Australian annual leave is set by the National Employment Standards at four weeks a year — five for qualifying shift workers — and accrues steadily as you work. This calculator computes that accrual from ordinary hours and values the leave balance for an end-of-employment payout.
How annual leave accrual is calculated
Entitlement is a number of weeks of ordinary hours, and it accrues per hour worked at a fixed fraction of the year:
full-year hours = weeks of entitlement × ordinary hours per week
accrual per hour = weeks of entitlement / 52
accrued leave hours = ordinary hours worked × accrual per hour
payout (base) = accrued leave hours × hourly rateA standard worker accrues about 0.0769 hours of leave for each ordinary hour, so a full 52-week year reaches the four-week entitlement.
Example and notes
A full-time employee on 38 ordinary hours a week accrues 4 times 38, so 152 hours, across a full year. After 26 weeks they have accrued roughly 76 hours. Casual employees sit outside this system entirely: their loading replaces paid leave, and accrual only starts if and when they convert to permanent. On termination, add any applicable leave loading to the base payout the tool reports.
Accrual milestones at a glance
Because accrual is strictly proportional to ordinary hours, you can sanity-check any balance against these reference points (accrued hours = ordinary hours worked × entitlement ÷ 52):
| Weeks worked | Full-time 38 h/wk (4 weeks) | Part-time 20 h/wk (4 weeks) | Shift worker 38 h/wk (5 weeks) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 38.0 h | 20.0 h | 47.5 h |
| 26 | 76.0 h | 40.0 h | 95.0 h |
| 39 | 114.0 h | 60.0 h | 142.5 h |
| 52 | 152.0 h | 80.0 h | 190.0 h |
If a payslip balance is far off these proportions, the usual culprits are unpaid leave periods (which don’t accrue), a mid-year change in ordinary hours, or the employer accruing in days rather than hours.
Accrual edge cases that catch people out
- Leave accrues while on paid leave. Annual leave keeps accruing during paid annual leave and paid personal/carer’s leave — a four-week holiday still earns you leave. Most unpaid leave (such as unpaid parental leave) does not accrue.
- Overtime doesn’t accrue leave. Accrual is based on ordinary hours only. An employee regularly working 45 hours where 38 are ordinary hours accrues on the 38.
- Changing hours changes the value, not the history. If a part-timer moves from 20 to 38 ordinary hours, leave already accrued stays as the hours accrued; future accrual simply runs at the new rate. Payout is valued at the rate of pay when the leave is taken or paid out, not when it accrued.
- Leave in advance and negative balances. Employers may agree to grant leave before it has accrued; awards typically require a written agreement and allow the employer to deduct the un-accrued portion from a final payout if employment ends first.
- Excessive balances can be directed. Under many awards, an employer can direct an employee with an excessive accrued balance (commonly more than eight weeks) to take some leave, after genuine consultation and with notice limits. Leave never expires, but it can be managed down.
Shift worker rules and how to determine eligibility
The five-week entitlement for qualifying shift workers is one of the more frequently misunderstood parts of the National Employment Standards. Under the Fair Work Act, an employee qualifies for five weeks of annual leave if they are employed in a business that operates around the clock and the employee is regularly rostered to work weekends and public holidays as part of their ordinary pattern. Simply working some weekends is not enough — the arrangement must be a regular feature of the roster.
Whether an employee qualifies as a shift worker under the NES is determined by the specific wording of any applicable award or enterprise agreement, not just the NES definition alone. Modern awards often have their own definition of shift worker that may be broader or narrower. In practice, shift workers in industries such as health, hospitality, and manufacturing are the most common beneficiaries.
Leave loading and when it applies
Leave loading is an additional payment of typically 17.5% on top of ordinary rate pay during annual leave. It exists in many awards and some enterprise agreements but is not a universal entitlement under the NES alone — the NES only requires that employees receive their ordinary rate of pay during leave. Whether leave loading applies depends on the applicable award, enterprise agreement, or individual contract. The tool reports the base payout without loading; add 17.5% to the accrued hours value if the employee’s award or agreement provides for it.
Cashing out annual leave
The NES permits some annual leave to be cashed out rather than taken as time off, but only under specific conditions: the employee must retain at least four weeks’ worth of leave after any cashout, the agreement must be genuinely in writing and not a result of employer pressure, and the cashout must be paid at the full value of the leave plus any loading. Not all awards allow cashout even when the NES permits it — check the applicable instrument before agreeing to a cashout arrangement.
Payout on termination
When employment ends, the employer must pay out all accrued but untaken annual leave at the full rate including any leave loading where applicable. The timing differs by termination type in some awards. This calculator gives the base dollar value of the accrued balance; confirm the applicable award rate and loading before finalising a termination payment.
Sources and references
- Fair Work Ombudsman — Annual leave — the 4-week minimum, 5 weeks for qualifying shift workers, and accrual rules
- Fair Work Ombudsman — National Employment Standards — the statutory basis for the entitlement
- Fair Work Ombudsman — Cashing out annual leave — the conditions modelled in the cash-out section
Maintained by the Gera Tools editorial team. Accrual follows the NES formula (weeks of entitlement ÷ 52 per ordinary hour); leave loading and shift-worker eligibility depend on the applicable modern award or enterprise agreement, so check the specific instrument. Last reviewed 2026-07-02.