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Long service leave
calculator (Australia)

Work out long service leave for every Australian state and territory: what has accrued, when it vests, and what it is worth on termination.

Your numbers

Decimals are fine (8 years 6 months = 8.5). Unpaid leave generally doesn't count.
Base pay for ordinary hours. Overtime and most allowances are excluded in every state.
Long service leave
 
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How much long service leave do employees get in Australia?

It depends on the state or territory, because long service leave is state law. The most common entitlement is 8.6667 weeks (two months) of paid leave after 10 years of continuous service with one employer, but South Australia and the Northern Territory provide 13 weeks after 10 years, and in Victoria and the ACT the leave can be taken after 7 years. Every jurisdiction also accrues further leave beyond the first milestone.

How we calculated this

Long service leave is state and territory law, not the National Employment Standards, which is why the answer changes when the state does. In most jurisdictions the full entitlement is 8.6667 weeks (two months) after 10 years of continuous service, but South Australia and the Northern Territory pay 13 weeks at that mark, and Victoria and the ACT let employees take the leave from 7 years. Pro-rata payouts on termination are where the real differences live: the qualifying years and the termination reasons that count are different in every jurisdiction, so the calculator applies each state's own rules rather than a national average. The result uses the employee's ordinary weekly pay, and dollar figures are gross: leave paid out on termination is taxed under the ATO's unused-leave rules. Some industries (construction, cleaning, community services, coal mining and others, depending on the state) sit under portable long service schemes with their own rules, and this calculator does not model those. This is general guidance, not legal advice.

New to the term? Read the plain-English definition of long service leave in the HR Glossary.

State detail pages: NSW · VIC · QLD · WA · SA · TAS · NT · ACT

Assumptions
  • Continuous service is taken as you enter it. What breaks continuity (unpaid absences, parental leave, gaps between casual engagements, a change of business owner) differs by jurisdiction. If there was a break, the number can be too high.
  • Ordinary weekly pay means the normal rate for ordinary hours: overtime and most allowances excluded. Each jurisdiction has its own averaging rules where hours or pay have changed, so for someone whose hours dropped recently the figure you enter may not be the figure the law uses.
  • South Australia and the Northern Territory count completed years only; the other jurisdictions credit part-years. Close to a milestone that difference is worth weeks.
  • Dollars are gross. Leave paid out on termination is taxed under the ATO's unused-leave rules, so the amount that reaches the person is lower.
  • Portable long service schemes (construction, contract cleaning, community services and coal mining, depending on the state) and any long service leave terms preserved in an award or agreement are not modelled. The state Act is the floor, and the calculator applies the Act.
Sources

What to do about it

The entitlement is arithmetic once you know which rule book applies. The harder question is whether the people between year five and year ten are still going to be here to take it. These steps are for whoever administers leave and whoever manages the long-serving people, which is rarely the same person.

1

Confirm which rule book applies, and write it down

The state Act, a preserved award term, an agreement term, or a portable scheme. Note the instrument you relied on next to the figure. Two people in the same office can sit under different rules, and the mistake is expensive in the direction of underpayment.

2

Check continuity before you check the maths

Get the full service record from payroll, including periods before the current system, and look for unpaid leave, parental leave, casual gaps and any transfer of business. Continuity rules differ by jurisdiction and a break can reset or pause the clock.

3

Ask finance how the liability is provisioned

Long service leave accrues from year one even though it vests years later, and the provision should reflect current pay rates and the people who will realistically reach the milestone. If nobody has looked at it since the last audit, this calculator is a fast way to spot-check the largest balances.

4
Where a tool helps

Read the near-miss list

Everyone who left between year five and year nine over the last three years is a person who nearly stayed. Log why they went, as they told it and as you read it. If the reasons cluster around one manager or one team, the ten-year cohort you are counting on is already thinner than it looks.

5

Plan the leave rather than only paying it out

Someone taking two or three months away is a live succession test. Decide who covers and what they will own. Then decide what you want to know about the role by the time the person comes back.

Ten years is a choice
made every day.

Compono Engage is an employee engagement platform that reads culture and climate alongside work personality, so you can see which of the people between year five and year ten are drifting before they resign. Payroll knows the accrual to the day. It has nothing to say about whether the person will still be here to take it.

Step 4 asks you to read the near-miss list by hand. Engage reads it while the people are still on the payroll, team by team, with the reason attached. The weeks above are what loyalty is worth. Engage is how you keep earning it.

See how it works
Compono Engage
8%+
reduction in turnover

Common questions

Do employees get long service leave if they resign before 10 years?

Often yes, as a pro-rata payment, but the rules differ sharply by state. Most jurisdictions pay pro-rata long service leave after 5 to 7 years when employment ends for reasons like redundancy, illness or dismissal (other than for serious misconduct), and several also pay it on a straight resignation. The calculator applies the rules for the state you pick.

Do casual employees accrue long service leave?

Generally yes. In most states and territories, casual and seasonal employees accrue long service leave if their service is continuous under that jurisdiction's rules. The ACT is the exception, where casual coverage is fact-specific. Continuity rules matter everywhere: allowable gaps between engagements differ, and Tasmania requires 32 hours or more in each consecutive 4-week period.

What pay rate is long service leave paid at?

Ordinary pay, which broadly means the employee's normal weekly rate for ordinary hours. Overtime and most allowances are excluded, and states have their own rules for averaging variable pay such as commission or changing hours. The calculator uses the ordinary weekly pay you enter.

What is portable long service leave?

Industry schemes that let workers carry long service entitlements between employers in sectors where job movement is normal: construction, contract cleaning and community services in several states, and coal mining under a national scheme. Employers in covered industries register with the scheme and pay a levy. Those schemes run on their own rules, and this calculator does not model them.

This page is general information, not legal advice. We check figures annually and update them on a best-efforts basis, but employment rules change and we cannot promise everything here is current or complete. Before you act on it, confirm the detail with the Fair Work Ombudsman or your own adviser. Last reviewed July 2026.

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