Employee rights in Israel
Israeli protective labour legislation sets a floor of rights that cannot be waived by contract: a minimum wage, a cap on working hours, annual leave, convalescence pay, pension contributions, and a defined procedure at the end of employment. This guide sets out the principal rights, the current rates and quotas, and the legal source of each.
Minimum wage and overtime
The minimum wage is the floor from which every other calculation starts. As of 1 April 2026 it stands at ILS 6,443.85 per month for a full-time post. The hourly rate follows the scope of the post: ILS 35.40 per hour on a 182-hour month, and ILS 34.64 on a 186-hour month. The daily rate is ILS 297.40 in a five-day working week and ILS 257.75 in a six-day week.
Overtime is paid at not less than 125% of the ordinary wage for the first two overtime hours in a day, and at not less than 150% for each hour after that. Two material qualifications apply: overtime is payable only for hours the employer approved, and a part-time employee is not entitled to the premium for the gap between their scope of employment and a full-time post.
A wage paid on a monthly basis falls due at the end of the month for which it is paid. A wage not paid by the ninth day after that date is a delayed wage and attracts delayed-wage compensation. A sum the employer has not transferred to a provident fund within 21 days is likewise treated as delayed, both the employer share and the share deducted from the employee.
The minimum wage is updated from time to time in line with cost-of-living and general pay increases. The figure above was checked against the National Insurance Institute minimum wage table and Ministry of Labour announcements.
Working hours and rest
The Hours of Work and Rest Law caps the week at 45 hours, but the expansion order on shortening the working week, published on 19 March 2018, brought the cap down to 42 hours a week with effect from 1 April 2018. The order does not apply to physicians, who are covered by a separate collective agreement, or to the occupations listed in section 30 of the Law.
For a single working day the cap follows the structure of the week at that workplace:
- Eight hours a day where the workplace operates a six-day week.
- Nine hours a day where it operates a five-day week.
- Seven hours for night work, meaning work of which at least two hours fall between 22:00 and 06:00.
- Seven hours on the day before the weekly rest and the day before a holiday applying to the employee.
The Law does not apply to certain categories, among them management posts, posts requiring a special degree of personal trust, and employees whose conditions of work do not permit the employer any supervision of their hours. Case law has held that it also does not apply to live-in care workers residing in the employer home. Misclassifying a role as managerial is one of the more common disputes before the Labour Court.
Annual leave
The leave quota is set by years of service with the same employer. The Law states the number of leave days gross, that is including the weekly rest, rather than the number of actual working days contained in the leave. The table shows both calculations as published by the Ministry of Labour, under the provisions in force since 1 January 2017.
| Years of service | Gross leave days | Actual working days, five-day week |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 5 | 16 | 12 |
| 6 | 18 | 14 |
| 7 | 21 | 15 |
| 8 | 22 | 16 |
| 9 | 23 | 17 |
| 10 | 24 | 18 |
| 11 | 25 | 19 |
| 12 | 26 | 20 |
| 13 | 27 | 20 |
| 14 and over | 28 | 20 |
In a six-day working week the actual figures are slightly higher: 14 days in the first five years of service, 16 in the sixth year, and up to 24 days from the thirteenth year onward.
The prerogative to fix the timing of leave rests with the employer, which is what makes a collective shutdown over Passover and Sukkot lawful. An employer that does not operate a collective shutdown is required, so far as possible, to take the employee wishes into account and to allow leave at times convenient to them.
Convalescence pay
In the private sector the right to convalescence pay is not statutory. It rests on a general collective agreement of 1998 extended by an expansion order. It arises on completion of one year of employment, and from then on also for a proportionate part of a year. The number of convalescence days rises with seniority, starting at five days at the end of the first year.
The price of a convalescence day is set by reference to the consumer price index and updated each May, with the new rate taking effect on 1 July. Payment is customarily made in a single annual sum between June and September; with the employee consent it may be spread across the monthly wage, provided this is stated expressly in the employment agreement and the convalescence component is shown separately on the payslip.
