ACT Long Service Leave.
Calculate long service leave entitlement under your state Act. Covers all 8 states & territories with state-specific triggers, accrual rates and pro-rata rules. Pre-configured for Australian Capital Territory under State LSL Acts.
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| Component | Formula | Value |
|---|---|---|
| State | - | ACT |
| Trigger | - | 7 years |
| Pro-rata from | - | 5 years |
| Years of service | (2026-09-24 − 2025-09-24) | 1.00 yrs |
| LSL weeks | state formula | 0.00 wks |
| Hours of LSL | 0.00 × 38h | 0 hrs |
| LSL value | 0 × $35.00 | $0.00 |
Disclaimer: This tool does not constitute legal or financial advice. Results may be inaccurate due to changes in legislation or your circumstances. This tool does not constitute legal or financial advice. We do not recommend taking actions based solely on these results. The calculator makes assumptions and results may be inaccurate due to changes in legislation, modern awards, or your personal circumstances. You use this information at your own risk. We can't guarantee to be perfect, so do note you use the information at your own risk and we can't accept liability if things go wrong. For official guidance, visit Fair Work Ombudsman (fairwork.gov.au). Fair Work Ombudsman.
How long service leave works in Australian Capital Territory
The ACT reaches the full entitlement at 7 years, not 10, under the Long Service Leave Act 1976. That is 6.0667 weeks at 7 years, with a further one-fifth of a month accruing for each subsequent year.
The full entitlement is 6.0667 weeks at 7 years, plus a further 1/5 of a month for each subsequent year. Long service leave sits outside the National Employment Standards, so this is set by Australian Capital Territory law rather than federal law, and the figures differ from every other state. Compare all eight in our guide to long service leave after 10 years.
Leaving before 7 years: pro-rata in ACT
Pro-rata long service leave becomes possible at 5 years of continuous service in Australian Capital Territory. That threshold is necessary, but in this state it is not sufficient.
This is the single most misunderstood part of long service leave, and it is where people lose the most money. The threshold is what gets quoted in conversation; the condition is what decides whether anything is actually paid. Our pro-rata long service leave guide sets out the rule for all eight states and territories side by side.
What counts as continuous service
Continuity survives paid leave, authorised unpaid leave and a transfer of business. ACT coverage follows the place where the employment is properly located, which matters in a city where a large share of workers live across the border in NSW.
Australian Capital Territory long service leave law covers casual employees, as the law in every state and territory does. What differs between them is the test for whether casual service counts as continuous, which our guide to casual long service leave rules by state sets out for all eight.
How the payment is calculated
Payment is at your ordinary rate when the leave is taken. Where hours have varied, the ACT averages over the preceding 12 months of employment.
How the payout is taxed
The entitlement is set by Australian Capital Territory law, but the tax on it is federal and works differently to almost every other payment. The ATO splits a long service leave payout by when the service was performed, not just why you left, and taxes each slice under the rules that applied at the time. Service from 18 August 1993 is taxed at your marginal rate on an ordinary resignation, or capped at 30% plus the Medicare levy on a genuine redundancy. Earlier service is treated more favourably again.
This is why a flat 32% estimate is usually wrong: that figure is a ceiling plus the Medicare levy, not a fixed rate, so anyone below the 30% bracket pays less. Work out the split on your own payout with the long service leave tax calculator.
An ACT worked example
Sam, 7 years with one employer, a Canberra policy officer, on $1,810 a week.
Australian Capital Territory grants 6.07 weeks at 7 years under the Long Service Leave Act 1976 (ACT). The payment is 6.07 x $1,810 = $10,986.70 gross, whether taken as paid leave or paid out on termination.
Taken as leave it is taxed as ordinary income in the period it is paid. Paid out on termination the withholding rules differ, and for a redundancy they differ again: see how leave payouts are taxed and genuine redundancy and tax.
Does other leave keep accruing while you are on it?
Yes. Long service leave is paid leave, and paid leave counts as service in every Australian jurisdiction. That means annual leave and personal leave continue to accrue for the whole time you are away, and the period also counts towards your next long service leave milestone. A worker taking 6.07 weeks in ACT comes back with roughly a week of extra annual leave already banked.
A public holiday falling inside a period of long service leave is treated the same way it is inside annual leave: you are not taken to be on leave that day, so it does not come out of your balance. The ACT dates are listed on ACT public holidays. If you fall ill during long service leave, most states let you convert the affected days to personal leave with evidence, which preserves the long service balance.
