedule before using the chart or the download. This 2027 federal leave chart shows the hours you earn in each of the 26 pay periods by service category, which holidays fall in which period, and the two dates that decide whether leave above your ceiling survives. The whole chart is also available as a download, because a spreadsheet is what most people searching for this actually want.

Download: 2027 federal leave year chart (CSV, opens in Excel or Google Sheets). The planner formula is in the last row. The dates apply to employees on OPM's listed schedule; confirm your agency's schedule before relying on the file.

Why the 2027 Leave Year Starts on January 10

A leave year begins on the first day of the first full biweekly pay period in a calendar year and ends the day before the first full pay period of the next one. That is the definition in 5 C.F.R. § 630.201(b), and OPM publishes the resulting dates each year. For 2027 the table reads: beginning January 10, 2027, ending January 8, 2028, use-or-lose scheduling deadline November 27, 2027. OPM says the dates apply to most employees.

Two consequences follow. The first nine days of January 2027 are still leave year 2026, which ends January 9, 2027. And leave year 2028 begins January 9, 2028, which is the date your balance is measured against the carryover ceiling.

Twenty-six 14-day periods starting January 10 land exactly on January 8, 2028, so the 2027 leave year has 26 pay periods, not 27. Whether your payroll provider issues 26 or 27 paychecks in calendar 2027 is a different question; our post on 27 pay periods in 2026 explains the same split for 2026.

How Much Annual Leave You Earn Per Pay Period

Accrual rates come from 5 U.S.C. § 6303(a) and depend on your years of creditable service:

  • Under 3 years: 4 hours per full biweekly pay period, 104 hours across 2027.
  • 3 to under 15 years: 6 hours per pay period, except 10 hours in the last full pay period of the leave year, for 160 hours across 2027. The 10-hour credit lands in pay period 26, December 26, 2027 through January 8, 2028.
  • 15 or more years: 8 hours per pay period, 208 hours across 2027.
  • SES, SL and ST positions: 8 hours per pay period regardless of years of service, under 5 U.S.C. § 6303(f). A senior pay system outside 5 U.S.C. §§ 5376 and 5383 gets the same rate only if OPM has approved it as equivalent, so do not assume it.

Sick leave accrues at 4 hours per pay period for full-time employees under 5 U.S.C. § 6307, 104 hours across 2027, and it accumulates with no ceiling.

Part-time employees do not earn a fixed amount per period. Under 5 C.F.R. § 630.303 they earn 1 hour of annual leave for every 20 hours in pay status with under 3 years of service, every 13 hours with 3 to under 15 years, and every 10 hours with 15 or more. A 40-hour-per-pay-period employee with 3 to under 15 years averages 40 divided by 13, about 3.08 hours per period; credit is earned in whole-hour increments, with leftover qualifying pay-status hours carried forward. Part-time employees are subject to the same ceilings as full-time employees (240 or 360 hours, or a higher preserved personal ceiling shown by the agency).

If you cross into a new category during the year, the new rate applies to the remaining pay periods, so the annual totals above assume no category change.

The 2027 Leave Chart: Every Pay Period, Holiday and Cumulative Balance

PP Begins Ends Holiday in this pay period Under 3 yrs (cumulative) 3 to under 15 yrs (cumulative) 15+ yrs and SES/SL/ST (cumulative) Sick leave (cumulative)
1 Jan 10, 2027 Jan 23 MLK Day, Mon Jan 18 4 6 8 4
2 Jan 24 Feb 6 none 8 12 16 8
3 Feb 7 Feb 20 Washington's Birthday, Mon Feb 15 12 18 24 12
4 Feb 21 Mar 6 none 16 24 32 16
5 Mar 7 Mar 20 none 20 30 40 20
6 Mar 21 Apr 3 none 24 36 48 24
7 Apr 4 Apr 17 none 28 42 56 28
8 Apr 18 May 1 none 32 48 64 32
9 May 2 May 15 none 36 54 72 36
10 May 16 May 29 none 40 60 80 40
11 May 30 Jun 12 Memorial Day, Mon May 31 44 66 88 44
12 Jun 13 Jun 26 Juneteenth (observed), Fri Jun 18 48 72 96 48
13 Jun 27 Jul 10 Independence Day (observed), Mon Jul 5 52 78 104 52
14 Jul 11 Jul 24 none 56 84 112 56
15 Jul 25 Aug 7 none 60 90 120 60
16 Aug 8 Aug 21 none 64 96 128 64
17 Aug 22 Sep 4 none 68 102 136 68
18 Sep 5 Sep 18 Labor Day, Mon Sep 6 72 108 144 72
19 Sep 19 Oct 2 none 76 114 152 76
20 Oct 3 Oct 16 Columbus Day, Mon Oct 11 80 120 160 80
21 Oct 17 Oct 30 none 84 126 168 84
22 Oct 31 Nov 13 Veterans Day, Thu Nov 11 88 132 176 88
23 Nov 14 Nov 27 Thanksgiving, Thu Nov 25. Use-or-lose scheduling deadline: Sat Nov 27 92 138 184 92
24 Nov 28 Dec 11 none 96 144 192 96
25 Dec 12 Dec 25 Christmas (observed), Fri Dec 24 100 150 200 100
26 Dec 26 Jan 8, 2028 New Year's Day 2028 (observed), Fri Dec 31. Leave year ends Sat Jan 8 104 160 (10 hours this period) 208 104