Worth knowing: the Economic Efficiency Laws for 2024 and 2025 froze the convalescence day rate and deducted one convalescence day from every employee in the economy. Employees earning below the determining amount, updated to ILS 6,150, had half a day deducted instead. For that reason this page does not quote a figure: the rate has changed three times in three years, and it must be checked against the expansion order in force at the date of payment.
Pension and severance
Since 2008 there has been a duty to provide pension insurance for every employee in the economy, and it applies to foreign workers as well. The contribution rates were settled with effect from 1 January 2017:
- Employee share: 6%, deducted from the wage. The employee may raise their share to 7%.
- Employer share to pension: 6.5%.
- Employer share to the severance component: a further 6%.
- Total: 12.5% without the severance component, or 18.5% with it.
Severance pay is due to an employee who has completed one continuous year with the same employer or at the same workplace, at the rate of one month wage for each year of employment, with a proportionate part for part of a year after the first. The calculation is based on the last wage. Where an employee is dismissed shortly before completing the first year, the dismissal is treated as intended to avoid severance, and unless the contrary is shown the employee is entitled to it.
Ending employment: hearing and notice
The hearing
The duty to hold a hearing is not statutory. It was developed by the Labour Court as a consequence of the duty of good faith in employment relations, and it applies in the private sector too. Its content: to give the employee a proper, fair and reasonable opportunity to make their case against the intention to dismiss them, and to respond to the employer allegations, before the decision to dismiss has crystallised. The full reasons and information are provided a reasonable time in advance, and the employee is allowed to inspect the documents the employer relies on. General assertions about performance are not enough: specific events and the dates on which they occurred must be identified. The employee may attend accompanied by a lawyer or another representative, may bring witnesses, and where the circumstances warrant may question the employer witnesses. The hearing is recorded in a protocol and a copy is given to the employee.
An employee dismissed without a hearing, or through a defective process, may bring a claim before the Labour Court. The court may award compensation for the defective process and, in appropriate cases, set the dismissal aside and order that the employment continue.
Notice period
A salaried employee, meaning one paid on a monthly basis or longer, is entitled to one month after a full year of employment. An employee who has not completed a year is entitled to six days for each of the first six months and a further two and a half days for each additional month.
An employee paid on a daily or hourly basis is entitled to one day for each month of work in the first year; to 14 days in the second year, plus a day for each two further months of work; to 21 days in the third year on the same basis; and to one month after the third year.
The employer may dispense with the employee working during the notice period and end the employment immediately, provided the full wage for that period is paid. The employer may not compel the employee to use accrued leave during that period.
Non-waivable rights and enforcement
Rights under the protective legislation are cogent: the employee cannot waive them and the employer cannot derogate from them by individual agreement. A term in an employment contract that impairs a right arising from statute, an expansion order or a collective agreement is void, even where the employee signed it willingly.
A breach opens two routes, and they are not mutually exclusive:
- A claim before the Labour Court. Different remedies carry different limitation periods, which makes timing material.
- Administrative enforcement by the Ministry of Labour. The sanctions officer may issue an administrative warning, which allows the breach to be corrected without a sanction, or impose a monetary sanction at one of three levels of severity. A sanction for a continuing breach increases by 2% for each day the breach continues, and a sanction for a repeat breach within two years is doubled.
Liability does not stop at the corporate employer. The chief executive of a corporate employer is under a duty to supervise and take reasonable measures to prevent breaches, and a personal sanction may be imposed after a warning that went unanswered. A service orderer may also bear liability in the circumstances set out in the Increased Enforcement of Labour Laws Law.
In summary
Employee rights in Israel are not a single list but a set of layers: statute, expansion order, collective agreement and individual agreement, where each layer may only improve on the one beneath it and never reduce it. Rates and quotas are updated on different cycles from one another, which is why a proper reading of a payslip or a final settlement always begins with the question of which law applied to that period of employment.
The gap between a right and its realisation usually comes not from bad faith but from complexity: several normative sources intersecting, a different limitation period for each remedy, and burdens of proof that fall sometimes on the employee and sometimes on the employer. Realising rights in full, as much as defending properly against a claim, calls for professional legal representation by a lawyer who specialises in labour law.
If you believe a right of yours has been withheld, or you have received a letter of demand from an employee and are unsure of the exposure, contact us and we will look at the full picture and at the options open to you.
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