Long service leave in your final pay
When employment ends, any long service leave you are entitled to is paid as part of your final pay rather than separately. It sits alongside unused annual leave, outstanding wages, and notice or redundancy where they apply. Work the whole amount out on the final pay calculator, or see termination pay for how the components fit together.
Two things change the number. Superannuation is generally not payable on a long service leave payout, because the ATO does not treat it as ordinary time earnings, and the withholding rate depends on why the employment ended. A payout tied to a genuine redundancy is taxed concessionally, while an ordinary resignation is taxed at your marginal rate. Neither changes the gross figure the calculator produces above; both change what lands in your account.
The ACT catch worth knowing
The ACT and Victoria are the only jurisdictions where the full entitlement arrives at 7 years. For ACT workers the practical effect is that the conditional 5-to-7-year window is short, and most people simply reach the unconditional 7-year mark. Living in Queanbeyan does not change this: what matters is where the employment is based, not where you sleep.
The ACT has the broadest portable long service leave scheme in Australia
Most jurisdictions run a portable scheme for building and construction and stop there. The ACT, under the Long Service Leave (Portable Schemes) Act 2009, has ACT Leave administering schemes across building and construction, contract cleaning, security, and a Services Industry Scheme. From 1 January 2027 that services scheme extends to hairdressing and beauty services and to accommodation and food services, an entry date deferred from an earlier plan to give small businesses relief in difficult trading conditions. Portability matters because it decouples the entitlement from a single employer: service accrues with the industry, so changing employers within a covered industry does not reset you to zero. If you work in hospitality or hairdressing in the ACT, this is the single most valuable thing on this page for you.
ACT Leave, what we do. Verified 11 August 2026.
The ACT full entitlement arrives at 7 years, not 10
The Long Service Leave Act 1976 gives the full ACT entitlement after 7 years of continuous service rather than the 10 years used across most of the country. That is the earliest full trigger in Australia, shared with Victoria. The practical effect is that the conditional pro-rata window, which in the ACT runs from 5 years to 7, is unusually short: most workers who stay long enough to think about long service leave pass straight through it to the unconditional mark. Compare NSW, where the gap between the 5-year threshold and the unconditional 10-year entitlement is a full five years, and where a great many resignations fall into it and pay nothing. In the ACT the risky window is two years wide instead of five.
Long Service Leave Act 1976 (ACT). Verified 11 August 2026.
Between 5 and 7 years in the ACT you still need a qualifying reason
Short as it is, the ACT conditional window works the same way as in NSW and Queensland: reaching 5 years does not by itself entitle you to a pro-rata payment. A qualifying reason is also required, which covers illness, incapacity, a domestic or other pressing necessity, death, or termination by the employer for something other than serious and wilful misconduct. A plain resignation at 6 years to take another job generally pays nothing. At 7 years that stops mattering and the entitlement is payable however the employment ends. So if you are in the ACT at 6 years and 6 months and weighing an offer, the arithmetic is simple and it usually favours waiting.
Long Service Leave Act 1976 (ACT). Verified 11 August 2026.
Construction workers: your service may be portable
If you work in building and construction, the continuous-service rule above may not be the one that applies to you. Australian Capital Territory runs a portable long service leave scheme where service accrues with the industry rather than a single employer, so moving between builders does not reset the clock. See portable long service leave. You cannot be paid twice for the same period of service.
Where to check your own entitlement
Australian Capital Territory long service leave is administered by ACT Government, Long service leave, which is the authority of record for disputes and for any figure you intend to rely on. The calculator above estimates your balance under the Long Service Leave Act 1976 (ACT); where a number decides whether you resign or wait, confirm it with the authority or the Fair Work Ombudsman first.
Other ACT entitlements
Australian Capital Territory gazettes 15 public holidays in 2026, listed with penalty rates on ACT public holidays. Construction, contract cleaning and security workers may instead accrue under a portable scheme that follows them between employers, explained in portable long service leave. Australian long service leave is state law, so the same career pays out very differently depending on where it was worked. The two ends of the range are Victoria, which pays an unconditional entitlement from 7 years, the earliest in the country, and South Australia, whose 13 weeks at 10 years is the largest statutory entitlement anywhere in Australia. Australian Capital Territory sits at 6.07 weeks after 7 years. Every federal entitlement, including annual leave and personal leave, is identical in Australian Capital Territory and is calculated on the annual leave calculator and the personal leave calculator. For everything owed when a job ends, use final pay. More ACT entitlements are collected on the Australian Capital Territory hub.