Long service leave calculator

Ten years with one employer earns 8.67 weeks of long service leave in most of Australia, worth $13,000 on $1,500 a week. South Australia and the Northern Territory give 13 weeks at 10 years, and Victoria and the ACT open it at 7 years with 6.07 weeks. Enter your state, dates and pay to see your own figure.

Updated 31 October 2026By James CrawfordCalculated in your browserHow it works

Your long service leave

State or territory

Start date with this employer

Ordinary hours per week

Use your average if your hours vary

Ordinary weekly pay

Without overtime. Casuals include loading. Shift pay varies by state

Long service leave already taken

Still working for this employer

Leave accrued

9.82 weeks

373.2 hours

Value at your pay

$14,733

before tax

Available to take now

8.67 weeks

$13,000 before tax

Service counted: 11 years, 4 months, 0 days
Full entitlement reached: Yes
Date of first entitlement: 30 June 2025
Pro rata from: 30 June 2020

Entitled. New South Wales gives an entitlement after 10 years, reached on 30 June 2025.

Rule in New South Wales: 2 months (8.67 weeks) after 10 years, then 1 month (4.33 weeks) for each further 5 years.

This uses the Long Service Leave Act 1955 (NSW) (ss 3, 4(2), 4(5), 4(11)) with one continuous period of service. An award, agreement or portable scheme may give a different result.

How this was checked

Checked against: Hand-worked cases for all eight jurisdictions, worked examples in the Acts and regulator pages, and boundary dates
Result: All 147 checks pass
Last run: 31 October 2026

A match shows the calculator gives the expected answer in those cases, not that it covers your situation. Every check we run

Long service leave in each state and territory

Each jurisdiction has its own law, so the same service gives a different result across a border. On 12 years at $1,500 a week, New South Wales gives 10.40 weeks ($15,600) and South Australia gives 15.60 weeks ($23,400).

Long service leave by state and territory: years to entitlement, weeks earned and the pro rata point
Jurisdiction	Entitled after	Weeks at 7 years	Weeks at 10 years	Pro rata from
New South Wales	10 years	6.07	8.67	5 years
Victoria	7 years	6.07	8.67	None
Queensland	10 years	6.07	8.67	7 years
South Australia	10 years	9.10	13	7 years
Western Australia	10 years	6.07	8.67	7 years
Tasmania	10 years	6.07	8.67	7 years
Australian Capital Territory	7 years	6.07	8.67	5 years
Northern Territory	10 years	9.10	13	7 years

Weeks at 7 years show what has accrued. Where the entitlement starts at 10 years, they are only paid if the pro rata rule below applies.

Download the table as a CSV, with a link to each Act.

The rule in each jurisdiction

New South Wales

Entitlement: 2 months (8.67 weeks) after 10 years, then 1 month (4.33 weeks) for each further 5 years.
Pro rata: From 5 years, pro rata is paid if the employer ends the job for any reason other than serious and wilful misconduct, if the worker resigns because of illness, incapacity or a domestic or other pressing necessity, or if the worker dies. From 10 years it is paid however the job ends, counting part years up to 15 years and, on the words of the Act, completed years after that.
Pay: Ordinary pay: the higher of current ordinary pay and the 5-year average. Overtime and penalty rates are left out.
Casual and part-time: Covered. Service counts on a permanent, casual or part-time basis. Where hours are not fixed, they are averaged over 12 months or 5 years.

Victoria

Entitlement: 1/60th of the total period of continuous employment, available after 7 years. That is 6.07 weeks at 7 years and 8.67 weeks at 10 years.
Pro rata: Victoria has no separate pro rata step. After 7 years the full 1/60th amount is available, and it is paid out however the job ends. Before 7 years nothing is payable.
Pay: Ordinary pay on the first day of leave. If hours changed in the last 104 weeks, the highest of the 52-week, 260-week and whole-of-service averages is used.
Casual and part-time: Covered, including seasonal employees. A break of more than 12 weeks can still be continuous in the cases listed in the Act.

