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Annual leave calculator

Free. No account, no email, nothing uploaded.

How you are employed
Full time is 38 ordinary hours a week, which is the NES cap.
Annual leave accrued 4 weeks a year
152 hours

which is about 20 days at 5 days a week, after 1 year.

Entitlement
4 weeks a year
Ordinary hours a week
38

Four weeks here goes further than 5.6 weeks in Britain. A UK employer may count the eight bank holidays inside the 5.6 weeks, and most do, so 28 days of entitlement leaves about 20 the employee actually chooses. Australia gives 20 outright and the public holidays do not come out of it, because the Fair Work Ombudsman says an employee is not on annual leave on a public holiday and the balance is not reduced for it. The bigger headline number is the smaller entitlement.

From the Fair Work Ombudsman. Nothing uploaded, and worked out on this device.

Worth knowing

  • PUBLIC HOLIDAYS DO NOT COME OUT OF THIS. The Fair Work Ombudsman is explicit that an employee is not on annual leave on a public holiday and the balance is not reduced for it. That is why 4 weeks in Australia goes further than 5.6 weeks in the UK, where employers may and usually do count the eight bank holidays inside the entitlement. Same for illness: sick during annual leave, and paid sick leave can be used instead so the annual leave is kept.
  • IT DOES NOT EXPIRE. Leave can be taken as soon as it accrues and does not have to be taken each year, so there is no statutory use-it-or-lose-it. That is why awards and the NES have rules about EXCESSIVE balances and directing an employee to take leave, and it is the opposite of the British default.
  • LEAVE IS PAID AT THE BASE RATE, which excludes overtime, penalties, allowances and bonuses. Somebody whose usual pay leans on penalty rates takes home noticeably less on leave than at work, which is why many awards add loading. Check whether yours does before assuming this figure is what lands.

Worked out on this device, by this page. Nothing you typed was sent anywhere or stored, and closing the tab loses it.

Next in the same job

Holiday entitlement
How many days off someone is legally owed, on any working pattern.
UK
Pro rata holiday
Holiday for part-timers, mid-year starters and mid-year leavers.
UK
Holiday pay on leaving
Untaken days owed in the final payslip, or days overtaken.
UK

Four weeks, five if you are a shiftworker

Annual leave is one of the National Employment Standards, which means no award, contract or enterprise agreement can give you less than it. The Fair Work Ombudsman states the entitlement plainly: an employee other than a casual employee accumulates 4 weeks of paid annual leave for each year of service.

A shiftworker gets five. Where an award or registered agreement applies, it is that document which defines who counts as a shiftworker. An award-free employee qualifies only if all three of these hold: they work in an enterprise where shifts are continuously rostered 24 hours a day seven days a week, they are regularly rostered to those shifts, and they regularly work Sundays and public holidays. All three, not any of them.

It accrues continuously, based on the ordinary hours you actually work, rather than landing as a lump at the start of a leave year. So six months of service is six months of leave, and a part-timer gets the same four weeks as everybody else, which is fewer hours rather than fewer weeks. That distinction is why the calculator above works in hours: it is how Australian payslips carry it.

Four weeks here beats 5.6 weeks in Britain

This is the thing worth knowing if you have worked in both places, and the headline numbers point the wrong way.

A Briton has 5.6 weeks, which is 28 days on a five day week. But a UK employer may count the eight bank holidays inside that 28, and most do. So the entitlement is 28 and the days the employee actually chooses is about 20.

An Australian has four weeks, which is 20 days, and the public holidays are outside it. The Fair Work Ombudsman is explicit: an employee is not considered to be on annual leave on a day or part-day that is a public holiday, and so their annual leave balance is not reduced for it. Take a week off with a public holiday in it and you are charged four days, not five.

Both end up with roughly 20 discretionary days. Only one of them also gets the public holidays, because the other has already spent them. The bigger headline number is the smaller entitlement.

The same protection covers being ill

If you fall sick while on annual leave you can use your paid sick leave for those days instead, and the annual leave balance is not reduced. It is the same mechanism as the public holiday: you are treated as not being on annual leave, so the balance is protected rather than spent on a week you did not get to enjoy.

It does not expire, which creates its own problem

Leave can be taken as soon as it accrues, and it does not have to be taken each year. There is no statutory use-it-or-lose-it and no cap on the balance.

That is genuinely better for the employee, and it is why the NES and most awards have separate rules about excessive leave balances and about an employer directing somebody to take leave. A long-serving employee who never books time off can be sitting on months of it, which is a real liability on the employer's books and a real problem for the employee who is plainly overdue a break.

A direction to take leave has to be reasonable, and the fact sheet gives two examples of when it usually is: an excessive balance, or a temporary shutdown such as the week between Christmas and New Year.

Casuals get nothing, and that is the answer rather than a smaller number

The entitlement is written as applying to an employee other than a casual employee. Casuals are excluded outright. They do not accrue at a lower rate, they do not accrue at all.

