Pay calculator / annual leave calculator
Annual leave calculator (accrual, balance and payout).
What you accrue for every ordinary hour you work, what the balance on your payslip is actually worth, and what a payout leaves you with after tax. Built on the National Employment Standards, including the two things most calculators get wrong.
Annual leave payout calculator
Estimates for 2026-27. General information only, not tax advice.
link.com.au
Annual leave you accrue
152.0 hours a year
That's 2.923 hours every week you work ordinary hours, or 5.85 a fortnight - accruing progressively, not in a lump on your anniversary.
In weeks
4 a year
In days
20.0 days
Value a year
$6,840
What I've got banked
12 months at these hours accrues 152.0 hours (20.0 days), before anything you've taken.
What that balance is worth
| Balance in hours | 76.0 hrs |
| In days | 10.0 days |
| In weeks | 2.00 weeks |
| Gross value at your rate | $3,420.00 |
| Gross total | $3,420.00 |
| In your hand after tax | $2,325.60 |
Tax on a payout: $1,094
Paid out on resignation or cashed out while you're working, the lump is added to your income and taxed at marginal rates - here, an extra 32% on top of what you already pay. Employers often withhold at a flat rate, so the difference is settled in your return.
Check whether you get leave loading
17.5% leave loading is not automatic - it applies where an award or enterprise agreement says so, and plenty of salaried roles have none. It is worth $599 on your current balance, so it is worth checking your award rather than assuming either way.
Based on the National Employment Standards: four weeks of paid annual leave a year for full-time and part-time employees, five for eligible shiftworkers, accruing progressively on ordinary hours worked and carrying over year to year. Overtime does not accrue leave; paid leave does; unpaid leave generally does not. Awards, enterprise agreements and contracts can be more generous than the NES but never less, so check yours - particularly on leave loading and cash-out rules, which vary. Tax figures use 2026-27 rates for an Australian resident. General information only, not legal, payroll or tax advice.
Accrual by hours worked, four-week entitlement
| Ordinary hours a week | Accrues a week | A year |
|---|---|---|
| 38 hours (full time) | 2.923 hrs | 152 hrs |
| 30 hours | 2.308 hrs | 120 hrs |
| 25 hours | 1.923 hrs | 100 hrs |
| 20 hours | 1.538 hrs | 80 hrs |
| 15 hours | 1.154 hrs | 60 hrs |
| 10 hours | 0.769 hrs | 40 hrs |
Four weeks of leave is 4/52 of your ordinary hours - 0.0769 hours of leave per hour worked. Eligible shiftworkers accrue 5/52 instead. Overtime accrues nothing.
Common questions
→How much annual leave do I accrue per hour worked?
Four weeks a year is 4/52 of every ordinary hour you work, which is 0.0769 hours of leave per hour. On a 38-hour week that is 2.923 hours a week, 152 hours a year. Eligible shiftworkers get five weeks, which is 5/52, or 3.654 hours a week on the same hours. Part-time employees accrue the same fraction of their own smaller hours - not a smaller fraction.
→Does annual leave accrue on overtime?
No. Leave accrues on your ordinary hours only, so overtime, however much of it you work, adds nothing to your balance. It does accrue while you are on paid leave - including annual leave itself and paid personal leave - and generally does not accrue during unpaid leave.
→Do casuals get annual leave?
No. Casual employees do not accrue paid annual leave, and that is precisely what the 25% casual loading on the hourly rate is compensating for. If your work has become regular and predictable you may be eligible to convert to permanent employment, which starts the accrual.
→Is leave loading of 17.5% automatic?
No, and assuming it is will overstate your balance by nearly a fifth. Leave loading applies where an award or enterprise agreement provides for it. Plenty of salaried and award-free roles have none. Check the instrument that covers you rather than the internet.
→How is a leave payout taxed?
Unused annual leave paid out on resignation, or cashed out while you are still employed, is added to your income and taxed at marginal rates - so a large balance can push part of the payment into a higher bracket. Paid out on a genuine redundancy it is taxed at no more than 30% plus the 2% Medicare levy. That is a ceiling delivered by a tax offset rather than a flat rate: if your marginal rate is lower you pay the lower rate, so the redundancy treatment only beats the ordinary one once your marginal rate is above 30%.
→Can my employer make me take leave?
Often, yes. Most modern awards allow an employer to direct an employee to take annual leave once the balance is excessive - commonly more than 8 weeks, or 10 for shiftworkers - with written notice and a reasonable period. There are also rules about shutdowns. The specifics live in your award or agreement.
LINK Books
Leave balances are a payroll problem, not a spreadsheet one.
Accruals, loading, terminations and the liability sitting on your books - LINK Books runs payroll so the balance on the payslip is the balance that's right.
→Put this calculator on your own siteFree, no sign-up, no script from us to install. Keeps working as the rates change.
Paste this where you want the annual leave calculator to appear. It sizes itself to your page, and it updates whenever we update the rates - so it will not quietly go stale on you at the end of a financial year, which is the usual problem with a copied table.
Please keep the credit line - it is the only thing we ask for in return.
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