Long Service Leave Calculator Australia — All 8 States and Territories

How Much Long Service Leave Do You Get in Each State?

Long service leave is the one major leave entitlement the National Employment Standards do not set. Each state and territory has its own Act, and they differ in three ways that actually change the number: how long you have to serve before you can take leave, how many weeks a year you accrue, and how early a payment is owed if you leave.

“Pro-rata from” is the completed service at which a payment can be owed when employment ends. Where a second figure is shown, the first is a conditional window — the payment is owed only on defined grounds, such as redundancy, illness or death — and the second is the point from which it is owed however the job ends.

South Australia and the NT pay half as much again

The single biggest difference is the rate. Six jurisdictions accrue 0.8667 weeks a year — two months of leave for 10 years of service. South Australia and the Northern Territory accrue 1.3 weeks a year, so the same 10 years earns 13 weeks. On $1,600 a week that is $20,800 instead of $13,867 — a gap of $6,933 for identical service.

The catch is at the other end: SA and the NT pay on completed years only, so 8½ years is paid as 8. Everywhere except the ACT (completed years and months) the part year counts down to the day.

How Long Service Leave Is Calculated

The arithmetic is the same shape everywhere: weeks of leave = years of continuous service × the weekly accrual rate, paid at your ordinary weekly rate — no overtime — at the time you take the leave or the job ends. What differs is how much of a part year counts, and whether you can take anything yet.

Weeks accrued, which is the figure paid out when employment ends and a pro-rata entitlement exists. It is not always the figure you can take as leave — see the next section.

Accrued Is Not the Same as Takeable

In NSW, WA and Tasmania the leave arrives in blocks. Nothing is takeable until 10 years, then 8.667 weeks lands at once, then another 4.333 weeks every 5 years. Serving 14 years gets you no more takeable leave than serving 10 — although the extra four years still count if the job ends. Queensland steps at 10 and 15 and then runs continuously. Victoria, the ACT, South Australia and the Northern Territory hand over the accrued balance once you qualify.

Weeks you can take as paid leave while still employed. A dash means the qualifying period has not been reached.

Long Service Leave Payout on Resignation

This is where the states diverge most, and it is the question that costs people the most money. In Victoria, WA and South Australia a plain resignation past 7 years pays out the accrued balance. In NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and the NT a plain resignation pays nothing until you reach 10 years — below that you have to fall inside a defined list.

Whatever is owed lands in your final pay alongside unused annual leave and any notice. If the job ended through redundancy, the redundancy pay calculator covers the separate NES scale — and, as the next section explains, redundancy also changes how the long service leave itself is taxed.

Tax on a Long Service Leave Payout

Tax is federal, so it is identical in all eight jurisdictions. There are two quite different situations:

• Leave you take as leave. Paid through normal payroll and withheld at your usual rates, exactly like a fortnight of ordinary pay.
• An unused balance paid out when the job ends. This follows the ATO's separate schedule for unused leave payments on termination, which splits the payment by when the leave accrued.

If you started your job after 17 August 1993 — which covers essentially every current employee — the whole payout sits in the bottom row. Resign and it is taxed at your marginal rate; be made redundant and it is withheld at a flat 32%, which is often lower than the marginal rate a large payout would otherwise attract. Where the post-1993 component plus unused annual leave comes to less than $300, the ATO says withhold 32% instead of running the marginal calculation. No tax is withheld at all from unused leave paid after an employee's death.

A payout is taxed in the year you receive it and can push you into a higher bracket for that year. On $1,600 a week plus a 8.67-week NSW payout of $13,867, the year totals about $97,067 — see take-home pay on $95,000 for what that leaves.

Casual and Part-Time Long Service Leave

Casuals accrue long service leave in every state and territory, and part-timers accrue at the same rate as full-timers — the entitlement is measured in weeks, so a part-timer gets the same number of weeks at their own ordinary pay. What differs is what breaks continuity, and Queensland uses an entirely separate formula.

Where the Act Does Not Apply

Every jurisdiction carves out the same three groups: public sector employees, employees whose long service leave already comes from a federal enterprise agreement or a pre-reform federal award, and industries covered by a portable long service leave scheme. Portable schemes let you build service across employers in the same industry rather than with one employer — building and construction, contract cleaning, community services, security and black coal mining all have one. If any of those describes you, the figures on this page are not yours; contact the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94, or your scheme.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Calculators