Long Service Leave Calculator NSW 🇦🇺
Calculate your long service leave entitlements in New South Wales. Enter your years of service and ordinary hours per week (default 38) to see your leave entitlement in both weeks and hours. Use the pro-rata option if you're leaving your job.
NSW Rules:
8.667 weeks at 10 years, then 4.333 weeks every 5 years (Pro-rata available after 5 years)
Introduction
New South Wales operates under the venerable Long Service Leave Act 1955. Although amended numerous times, it still grants the classic eight-weeks-plus formula most people quote. This article shows precisely how those weeks accrue, when pro-rata applies, and how our calculator turns them into leave hours with a single click.
Entitlement timeline
- 8.6667 weeks after 10 years.
- 4.333 weeks every additional five years.
- Pro-rata: after five years if the employee dies, is dismissed for reasons other than serious misconduct, resigns for pressing necessity, or leaves due to illness or incapacity.
Flexible taking
Since March 2022, long service leave can be broken into single days if both parties consent. That permanently extends a temporary COVID rule.
Ordinary pay rules
Payment is whichever is higher: the ordinary pay for the last pay period before leave, or the average ordinary pay for the last five years. Casuals average hours across 12 months or five years. Commission-only staff average the better of 12 months or five years' earnings.
Calculator usage
Enter your service duration and weekly hours, and tick Leaving job? for pro-rata. The calculator will:
- Check if your service exceeds five or ten years and apply the correct block or pro-rata formula.
- Convert weeks to hours using your ordinary hours (default 38).
- Display the next entitlement date if you have not yet hit 10 years.
Example scenarios
Resignation at 6 years 4 months for domestic necessity
- Weeks: 6.333 × 0.8667 = 5.486.
- Hours: 5.486 × 38 = 208.5 hours.
Continuous service 17 years full-time
- Weeks: 8.667 + 4.333 + (2 yrs × 0.8667) = 15.0 weeks.
- Hours: 15.0 × 38 = 570 hours.
Compliance note: "Forthwith" payment on termination means same day—late payment risks penalties.