Computed by FedTools from the OPM leave-year table, 5 U.S.C. §§ 6303, 6304 and 6307, and OPM's 2027 holiday schedule. Full-time 80-hour tour; no proration for non-pay periods or mid-year category changes. Pay dates differ by payroll provider and are in the NFC, GSA and combined pay period calendars.

Two rows are worth a second look. Pay period 26 is where the 6-hour category picks up its 10-hour final credit, which is why that column ends at 160 rather than 156. And pay period 23 ends on November 27, the scheduling deadline, because pay period 24 is the third full pay period before the leave year ends.

2027 Holidays Inside the Leave Year

Ten paid holidays fall inside leave year 2027, plus the December 31, 2027 observance of New Year's Day 2028. New Year's Day 2027, a Friday, belongs to leave year 2026. Three 2027 holidays are observed on a different day because they fall on a weekend: Juneteenth (Saturday June 19) is observed Friday, June 18; Independence Day (Sunday July 4) is observed Monday, July 5; and Christmas (Saturday December 25) is observed Friday, December 24. Those in-lieu-of days follow 5 U.S.C. § 6103(b)(1) for Saturday holidays and Executive Order 11582 for Sunday holidays on Monday-through-Friday schedules. Employees on other tours take the in-lieu-of day set by § 6103(b)(2) and OPM's fact sheet.

New Year's Day 2028 falls on a Saturday, so for Monday-through-Friday employees it is observed Friday, December 31, 2027, inside pay period 26 of leave year 2027.

There is no Inauguration Day holiday in 2027. Under 5 U.S.C. § 6103(c) it falls on January 20 of every fourth year after 1965, so 2025 and 2029, and only for employees in the Washington, DC area. January 20, 2027 is a normal workday. December 24 is the Christmas observance, not a bonus executive-order holiday; no 2027 executive-order holiday had been announced as of this writing.

The Use-or-Lose Rules: 240 Hours, November 27 and January 8

Under 5 U.S.C. § 6304(a), unused annual leave accumulates until it totals 30 days, or 240 hours, at the beginning of the first full biweekly pay period of the next year. For leave year 2027 that measuring date is January 9, 2028. Anything above the ceiling on that date is forfeited.

The ceiling is 45 days, or 360 hours, for employees stationed outside the United States in the classes listed in 5 U.S.C. § 6304(b). It is 90 days, or 720 hours, for leave earned while serving in the senior positions listed in 5 U.S.C. § 6304(f), including SES, Senior Foreign Service and SL/ST positions. That 720-hour limit covers only the portion of your leave attributable to service in such a position; leave earned before you entered it stays under the regular ceiling.

November 27, 2027 is the scheduling deadline rather than the use deadline. Forfeited leave can be restored in only three situations under 5 U.S.C. § 6304(d)(1): administrative error, an exigency of the public business, or your own sickness. For the last two, 5 C.F.R. § 630.308(a) requires that the leave was scheduled in writing before the start of the third biweekly pay period before the leave year ends. Exceptions to that scheduling requirement exist: employees covered by 5 U.S.C. § 6304(d)(3) (5 C.F.R. § 630.308(b)), employees an agency head designates as essential to a national emergency the OPM Director has deemed an exigency (5 C.F.R. § 630.310(c)), and Department of Defense emergency-essential employees whose leave is lost through combat-zone service, which 5 U.S.C. § 6304(d)(4) restores regardless of scheduling. Pay period 24 begins November 28, 2027, so the written schedule must be in by Saturday, November 27. Leave above the ceiling still has to be used by January 8, 2028; the November date only preserves your right to restoration if the agency cancels it or you get sick.

Restored leave goes into a separate account that does not count against the ceiling, but it has its own clock. Under 5 C.F.R. § 630.306 it must be used by the end of the leave year ending two years after the restoration date (administrative error), the agency-fixed end of the exigency, or the date you are determined recovered. Employees covered by 5 U.S.C. § 6304(d)(3), national-emergency restorations and extended exigencies follow different limits (5 C.F.R. §§ 630.306(b)-(c), 630.309 and 630.310(d)). That is a leave-year boundary, not a count of 730 days. The mechanics are covered in our 2026 use-or-lose guide, whose own deadline is November 28, 2026.