That is the trade for casual loading, which is the higher hourly rate a casual gets instead. It is a coherent bargain, but it is a hard stop, and it catches people arriving from the UK, where a comparable irregular-hours worker accrues at 12.07% of the hours they work and does get paid holiday. Same kind of worker, completely different structure.

What you are actually paid, and where loading fits

Annual leave is paid at your base rate for ordinary hours, and ordinary hours cannot exceed 38 in a week. The base rate excludes overtime rates, penalties, allowances and bonuses.

For a lot of people that is materially less than a normal week's pay. Somebody whose earnings depend on weekend or night penalties takes a real cut to go on holiday, which is the gap annual leave loading exists to close.

Loading is not in the NES. Awards and registered agreements can set out that it is paid, and 17.5% is the figure most of them use, but whether you get it at all is a question about your award rather than about the law. The calculator above leaves it at zero until you set it, because assuming 17.5% would overstate a termination payout for anybody award-free.

On termination it follows the leave out the door

An employer must pay out any untaken annual leave when employment ends, and the payment has to be the same as what you would have been paid if you had taken the leave. That includes loading, where loading applied during employment. So a final pay that ignores loading for somebody who had it all year is short.

When leave keeps accruing, and the two exceptions that surprise people

Accrual continues during paid annual leave, paid sick or carer's leave, long service leave, unpaid leave that counts towards accrual such as jury service, and a stand down under section 524 of the Fair Work Act.

It stops during:

  • ordinary unpaid leave, unless an award or registered agreement provides for it
  • unpaid leave while you are being paid under the Paid Parental Leave Scheme
  • any period of leave you have cashed out

The parental leave one is the one nobody expects, and it matters over a long absence. Neither of the first two is guessable from first principles, which is why they are listed here rather than summarised.

Why this is not the same page as UK holiday entitlement

Because it is not the same instrument and it is not even the same word. Australia says annual leave, Britain says holiday, and a page called holiday entitlement is not competing badly in Australia, it is invisible: the measured search volumes differ by more than five hundred to one.

The mechanics differ just as much. The UK asks about a 28-day cap, a 12.07% accrual rate for irregular hours workers, a 52-week averaging reference period and whether bank holidays are counted in. None of those exists here. This page asks about shiftworker status, ordinary hours against a 38-hour cap, and which award decides your loading. None of those exists there.

Our UK holiday entitlement tool covers the British version, and the two link to each other rather than pretending to be one page with a flag on it.

Common questions

How much annual leave am I entitled to in Australia?

Four weeks for each year of service, and five weeks if you are classified as a shiftworker. The Fair Work Ombudsman puts it as an employee other than a casual employee accumulating 4 weeks of paid annual leave for each year of service. It accrues continuously based on the ordinary hours you work rather than arriving in a lump at the start of the year, so half a year of service is half the leave.

Is four weeks less generous than the British 5.6 weeks?

No, it is more generous, and the headline numbers hide it. A UK employer may count the eight bank holidays inside the 5.6 weeks, and most do, so 28 days of entitlement leaves about 20 the employee actually chooses. Australian public holidays are explicitly outside the four weeks: the Fair Work Ombudsman says an employee is not considered to be on annual leave on a public holiday, so the balance is not reduced for it. Both give about 20 discretionary days and only the Australian also keeps the public holidays.

Do casual employees get annual leave?

None at all. The entitlement is written as applying to an employee other than a casual employee, so casuals are excluded outright rather than accruing at a lower rate. That is the trade for casual loading. It catches people arriving from the UK, where a comparable irregular-hours worker accrues at 12.07% of hours worked and does get paid holiday.

Does annual leave expire if I do not take it?

No. Leave can be taken as soon as it accrues and it does not have to be taken each year, so there is no statutory use-it-or-lose-it and no cap on the balance. That is why the NES and many awards have rules about excessive leave balances and about an employer directing an employee to take leave. It is the opposite of the British default, where carrying leave over is the exception.

What am I paid while on annual leave?

Your base rate of pay for ordinary hours, and ordinary hours cannot exceed 38 in a week. The base rate excludes overtime rates, penalties, allowances and bonuses. So if your usual take-home leans on penalty rates you are paid noticeably less on leave than at work, which is a large part of why leave loading exists.

Do I get annual leave loading?

It depends on your award, not on the law. The NES does not require leave loading. Awards and registered agreements can set out that it is paid, and 17.5% is the figure most of them use, but the document that covers you is what decides. On termination it follows the leave out: untaken leave is paid as it would have been if taken, including loading where loading applied during employment.

What happens if I am sick while on annual leave?

You can use your paid sick leave for those days instead, and your annual leave balance is not reduced for them. It works the same way as a public holiday falling inside a leave period. Both are cases where the Fair Work Ombudsman treats you as not being on annual leave, so the balance is protected.

Does leave keep accruing while I am on leave?

Mostly yes, and the exceptions are not guessable. It accrues during paid annual leave, paid sick or carer leave, long service leave, unpaid leave that counts towards accrual such as jury service, and a stand down under section 524. It does not accrue during ordinary unpaid leave unless an award provides for it, during unpaid leave while you are being paid under the Paid Parental Leave Scheme, or for leave you have cashed out.