This calculator gives a general estimate based on the NES. For your exact entitlement, check your award, enterprise agreement, or employment contract.

AUSTRALIA • ANNUAL LEAVE TOOL

Annual Leave Calculator

Calculate your annual leave balance in hours, weeks and days based on your service period, ordinary working hours, working pattern and leave already taken.

Calculate Your Leave Balance

Enter your service dates, ordinary weekly hours, working days and any leave already taken to calculate your estimated annual leave balance.

Casual employees are generally not entitled to paid annual leave under the NES — they receive casual loading instead.
The date you want the balance calculated up to.
Enter your ordinary weekly hours.
Used to convert leave hours into your actual working days.
Any paid annual leave already used during this service period. Leave as 0 if none.
Estimated Leave Balance
0.00 hours
Balance in Weeks 0.00
Balance in Days 0.00
Average Accrual / Week 0.00
Service Period 0 days
4 Weeks Per Year The calculator uses four weeks of annual leave for each completed service year.
Your Working Pattern Enter your actual days worked per week to convert leave hours into leave days.
Leap Years Partial service periods use the actual number of days between service anniversaries. If the service year includes February 29, the calculation automatically accounts for the extra day.
How the calculation works: Completed service years receive exactly four weeks of entitlement. A partial service year is prorated using the actual number of elapsed days between the current service anniversary and the next anniversary, then any leave already taken is subtracted to give your remaining balance. This automatically accounts for leap years.

How Annual Leave Works in Australia

Under the Fair Work Act, most employees build up annual leave gradually as they work — it isn't handed out in one lump sum at the start of the year.

Full-Time Employees

Full-time employees are entitled to a minimum of 4 weeks of paid annual leave per year, based on their ordinary hours of work. For someone on a standard 38-hour week, that works out to about 2.923 hours of leave for every week worked.

Part-Time Employees

Part-time leave is calculated pro-rata — proportional to the hours worked compared to a full-time employee. For example, someone working 20 hours a week (roughly half of a 38-hour week) accrues around 80 hours of annual leave a year, not a flat number of days.

Casual Employees

Casual employees don't accrue paid annual leave. Instead, they're paid casual loading (typically 25%) on top of their hourly rate, which compensates for the leave and other entitlements they miss out on.

Shift Workers

Some continuous shift workers who regularly work Sundays and public holidays may be entitled to up to 5 weeks of annual leave under certain awards, rather than the standard 4.

How Is Annual Leave Calculated?

The core formula the NES uses is straightforward:

Weekly accrual = (Annual leave weeks ÷ 52) × ordinary weekly hours

Worked Example

A full-time employee working a standard 38-hour week:
(4 ÷ 52) × 38 = 2.923 hours accrued per week

A part-time employee working 2 days a week (about 15.2 hours, based on a 38-hour/5-day week):
Their leave scales down proportionally — landing at roughly 8 days a year, not a flat fraction taken from a different country's leave standard. (Some calculators online mix up Australia's 4-week entitlement with the UK's 5.6-week statutory minimum — worth double-checking any tool you use.)

What Is Annual Leave Loading?

Leave loading is extra pay — commonly 17.5% on top of base pay — applied when an employee takes annual leave. It exists to make up for overtime, penalty rates, and other pay an employee would normally earn but misses while off work. Not every award or agreement includes it, so it's worth checking your specific terms.

Can You Carry Over or Cash Out Annual Leave?

Unused annual leave doesn't expire — it accumulates from year to year unless an award or agreement says otherwise. Cashing out leave is possible in some cases, but only under specific conditions set out in an applicable award or agreement, and it generally can't reduce an employee's remaining balance below 4 weeks.

Annual Leave vs. Other Types of Leave

Annual leave is separate from personal/carer's leave and other leave categories — using one doesn't reduce your balance of the other. They're tracked and calculated independently under the NES.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much annual leave do I get per year in Australia?

Full-time employees get a minimum of 4 weeks per year under the NES. Part-time employees get a pro-rata amount based on their hours.

Do casual employees get annual leave?

No - casual employees receive casual loading instead of paid annual leave.

How many hours of leave do I accrue per week?

For a standard 38-hour work week, it's about 2.923 hours per week worked.

Does annual leave expire if I don't use it?

No, it carries over and accumulates unless your award or agreement states otherwise.