Long Service Leave Calculator NSW (New South Wales)8.67 weeks after 10 years under the Long Service Leave Act 1955 (NSW)

How Much Long Service Leave You Get in New South Wales

NSW Industrial Relations regulates the Long Service Leave Act 1955 and launched an updated Long Service Leave Guide on 1 March 2026. The Act defines a month as 4⅓ weeks, so “two months” is 8.67 weeks, and the entitlement is counted in weeks rather than days or hours.

The Long Service Leave Act 1955 (NSW) accrues 0.8667 weeks for every year with one employer. At 10 years you can take 8.67 weeks; after that, an extra 4.33 weeks (one month) for every further 5 years, so 20 years is 17.33 weeks. Part years count, down to the day.

Accrued is what is paid out when the job ends and a pro-rata entitlement exists; a dash means the 10-year qualifying period has not been reached.

Pro-Rata Long Service Leave in New South Wales

Nothing is owed below 5 years. Between 5 and 10 years the NSW Act pays a pro-rata amount only where:

• the employer ends the employment for any reason other than serious and wilful misconduct
• you resign because of illness, incapacity, or domestic or other pressing necessity
• you die (the payment goes to your estate)

From 10 years the balance is paid however the job ends, resignation included.

How NSW Long Service Leave Pay Is Worked Out

NSW pays long service leave at “ordinary pay”, which can have three parts: a primary component, the cash value of any board or lodging, and the average weekly value of bonuses or incentives. Shift-work, overtime and other penalty rates are left out; casual loading is kept in.

The primary component depends on how you are paid on the “prescribed date” — the day the leave starts or the job ends. If you are on a fixed rate (a salary for standard hours, or an hourly rate tied to hours worked, which covers casuals with variable hours), it is the higher of your ordinary remuneration on that date or your average weekly ordinary remuneration over the previous five years (section 3(1)(a)). Anyone else gets the higher of their average weekly wage over the previous 12 months or the previous five years (section 3(1)(b)).

Allowances paid for the work itself — height, heat, a first-aid allowance paid for all ordinary hours — are included; expense allowances for travel, meals, uniforms, a car or tools are not. Where board or lodging is supplied but no value is fixed in the contract or award, the Act adds $15 a week for board and $5 a week for lodging. Bonuses and incentives only count while annual ordinary pay without them is under the high-income threshold.

Taking Long Service Leave in New South Wales

Leave is meant to be taken in one continuous block. By agreement it can be split into periods of at least one day: two periods for a 2-month entitlement, two or three where it is more than 2 months, and two, three or four where it is more than 19.5 weeks.

Leave in advance needs the employer's agreement and is subtracted from what you accrue later; if you leave before earning it back, the employer may recover the value to the extent the law allows. An employer can direct you to take long service leave on at least one month's notice. You do not have to give a fixed period of notice to ask for it.

Casual, Part-Time and Continuous Service in New South Wales

The Act covers full-time, part-time (including part-timers with fluctuating hours), casual, piecework, commission and outworker employees.

Service stays continuous when you move between permanent, casual and part-time work, or sign several contracts, with the same employer. Unpaid leave does not count as service, so it has to be made up: NSW Industrial Relations' example has a worker serving 56 extra days past his 10-year anniversary to cover unpaid leave taken in 2008.

Cashing Out Long Service Leave in New South Wales

Long service leave cannot be cashed out in NSW. It is an offence to give or receive payment instead of taking the leave, and a criminal conviction may be recorded.

Portable Long Service Schemes in New South Wales

Three NSW portable schemes, run by the Long Service Corporation (13 14 41), let service build up across employers in one industry. Where a worker in a scheme still reaches 10 years with one employer, the employer may have to pay the leave directly under the Act and report it to the Corporation.

• Building and construction industry long service payments scheme — building and construction workers
• Community services industry portable long service leave scheme — community services workers — about 6.1 weeks of paid leave after 7 years of recognised service in the industry, funded by an employer levy
• Contract cleaning industry portable long service leave scheme — contract cleaners
• Coal LSL (Australian Government) — black coal mining workers, who accrue under Commonwealth law rather than the NSW Act

Also outside the NSW Act

• private sector employees whose long service leave comes from an award, agreement or pre-modernised award
• NSW public sector employees under the Government Sector Employment Regulation 2014
• Commonwealth government employees
• local government employees under the Local Government State Award 2023
• building and construction, contract cleaning, community services and black coal mining employees in a portable scheme

Tax, and How NSW Compares

Tax on a payout is federal, so it is the same in New South Wales as everywhere: the ATO unused-leave schedule is set out on the hub. A 10-year NSW entitlement of 8.67 weeks at $1,600 a week is $13,867 gross — see take-home pay on $95,000 for the year it lands in. For the other seven Acts side by side, see long service leave in every state.

Frequently Asked Questions

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