Queensland

Entitlement: 8.6667 weeks after 10 years, a further 4.3333 weeks at 15 years, then as it accrues.
Pro rata: From 7 years, pro rata is paid if the employee dies, resigns because of illness or a domestic or other pressing necessity, is dismissed because of illness or for a reason other than conduct, capacity or performance, is unfairly dismissed, or a term ends when they expected to reach 10 years and were prepared to stay. From 10 years it is paid however the job ends.
Pay: Full pay at the ordinary rate, or the higher rate being paid immediately before the leave. Commission is averaged over the year before the leave.
Casual and part-time: Covered. Service is continuous unless a break between contracts is more than 3 months. Pay is actual hours ÷ 52 × 8.6667 ÷ 10 × the hourly rate.

South Australia

Entitlement: 13 weeks after 10 years, then 1.3 weeks for each further year. Only completed years count.
Pro rata: From 7 years, 1.3 weeks for each completed year is paid when service ends, unless the job ends for serious and wilful misconduct or the worker unlawfully ends the contract. A resignation with proper notice qualifies.
Pay: Ordinary weekly rate, without overtime, shift premiums and penalty rates. If hours varied or the worker was casual or part-time in the last 3 years, hours are averaged over those 3 years.
Casual and part-time: Covered on the same terms. Hours are averaged over 3 years and paid at the current hourly rate, including casual loading.

Western Australia

Entitlement: 8 2/3 weeks after 10 years, then 4 1/3 weeks for each further 5 years.
Pro rata: From 7 years, pro rata is paid however the job ends, including a resignation, unless the employer dismisses the employee for serious misconduct. Below 10 years it counts part years. From 10 years it counts completed years only, and dismissal for serious misconduct pays only completed 10 and 5 year blocks.
Pay: Ordinary pay for normal weekly hours at the ordinary rate. If hours varied, they are averaged over the period. Shift premiums, overtime, penalty rates and allowances are left out.
Casual and part-time: Covered, including seasonal employees. Ordinary pay for a casual includes casual loading.

Tasmania

Entitlement: 8 2/3 weeks after 10 years, then 4 1/3 weeks for each further 5 years. Mining employees have a separate, higher rule.
Pro rata: From 7 years, pro rata is paid if the employee reaches the age for retirement (65 for men and 60 for women, unless an award or the contract sets another), the job ends because of illness, the employee resigns because of incapacity or a domestic or other pressing necessity, the employer ends the job for a reason other than serious and wilful misconduct, or the employee dies. WorkSafe Tasmania says a resignation forced by the employer may count as a dismissal. From 10 years it is paid however the job ends.
Pay: What the employee would reasonably have received for normal weekly hours, including shift penalties and part-time and casual loadings, without overtime, travel payments and discretionary bonuses.
Casual and part-time: Covered. A casual or part-time employee is treated as continuously employed if regularly employed for at least 32 hours in each consecutive 4 weeks. Where hours are not fixed, they are averaged over 12 months.

Australian Capital Territory

Entitlement: 1/5 of a month for each year of service, available after 7 years. That is 6.07 weeks at 7 years, then 0.87 weeks for each further year.
Pro rata: From 5 years, pro rata for completed years and months is paid if the employee resigns because of illness, incapacity or a domestic or other pressing necessity, leaves at or after the minimum retiring age (65, unless an award or agreement sets another), dies, or the employer ends the job for a reason other than serious and wilful misconduct. From 7 years it is paid however the job ends.
Pay: Ordinary remuneration, without overtime and penalty rates. Part-time and casual hours are averaged over the last 12 months. A move from full-time in the 2 years before the entitlement uses the 5-year salary average.
Casual and part-time: Covered if offered regular and systematic work. Hours are averaged over the 12 months before the entitlement or the end of the job.

Northern Territory

Entitlement: 1.3 weeks for each completed year: 13 weeks after 10 years, then 6.5 weeks at each further 5 years.
Pro rata: From 7 years, 1.3 weeks for each completed year is paid if the employee leaves at or after the age they may retire, the employer ends the job for a reason other than serious misconduct, the employee leaves because of illness, incapacity or a domestic or other pressing necessity, or the employee dies. After 10 years it is paid however the job ends, but dismissal for serious misconduct pays only completed 10 and 5 year blocks.
Pay: Rate of pay on the day before leave or the end of the job, for hours worked in each year of service. Overtime, penalty rates and district, site and climatic allowances are left out.
Casual and part-time: Covered, full-time, part-time or casual. Each year of service uses the hours worked in that year.

