Australia Annual Leave & Leave Loading Calculator
Your NES annual leave balance in hours, days and weeks — and what it pays, with loading.
Leave pay and loading
Leave is paid at your base rate for your ordinary hours (s90(1)); the loading comes from your award, agreement or contract. Untaken leave is paid out when you leave (s90(2)).
Year by year
How this was calculated
Rules and official sources
The NES minimum — your award, agreement or contract can give more. Estimate, not legal advice.
For general information only, not legal advice. Templates are generic starting points — have a qualified lawyer review anything you rely on.
About the Australia Annual Leave & Leave Loading Calculator
Permanent full-time and part-time employees in Australia get 4 weeks of paid annual leave for each year of service under the National Employment Standards (NES) — 5 weeks for shiftworkers (Fair Work Act s87). It builds up progressively by your ordinary hours: 152 hours a year, or 2.923 hours a week, for a 38-hour week. It carries over from year to year, and untaken leave is paid out when the job ends. Casual employees do not get paid annual leave (s86).
Enter your start date (or a payslip balance and its date) or the ordinary hours you have been paid, your hours and days a week and the leave you have taken. The calculator shows the leave built up and your balance in hours, days and weeks, its pay at your base rate, the leave loading your award or agreement adds — 17.5% in many awards — and what a week or a planned break pays, with a year-by-year table you can download.
How to use it
- Choose your type of employment and your yearly leave: 4 weeks for most employees, 5 weeks for a shiftworker as your award or agreement defines one.
- Choose how to count: from your start date to a date (today unless you change it), or from the ordinary hours you were paid — useful when your hours have changed.
- Enter your ordinary hours and days a week, and the leave you have already taken in hours or days.
- Add your base pay per hour or per week and the leave loading from your award or agreement (17.5% is filled in; enter 0 if you get none) to see what the leave pays.
- Optionally carry on from a payslip balance (start the day after its pay period), leave out days of unpaid leave, or price days of leave you plan to take. Copy the summary or download the year-by-year table.
Examples
38 hours a week over 5 days · 1 year of service
4 weeks × 38 hours = 152 hours a year = 20 days of 7.6 hours
22.8 hours a week · 1 year of service
4 weeks × 22.8 hours = 91.2 hours = 12 days
38 hours a week · 1 January to 30 June (181 of 365 days)
152 × 181 ÷ 365 = 75.38 hours
1,976 ordinary hours paid (worked and paid leave)
1,976 × 4 ÷ 52 = 152 hours
114 hours at $35 an hour · 17.5% loading
Leave pay $3,990.00 + loading $698.25 = $4,688.25
38 hours a week · shiftworker under the award
5 weeks × 38 hours = 190 hours a year
The NES annual leave rules
- How much: 4 weeks of paid annual leave for each year of service with the employer; 5 weeks for a shiftworker (s87(1)).
- How it builds up: progressively during each year of service, according to your ordinary hours of work, and it accumulates from year to year (s87(2)). If the job ends part-way through a year, leave accrues up to the end.
- What counts as service: paid leave counts; unpaid leave and unauthorised absences do not, except community service leave and stand-downs (s22). Periods as a casual do not count (s87(1)).
- Taking it: at times agreed with your employer, who must not unreasonably refuse (s88). A public holiday during your leave is not taken out of it (s89).
- Pay: your base rate of pay for your ordinary hours in the period (s90(1)) — without loadings, allowances, overtime or penalty rates (s16) — plus any loading your award or agreement adds.
- When the job ends: untaken leave is paid out at what you would have been paid had you taken it (s90(2)).
Casual employees are not covered (s86): awards pay them a casual loading instead — 25% under the General Retail Industry Award (clause 11.1). Fair Work Act 2009.
Leave loading
Leave loading is not part of the NES: it comes from your award, enterprise agreement or contract. Many awards pay 17.5% on top of leave pay, for example:
- General Retail Industry Award 2020, clause 28.3: the greater of 17.5% of the minimum hourly rate and the penalty rates you would have earned;
- Clerks—Private Sector Award 2020, clause 32.3: the greater of 17.5% of the minimum hourly rate and the weekend (or shift) penalty rates;
- Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020, clause 30.3: 17.5% on the leave pay, including untaken leave paid out when employment ends.
