Leave Loading Calculator: 17.5% Explained

How to Calculate Leave Loading

Take your base pay for the leave and multiply by 17.5%:

1. Leave pay: $30 × 38 hours × 4 weeks = $4,560
2. Leave loading: $4,560 × 17.5% = $798
3. Total before tax: $5,358

Base pay means your ordinary rate for your ordinary hours. Whether an above-award rate counts depends on the clause: the Hospitality Award calculates the loading on the amount payable under the NES, which includes an above-award base rate, while awards that calculate it on “the minimum hourly rate” use the award rate.

Which Awards Pay Leave Loading, and How

• Retail Award: The greater of 17.5% of the minimum hourly rate or the penalty rates you would have earned (shift penalties for shiftworkers).
• Hospitality Award: A flat 17.5% on the amount payable under the NES for the leave, including untaken leave paid out when employment ends. No comparison with penalty rates.
• Fast Food Award: The greater of 17.5% of the minimum hourly rate or the weekend penalty amounts (penalty less base rate) for the weekend hours you would have worked.
• Pharmacy Award: 17.5% or the relevant weekend penalty rates, whichever is greater but not both; shiftworkers compare with the shift loading including weekend penalties.
• Clerks Award: The greater of 17.5% of the minimum hourly rate or the minimum rate inclusive of weekend penalty rates (shift and weekend penalties for shiftworkers).
• Manufacturing Award: 17.5% of the cl 34.3 wages or the relevant weekend penalty rates, whichever is greater but not both; shiftworkers compare with the shift loading.
• SCHADS Award: Non-shiftworkers get a flat 17.5% of their ordinary rate; shiftworkers get the higher of 17.5% or the weekend and shift penalties they would have received.
• Security Award: Leave is paid at the greater of what you would have earned, or the minimum rate plus first aid, supervision or relieving allowances plus 17.5%. On termination the 17.5% is lost if dismissed for misconduct.

17.5% or Penalty Rates: Whichever Is Higher

The loading exists so people who usually earn weekend or shift penalties don’t take a pay cut on holidays. Where the award compares the two, the employer works out both amounts and pays the larger, never both.

Is Leave Loading Taxed?

Yes, as ordinary income. How much is withheld depends on how it’s paid (ATO Schedule 1, allowances, leave and other payments):

• With your leave: the loading is added to that period’s earnings and withheld from using the normal tax tables. A bigger pay in one period means more withheld that period.
• As a lump sum (for example once a year): the employer uses Schedule 5, the method for back pay and bonuses. The calculator above shows the result.
• Paid out when you leave (ATO Schedule 7): on a normal resignation, loading on leave accrued after 17 August 1993 is withheld at marginal rates (added to the final pay's salary and wages); before that date, 32%. On a genuine redundancy, invalidity or early retirement scheme it is 32% of the total, whatever the accrual date.

None of this changes the tax you finally pay: the loading is part of your income for the year and your tax return squares it up. See the income tax calculator.

Super on Leave Loading

The ATO counts annual leave loading as ordinary time earnings, so your employer pays the 12% super guarantee on it, unless the loading is demonstrably linked to a lost opportunity to work overtime. Payday Super (from 1 July 2026) didn’t change that: see Payday Super.

Leave Loading When You Leave a Job

Unused annual leave must be paid out as if you had taken it, including any loading, penalty rates or shift loading that would have applied, even if a contract says otherwise (Fair Work Ombudsman). The Hospitality Award says in terms that its 17.5% applies to untaken leave paid on termination. One exception: under the Security Award (cl 21.3(c)) the 17.5% is not paid on termination if you were dismissed for misconduct.

Add it all up with the final pay calculator, or the redundancy pay calculator if your job was made redundant.

When Leave Loading Doesn’t Apply

• Casuals don’t get paid annual leave, so there’s no loading. The 25% casual loading is paid instead: compare them with the casual loading calculator.
• Award-free employees get it only if their contract provides it.
• Annualised salaries permitted by the award or agreement can absorb the loading, as can an individual flexibility arrangement or a contractual offsetting arrangement (Fair Work Ombudsman).
• Enterprise agreements may roll the loading into higher base rates. The agreement had to pass the better off overall test against the award when it was approved.

Related Calculators and Guides

• Annual Leave Calculator: accrual and payout value
• Annual Leave Guide: the NES rules
• Final Pay Calculator: leave paid out when you finish
• Time in Lieu: TOIL instead of overtime pay
• Penalty Rates Guide: the weekend rates the loading is compared with

Frequently Asked Questions