Meaning & use
unpaid leave
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
Time away from work that your employer allows but for which you are not paid.
Grammar: Usually uncountable: you say 'on unpaid leave', not 'on an unpaid leave'. It can be countable in rare cases when referring to a specific period, but this is uncommon.
Patterns
- on unpaid leave
- take unpaid leave
- be on unpaid leave
She took three months of unpaid leave to care for her sick father.
Employees can request unpaid leave if they have used all their paid vacation days.
He is currently on unpaid leave while the company investigates the incident.
Common combinations
- take unpaid leave
- He decided to take unpaid leave to travel around Asia.
- on unpaid leave
- She has been on unpaid leave since January.
- request unpaid leave
- You can request unpaid leave through the HR portal.
- a period of unpaid leave
- After a long period of unpaid leave, he returned to his job.
- grant unpaid leave
- The manager agreed to grant her unpaid leave for the summer.
Synonyms and how they differ
- leave without pay
- A more formal, administrative term with the same meaning; it is often used in official documents and policies.
- furlough
- Usually a temporary, forced period of unpaid leave, often because of budget problems, rather than a voluntary request.
Opposites
Word family
- leave noun
- Time when you are allowed to be away from work.
- unpaid adjective
- Not receiving payment for work done.
Commonly confused: unpaid leave or sabbatical?
unpaid leave vs sabbatical
A sabbatical is an extended break from work, often for study or travel, and it may be paid or unpaid; 'unpaid leave' simply means no pay, regardless of the reason.
Practice
After using up all her vacation days, Maria asked to go on ______ leave to look after her newborn baby.
Choose one answer.
The fixed expression is 'unpaid leave'. 'Unpaying' and 'nonpaid' are not used in this context, and 'unpayable' means impossible to pay, which makes no sense here.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “unpaid leave”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.