The lawyer named the unfavorable months for vacations in 2026

The Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation has published a draft resolution on the postponement of days off in 2026, which is currently undergoing public discussion. Alexander Yuzhalin, head of SuperJob's legal practice, explained how to plan a vacation from a financial point of view in an interview with Izvestia on July 15.

According to the draft, Russians will have long holiday periods next year: New Year's holidays from December 31, 2025 to January 11 (12 days), 2026, February weekends from the 21st to the 23rd, March holidays from the 7th to the 9th, May holidays from the 1st to the On the 3rd and from the 9th to the 11th, in June — from the 12th to the 14th, as well as an additional day off on November 4th.

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Why did this happen and what companies are willing to offer in return?

The expert explained the principle of determining favorable vacation periods: for employees with a salary, months with a small number of working days are less preferable. This is due to the fact that the cost of one working day in such a month is higher than the average daily earnings used to calculate vacation pay.

January 2026, with its 15 working days, will traditionally be the least profitable for a vacation. It is also not recommended to take vacations in February and May. The most suitable months will be July, April, September, October and December, where the number of working days is maximum.

For those who want to extend the holiday periods, the best solution would be to take part of the vacation from January 12 or from May 4 to May 8. However, the lawyer warns that from a financial point of view, these months are the least profitable. An alternative would be to postpone part of the vacation until December 2025.

Special attention is paid to employees with piecework pay. For them, the Labor Code provides special guarantees: during non-working holidays, the employer is obliged to pay additional remuneration, the amount of which is set by the organization.

Yuzhalin stressed that the distribution of days off does not affect the salary, but changes the cost of a working day in different months. This is an important factor to consider when planning a vacation to avoid financial losses.

On July 2, it was reported that the number of vacancies for office work in the IT sector exceeded 236 thousand, which is 34% more than in 2024. Meanwhile, the number of vacancies on the remote site has declined since the beginning of 2025. At the same time, experts note that the absolute figures indicate the unwillingness of employers to completely abandon the remote format of work.