NSW annual leave calculator.
Annual leave is federal. A New South Wales employee gets the same 4 weeks a year as everyone else under section 87 of the Fair Work Act, based on their own ordinary hours. What NSW changes is which public holidays fall inside your leave, and those days do not come off your balance.
Pop in your details
Here's your entitlement
See full calculation
| Component | Formula | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Accrual rate (FULL-TIME) | 4 wks × 38h ÷ 52 | 2.923 hrs/wk |
| Hours accrued | 2.923 × 52 wks | 152.42 hrs |
| Hourly base rate | - | $35.00 |
| Base leave value | 152.42 × $35.00 | $5,334.62 |
| 17.5% leave loading | base × 0.175 | + $933.56 |
| Total payout | - | $6,268.17 |
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.
Why NSW public holidays make a break cheaper
Under section 89 of the Fair Work Act, if a public holiday falls inside a period of paid annual leave you are taken to be on the public holiday, not on leave. The day is paid and it is not deducted from your balance. So the same week off costs you fewer hours when it contains a holiday.
New South Wales has 13 full-day public holidays in 2026, and 9 of them fall on a weekday, which is when a holiday actually saves you leave. A holiday landing on a Saturday or Sunday you never work saves you nothing.
The full NSW calendar for 2026 and 2027, with the substitute-day rules, is on NSW public holidays. To find the weeks that already sit beside a holiday, see long weekends in Australia.
Annual leave and long service leave are separate in NSW
Annual leave comes from the federal Act. Long service leave does not: it comes from the Long Service Leave Act 1955 (NSW), administered by NSW Industrial Relations. The two accrue at the same time and neither reduces the other.
In New South Wales the full long service entitlement is 8.67 weeks (2 months) at 10 years, plus 4.33 weeks for each further 5 years, and a pro-rata payout starts at 5 years, which is necessary but not sufficient. In NSW a plain voluntary resignation before 10 years can pay nothing, so read the conditions before you resign. Full detail on NSW long service leave.
What does not change because you work in NSW
It is worth being explicit, because plenty of pages imply otherwise. The 4-week entitlement, the accrual rate of your ordinary weekly hours divided by 13, the rule that unused annual leave is always paid out when you leave under s.90, and the cash-out rules under ss.92 to 94 are all federal and identical in every state and territory. Part-timers get the same 4 weeks pro rata on their own hours: see the part-time annual leave calculator.
Annual leave questions in New South Wales.
The federal rules, and the state details that sit on top of them.