Background: The maternity leave given during the postpartum period is 2 month in Ethiopiarntherefore this may affect working mothers not to exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 monthâ€™srnrecommended by World Health Organization. Available evidences showed 10-30% differencernbetween employed and unemployed mothers in practice of exclusive breastfeeding.rnObjective: To assess magnitude and factors that affects the practice of exclusive breastfeedingrnamong employed and unemployed mothers in Woldiya town.rnMethodology: A community based comparative cross-sectional study design was used fromrnJanuary to February 2015 in Woldiya town among 876 employed and unemployed mother.rnSimple random sampling technique was used. Data was entered into EPI-info and analyzed usingrnSPSS software. Chi-square test was used for comparison. Bivariate and multivariate logisticrnregression analyses were also done to examine the relationship between Exclusive breastfeedingrnand selected exposure factors with p-value 0.05.rnResults: The prevalence of Exclusive breastfeeding was 45.2% at 95% CI (40.3-49.6) amongrnemployed and 66.7% at 95% CI (62.1-71.4) among unemployed mothers [AOR: 2.40, 95% C.I :(rn1.72-3.36)]. Mothers who had attained primary education were found to practice Exclusivernbreastfeeding more likely than those who completed secondary and above [AOR: 2.03, 95% C.I:rn(0.99-4.16)]. Month specific prevalence of Exclusive breastfeeding showed that, infants betweenrn4 to 6 month age range were less likely to exclusively breastfeed than infants below 1 monthrn[AOR: 0.10, 95% C.I: (0.05-0.22)].rnConclusion and Recommendation: The prevalence of Exclusive breastfeeding was lowerrnamong employed than unemployed mothers. As the age of infant increases the prevalence ofrnEBF was progressively decrease. Promoting the practice of EBF through the extension ofrnpostnatal maternity leave is recommended.