Long Service Leave Calculator

Choose the Applicable Rules

This long service leave calculator separates indicative accumulated leave from leave available under the selected state or territory’s general private-sector rules. Payment uses the available balance and the ordinary pay basis you enter.

Select the law that governs the employment. A workplace address alone cannot settle coverage after interstate service or a business transfer. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s coverage guidance explains how awards and agreements can affect long service leave.

Portable long service leave schemes, public-sector arrangements and special industry entitlements require their own rules. NSW Health employees and Tasmanian mining employees need the applicable employment instrument. Select Other or uncertain to withhold entitlement and payment figures while you establish coverage.

Victoria allows access after seven years, with leave calculated from continuous service weeks divided by 60. The ACT also has a seven-year access threshold, with about 6.0667 weeks at that point.

Under general rules in NSW, Queensland, WA and Tasmania, the first standard leave entitlement is 8.6667 weeks after ten years. South Australia and the Northern Territory provide 13 weeks after ten years.

Service and Interrupted Work

Enter the recognised start of continuous service and the date immediately after the last service day included. Ordinary weekends and public holidays stay in the calendar period. The calculator uses calendar dates without a time-zone adjustment.

Paid annual leave normally forms part of service. Unpaid leave, parental leave, illness and workers compensation require the selected law’s treatment. An absence can preserve continuity while adding no counted service. A break that ends continuity requires a new recognised start date.

Enter only confirmed non-counting calendar days in Days that do not count. Those days reduce the service period and postpone its milestones. The calculator cannot decide the legal treatment of an interruption from its label.

Part-time work does not simply halve years of service. Hours and ordinary pay determine the monetary basis. When hours or pay have varied, use the legally required average. Different jurisdictions use different averaging periods and included payments.

Reading Accrual and Payment

The headline is an indicative unused accumulation. Before a service milestone, positive accumulation can coexist with zero available leave. Treat the headline as a service estimate until access requirements are met.

NSW, WA and Tasmania generally release leave in milestones after ten years and each further five years. Queensland follows those milestones until 15 years, after which further leave can be accessed as it accrues. The available figure applies those access rules.

Victoria uses counted calendar days divided by 420 for its accumulation. The Northern Territory accumulates leave for completed years only. Other headline estimates use completed calendar years plus the fraction of the next service year. South Australia and the Northern Territory use a 1.3-week annual rate. The other jurisdictions use 13 weeks for 15 years.

Completed-year rules can make the available amount lower than the headline estimate. WA termination calculations after ten years count completed years for the additional pro-rata amount. The Northern Territory also excludes part years. ACT continuing-service figures use completed years after its seven-year milestone.

Early termination screening starts at five years in NSW and the ACT, or seven years in the other selected jurisdictions. These thresholds do not make every resignation eligible. Other termination reason withholds a payment where the legal reason requires assessment.

An ordinary resignation before ten years has no general pro-rata entitlement in NSW, Queensland or Tasmania. WA can provide pro-rata payment after seven years, except for serious misconduct. South Australia’s lawful ordinary resignation estimate after seven years uses completed years. It assumes the employee gives any required notice.

Choose Misconduct dismissal only when that is the established reason. The calculator preserves vested WA milestones but withholds uncertain early entitlements elsewhere. It does not adjudicate misconduct, illness, pressing necessity or unfair dismissal.

Estimated gross payment equals available unused weeks multiplied by confirmed ordinary weekly pay. An hourly basis multiplies the entered rate by the entered ordinary weekly hours first. Enter No for Ordinary pay basis confirmed when the required averaging or included loadings remain unresolved.

The payment excludes tax withholding and superannuation. It does not calculate tax on long service leave, assess historical tax components or choose a payroll withholding method. Public holidays extending ACT leave and employer agreements about leave timing need a separate adjustment.

Leave already taken or paid reduces both balances without producing a negative amount. Enter it in calendar weeks on the same entitlement basis. All entries stay on this device and are neither uploaded nor saved in browser storage.

A Jurisdiction Comparison

In the fictional default example, an employee completes eight years from 24 Oct 2018 to 24 Oct 2026, with no excluded days or leave taken. Their confirmed ordinary week is 38 hours at $40 an hour, giving $1,520.

Victoria counts 2,922 calendar days. Dividing by 420 gives 6.9571 weeks, displayed to four decimal places. The full unrounded amount produces an estimated gross payment of $10,575.

Change only the jurisdiction to NSW. The indicative accumulation is 6.9333 weeks, but available leave and payment are zero while the employee remains employed before the ten-year milestone.

South Australia produces an indicative accumulation of 10.4 weeks for those eight years. Available leave remains zero while employment continues. An ordinary resignation after those eight completed years gives a pro-rata estimate of 10.4 weeks and $15,808.

Use the selected jurisdiction’s linked rules beside the result when reconciling the estimate with the employer’s service and payroll records. Record the governing instrument and confirmed ordinary pay basis before posting an entitlement or payment.