How it is worked out

Service runs from your start date to your last day, counting both days. A start on 1 January 2016 reaches 10 years on 31 December 2025.
Tasmania counts part years. Western Australia counts part years below 10 years and completed years from 10 years. New South Wales counts part years up to 15 years and, on the words of the Act, completed years after that, although its regulator's guide counts part years there too. Queensland counts years, months, weeks and days, as in its published tables.
Victoria takes the weeks of service with 52 weeks to the year and divides by 60. South Australia, the Northern Territory and the ACT from year 7 count completed years only.
Hours are the weeks multiplied by your ordinary hours. The value is the weeks multiplied by your ordinary weekly pay.
Leave you can take while still employed can differ from leave accrued. In New South Wales, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory it comes in a block at 10 years and at each further 5.

What this calculator does not model

The result assumes one unbroken period of service, the same hours throughout and the Act for the state you pick. An award, agreement or portable scheme may give a different result.

Long service leave terms in a federal pre-modern award, an enterprise agreement or your contract.
Portable schemes. The Fair Work Ombudsman lists schemes for building and construction in every state and territory, contract cleaning (ACT, NSW, Qld, Vic), community services (ACT, NSW, Qld, SA, Vic), security (ACT, Vic) and a national coal mining scheme.
Public sector employees, Tasmanian mining employees, and seasonal workers in the Queensland sugar and meat industries.
Absences. Unpaid leave, stand-downs and strikes can pause service, and the rules differ in each Act.
Service in more than one state, or with a previous owner of the business or a related company.
Hours or pay that changed over time, averaging periods, bonuses, commission, and board and lodging.
Service from before the state laws began, which some Acts count at a lower rate.

Tax on a long service leave payout

Unused long service leave paid when a job ends is not an employment termination payment. The ATO's Schedule 7, for payments from 1 July 2026, sets what an employer withholds. The rate depends on why the job ended and when the leave accrued.

Withholding on unused long service leave paid on termination, ATO Schedule 7
When the leave accrued	Normal termination	Genuine redundancy, invalidity or early retirement scheme
After 17 August 1993	Marginal rates	32%
16 August 1978 to 17 August 1993	32%	32%
Before 16 August 1978	5% of it, at marginal rates	5% of it, at marginal rates

A normal termination includes a resignation, a dismissal for inefficiency and retirement. If no tax file number was given, 47% is withheld, or 45% for a foreign resident. Working holiday makers are under Schedule 15 for all payments, including unused leave. Nothing is withheld from unused leave paid after an employee dies. These are withholding rates, so your tax return can change the final figure. The leave is reported at lump sum A or lump sum B on your income statement, or with your other pay if it is taxed at marginal rates.

To add redundancy pay and unused annual leave to the picture, use the redundancy calculator and the annual leave calculator.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long do you have to work to get long service leave in Australia?

Ten years with one employer in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Seven years in Victoria and the ACT. Some states pay a pro rata amount earlier when a job ends: from 5 years in New South Wales and the ACT, and from 7 years in Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.

How many weeks of long service leave do you get after 10 years?

8.67 weeks in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, and 13 weeks in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Victoria and the ACT reach their entitlement earlier, at 7 years.

Do you get long service leave if you resign?

After the full entitlement, yes, in every state and territory. Before it, it depends on the state. South Australia and Western Australia pay pro rata on a resignation from 7 years. Victoria pays from 7 years however the job ends. New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory pay pro rata on a resignation only for a reason the Act lists, such as illness or a pressing necessity.

Do casual and part-time employees get long service leave?

Yes, in all eight jurisdictions, if their service is continuous under that Act. The weeks are the same, and the pay is based on their hours, usually an average over a set period. In Tasmania a casual is treated as continuously employed if regularly employed for at least 32 hours in each 4 weeks.

Is long service leave part of the National Employment Standards?

The entitlement itself mostly comes from state and territory laws. The Fair Work Ombudsman says those laws do not apply where a federal pre-modern award that would have covered the employer and employee before 1 January 2010 has long service leave terms. The pre-modern award then sets the entitlement.

How is long service leave taxed when it is paid out?

It is not part of an employment termination payment. Under ATO Schedule 7, leave accrued after 17 August 1993 is withheld at marginal rates on a normal termination and at 32% on a genuine redundancy, invalidity or an approved early retirement scheme. Older leave has its own rates, shown in the table on this page.