Where an award works the 17.5% out on its minimum hourly rate, an employee paid above the award gets the loading on the award rate, not on their actual rate — enter the award rate as the pay if that is your case. An annualised salary can include the loading if the award allows it (Clerks clause 18.1).
Who counts as a shiftworker
For the fifth week, your modern award or enterprise agreement must define or describe you as a shiftworker for the purposes of the NES. If no award or agreement applies to you, you qualify if your employer’s shifts are continuously rostered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you are regularly rostered to work those shifts and you regularly work on Sundays and public holidays (s87(3)). The General Retail Industry Award, for example, gives the extra week to shiftworkers regularly rostered on Sundays and public holidays in a business with 24/7 continuous shifts (clause 28.2).
Cashing out, excessive leave and leave in advance
- Cashing out is allowed only if your award or agreement provides for it, or by agreement if you are award/agreement free. Each cash-out needs a separate written agreement, must pay at least what the leave would have paid, and must leave you at least 4 weeks of leave (s92–s94).
- Excessive leave: many awards let you or your employer push for leave to be taken once you have more than 8 weeks banked (10 for shiftworkers) — for example the General Retail Industry Award, clause 28.5.
- Leave in advance needs a written agreement — the award’s clause (Clerks clause 32.4) or, if you are award/agreement free, an agreement under s94(6). If you leave before it has built up, the award may let your employer deduct the unaccrued part from your final pay.
Other countries
In the UK, the UK Holiday Entitlement Calculator works out statutory holiday, including the 12.07% accrual for irregular hours. In India, the Leave Encashment Calculator works out earned leave and its encashment.
Limitations
- The NES minimum. Your award, enterprise agreement or contract can give more leave and sets whether, and how, leave loading is paid.
- From a start date, the same ordinary hours are assumed throughout. If your hours changed, use “Ordinary hours paid”, or count each period separately and add a payslip balance.
- From ordinary hours paid, 4 ÷ 52 of each hour is used, so a year with more or fewer ordinary hours gives slightly more or less than exactly 4 weeks.
- Long service leave (a state or territory law), personal/carer’s leave and public holidays are not worked out here.
- For national system employees under the Fair Work Act. Some state and local government employees are covered by a state system instead.
- An estimate for information, not legal advice. Check your payslips and your award or agreement.
Privacy
Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.
Frequently asked questions
How many hours of annual leave do I get a year?
4 weeks of your ordinary hours: 152 hours for a 38-hour week, 91.2 hours for 22.8 hours a week, 80 hours for 20 hours a week. Shiftworkers get 5 weeks: 190 hours for a 38-hour week.
How much annual leave do I build up each week?
4 ÷ 52 (one thirteenth) of your ordinary weekly hours: 2.923 hours a week, or 5.846 a fortnight, for 38 hours; 1.538 hours a week for 20 hours. Shiftworkers build up 5 ÷ 52: 3.654 hours a week for 38 hours.
Is annual leave loading always 17.5%?
No — it is not in the NES at all. It comes from your award, agreement or contract. Many awards pay 17.5%, often as the greater of 17.5% and the penalty rates you would have earned; some employees get none, and a salary may already include it. Check the award or agreement that covers you.
Do casual employees get annual leave?
Not paid annual leave under the NES (s86). Awards pay casual employees a casual loading instead of the entitlements they are excluded from — 25% under the General Retail Industry Award (clause 11.1).
Is annual leave paid out when I leave?
Yes. Untaken annual leave must be paid out when the employment ends, at what you would have been paid had you taken it (s90(2)). Whether loading is added then depends on your award or agreement: the Hospitality Industry (General) Award, for example, pays it on untaken leave too (clause 30.3).
Does annual leave build up while I am on leave?
Paid leave counts as service, so annual leave keeps building up while you are on paid annual, personal/carer’s or long service leave, and on community service leave such as jury duty. Unpaid leave and unauthorised absences do not count as service (s22(2)) — except community service leave and stand-downs — so no leave builds up then. The government’s Paid Parental Leave is not paid leave from your employer: during unpaid parental leave no annual leave builds up, even while you receive it (Fair Work Ombudsman: annual leave).