Annual Leave Payout Calculator

Here's a real-world style example. If you're on an $82,000 salary and have 12.5 days of annual leave left, your daily rate works out to about $315.38. That means the leave itself is worth roughly $3,942.25. If your award or agreement includes 17.5% leave loading, that's another $689.89, bringing the gross payout to about $4,632.14 before tax. That's a handy number to know before you resign, negotiate your finish date, or work out how much buffer you'll have between jobs.

How to get the most out of this

Use the salary from your current role, not what you're hoping to earn next. Then check your latest payslip or employee portal for the exact number of annual leave days still sitting there. If you're not sure whether leave loading applies, don't guess — check your award, enterprise agreement, or old payslips. Plenty of Australians have it, but not everyone does.

It's also worth remembering that the gross figure isn't the same as the amount that lands in your bank account. Employers usually withhold tax from leave payouts, and that can make the final number feel smaller if you weren't expecting it. This calculator is most useful as a planning tool, not a promise of your exact net payment down to the cent.

How the annual leave payout formula works

At the simplest level, the maths is:

Annual salary ÷ 260 working days = daily rate

Daily rate × unused annual leave days = leave value

Leave value + any leave loading = gross payout estimate

Example: if you earn $78,000 and have 8.5 days left, your estimated daily rate is $300. That makes the leave value about $2,550. If you get 17.5% leave loading, that adds $446.25, bringing the gross estimate to roughly $2,996.25 before tax.

How annual leave accrues

Even though this page is a payout calculator, a lot of people land here because they are trying to work out whether their leave balance looks right in the first place. For most full-time employees under the National Employment Standards, annual leave accrues at 4 weeks per year. That is usually treated as 152 hours per year for a standard 38-hour week, or about 2.923 hours per week.

The shortcut people often use is 7.6923% of ordinary hours worked. So if you worked 76 ordinary hours in a fortnight, your leave accrual for that pay cycle is about 5.85 hours. If you are part-time, the same accrual principle usually applies based on your ordinary hours, not some made-up full-time guess.

Hours to days conversion

This trips people up constantly. Leave balances are often stored in hours, while workers think in days. The clean way to convert it is:

Leave hours ÷ ordinary hours per day = leave days

Example: if you work 7.6 hours a day and your payslip shows 57 hours of annual leave, that is 7.5 days. If you work 10-hour shifts, the days number changes. That is why copying someone else's 7.6-hour assumption can give you the wrong payout expectation.

Resignation vs termination vs redundancy

Unused annual leave is generally still payable whether you resign, are terminated, or leave as part of a genuine redundancy. The bigger differences usually show up in the rest of your final pay, like notice, redundancy pay, and how tax is handled across different termination components.

• Resignation: annual leave is usually paid out with your final wages and taxed through payroll withholding.
• Termination: annual leave is still commonly paid out, but the total final-pay package may also include notice or other owed amounts.
• Genuine redundancy: annual leave is still separate from redundancy pay. Redundancy itself may receive different tax treatment to ordinary leave.

If your exit package includes annual leave, long service leave, redundancy, payment in lieu of notice, or bonus entitlements, check the breakdown on your separation statement instead of assuming it is all taxed the same way.

Part-time, hourly, and shift-worker examples

Part-time salaried worker: if you earn $52,000 and have 6 days left, your estimated daily rate is $200, so the leave value is about $1,200 before loading and tax.

Hourly worker: if you are on $34 per hour and normally work 7.6 hours per day, your base day is about $258.40. With 10 days of leave owing, that is about $2,584 before loading and tax.

5-week shift worker: some shiftworkers get 5 weeks of annual leave instead of 4 under the NES or their award. That means their annual accrual can be higher than the standard 152 hours, so do not assume every rostered worker accrues the same balance.

Shift worker with loading: the payout usually follows the way your annual leave entitlement is valued under your award or agreement, so check whether ordinary shift penalties, leave loading, or both apply. This is where your award matters more than internet guesses.

Cashing out leave vs getting it paid on termination

Cashing out annual leave while you are still employed is not the same thing as having it paid out when you leave. Cashing out is usually only allowed if your award or enterprise agreement permits it, and there are rules around how much can be cashed out while still keeping the required balance. In many cases, workers must keep at least 4 weeks of annual leave after the cash-out.

If you are finishing employment, that separate cash-out rule is not the main issue. At that point, the question is whether your final payslip correctly includes all unused annual leave and any loading that still applies.

Tax on annual leave payouts

People get confused here because payroll withholding and final tax outcome are not always the same thing. Your employer may withhold tax using payroll rules that make the payout look heavily taxed, especially if multiple final-pay items land together. That does not automatically mean the final tax outcome is wrong, but it does mean the banked amount can feel rough on the day.

If your final pay includes annual leave, long service leave, redundancy pay, and payment in lieu of notice, do not assume every line is taxed the same way. Leave components are usually treated differently from genuine redundancy payments, and the exact treatment can depend on why the employment ended and when the entitlement accrued.

What about long service leave, public holidays, and final-pay timing?

Long service leave: this is separate from annual leave. If you have both owing, they should usually appear as separate lines in your final payout.

Public holidays: if a public holiday falls during a normal period of annual leave while you are still employed, your award or NES rules may affect how that day is treated. But once the leave is paid out on termination, it is normally handled as a cash entitlement rather than leave taken day-by-day.

Final-pay timing: employers are generally expected to pay outstanding entitlements promptly after employment ends, but the exact deadline can depend on your award, agreement, and payroll cycle. If the payment is dragging, check your award and Fair Work guidance.

FAQs

Do I get unused sick leave paid out too?

Usually no. Annual leave is commonly paid out when you leave, but personal or sick leave generally disappears unless a specific agreement says otherwise.

Does it matter whether I resign or get terminated?

Your unused annual leave is generally still payable either way. What changes is the rest of the termination package, like notice, redundancy, or other entitlements. Redundancy itself can be treated differently to leave for tax purposes.

What if I have part of a day left, like 12.5 days?

That's completely normal. Leave balances often include fractions, and using the exact figure gives you a much better estimate than rounding everything up or down.

Where do I check the official rules?

Use your latest payslip, your award or enterprise agreement, and the official Fair Work annual leave guidance. If your final pay looks off, start there before assuming payroll got it right. For tax treatment, also check the ATO guidance for employment termination and leave payments.