The Use-or-Lose Planner

The arithmetic is one line: additional hours to use by the end of the leave year equal the greater of zero and your January 10, 2027 balance plus your 2027 accrual, minus the hours you plan to use, minus your applicable ceiling. Schedule any qualifying use-or-lose leave in writing by November 27, 2027 to preserve possible restoration. Here is the worst case, with planned use set to zero:

Balance on Jan 10, 2027 Category 2027 accrual Projected balance on Jan 9, 2028 Additional hours to use by leave-year end (schedule qualifying leave by Nov 27, 2027)
240 Under 3 yrs 104 344 104
240 3 to under 15 yrs 160 400 160
240 15+ yrs 208 448 208
160 3 to under 15 yrs 160 320 80
100 15+ yrs 208 308 68
80 Under 3 yrs 104 184 0
32 15+ yrs 208 240 0 (exactly at the cap)
33 15+ yrs 208 241 1

Ceiling 240. Overseas and senior-position leave use 360 and 720. A preserved personal ceiling can also exceed 240 hours, and restored-account hours sit outside this test. Use the ceiling shown by your agency. Hours donated to the leave transfer program or a leave bank reduce the projected balance.

Retiring in January 2027? For employees on OPM's listed schedule, the first nine days of the month are still leave year 2026, so if you separate on or before January 9, 2027, the annual leave still credited to you at separation, including hours above the ceiling, is generally paid in the lump sum under 5 U.S.C. § 5551 rather than forfeited. The tax side is in our post on the annual leave lump sum at retirement.

Place Your 2027 Leave Around the Holidays

Use our free Federal Leave Optimizer to put your use-or-lose and regular hours on the 2027 calendar: pick the year 2027 and your work schedule, enter your use-or-lose hours and your regular leave hours, and it shows how many days each covers and places them around the 2027 holidays on a calendar grid. Plan your 2027 leave

If you are separating instead, the Annual Leave Payout Calculator estimates the gross lump sum and the withholding on it.

Frequently Asked Questions

When does the 2027 federal leave year start and end?

January 10, 2027 through January 8, 2028, with 26 pay periods, according to OPM's leave-year table for employees on its listed payroll schedule; confirm your agency's payroll schedule.

What is the 2027 use-or-lose deadline?

Unless a statutory or regulatory exception applies, leave above your ceiling must be scheduled in writing by November 27, 2027, the end of pay period 23, to be eligible for restoration on exigency or sickness grounds if it is later cancelled or you fall ill; restoration for administrative error needs no schedule. It must actually be used by January 8, 2028.

How many hours of annual leave will I earn in 2027?

104 hours with under 3 years of service, 160 with 3 to under 15 years (6 in each of the first 25 periods, 10 in the last), and 208 with 15 or more years or in an SES, SL or ST position. Part-time employees earn 1 hour for every 20 hours in pay status with under 3 years of service, every 13 with 3 to under 15 years, and every 10 with 15 or more.

Why is the 2027 leave year not January 1 to December 31?

A leave year starts with the first full biweekly pay period of the calendar year, so January 1 through 9, 2027 belongs to leave year 2026.

Is there an Inauguration Day holiday in 2027?

No. Inauguration Day is January 20 of every fourth year after 1965, so 2025 and 2029, and only for employees in the Washington, DC area.

Which 2027 holidays are observed on a different day?

Juneteenth is observed Friday, June 18, Independence Day on Monday, July 5, and Christmas on Friday, December 24. New Year's Day 2028, a Saturday, is observed Friday, December 31, 2027 for Monday-through-Friday schedules.

Does sick leave have a use-or-lose cap?

No. Full-time employees on this 26-period schedule earn 4 hours per pay period, 104 hours in 2027; part-time and uncommon-tour accrual differs. Sick leave accumulates without limit.

How long do I have to use restored leave?

For most employees, until the end of the leave year ending two years after the restoration date (administrative error), the agency-fixed end of the exigency, or the date you are determined recovered, under 5 C.F.R. § 630.306.

Sources: OPM, Leave Year Beginning and Ending Dates; OPM, Federal Holidays (2027); 5 U.S.C. § 6303; 5 U.S.C. § 6304; 5 U.S.C. § 6307; 5 U.S.C. § 6103; 5 C.F.R. § 630.201; 5 C.F.R. § 630.303; 5 C.F.R. § 630.306; 5 C.F.R. § 630.308.