Pro-rata long service leave in Queensland after 7 years.

Using the Queensland pro-rata calculator

The calculator above opens on the Pro-Rata tab, locked to Queensland. Enter your start date, your last day, your ordinary hourly rate (the loaded rate if you are casual) and your weekly hours, then how the job ended. It counts part years and says whether that reason is paid before 10 years.

Its reason list is shared with the other states, so read two options carefully for Queensland. "Dismissal by employer" pays only if the dismissal was for a reason other than your conduct, capacity or performance, or is found to be unfair; the condition line under the result says so. "Illness or incapacity" covers both resigning because of illness and being dismissed because of it. There is no fixed-term option, so use the fixed-term section below. Move your start date later by any unpaid leave, subtract leave already taken, and if you were ever casual or part-time, check the total hours method, because the calculator multiplies today's weekly hours across every year.

Will you be paid if you leave before 10 years? Check your reason

Section 95(3) gives a proportionate payment to an employee with at least 7 years of continuous service when the job ends. Section 95(4) then limits it: before 10 years it is paid only for the reasons below.

Business Queensland says it is the primary reason for the termination that has to fall within these criteria. Its own list leaves out the fixed-term route in section 95(4)(d), which is in the Act; this page follows the Act.

How much pro-rata long service leave at 7, 8, 9 and 10 years in Queensland

The proportionate payment is your full pay for the same share of 8.6667 weeks that your continuous service bears to 10 years (s 95(7)). Business Queensland counts completed years, months, weeks and days. Figures below assume a full-time worker on $1,500 a week (an illustration) who has taken no leave and no unpaid leave.

Weeks follow Business Queensland's published table, rounded to 4 places. The calculator multiplies unrounded weeks, so it can differ by a few cents. No leave loading is payable on long service leave in Queensland.

Dismissed for performance or conduct: when you are still paid

Section 95(4)(c)(ii) pays when the employer dismisses you "for another reason other than the employee's conduct, capacity or performance". A fair dismissal for poor performance, for not being able to do the job, or for misconduct of any seriousness therefore pays nothing before 10 years. The Queensland test is not serious misconduct: ordinary misconduct is enough to lose the payment.

The way back is section 95(4)(c)(iii). If the dismissal is unfair, the proportionate payment is made. That takes two steps: the dismissal has to be found unfair in its own proceeding, and only then does the pro-rata payment follow, so treat it as conditional until there is a finding.

Two dismissals pay without any argument about fairness: dismissal because of your illness or injury (s 95(4)(c)(i)), and redundancy, a role being abolished or a business closing, which are dismissals for a reason other than conduct, capacity or performance.

Fixed-term contract ended: the route most guides leave out

Section 95(4)(d) covers a job that ends "because of the passing of time", which is how a fixed-term contract ends. It pays only if both limbs are met: you had a reasonable expectation that the employment would continue until you had completed at least 10 years, and you were prepared to continue. A contract that was always going to end, or one you chose not to renew, does not qualify.

Business Queensland's list of qualifying reasons does not mention this route; the Queensland Law Handbook factsheet does. If your contract ran out between 7 and 10 years after a run of renewals that led you to expect more, keep the renewal letters and any messages about future work.

Resigning because of illness or a pressing necessity

You can resign and still be paid if you leave because of your illness, or because of a domestic or other pressing necessity (s 95(4)(b)). The Act defines illness to include injury, incapacity or another medical condition (s 95(7)). As with every route in section 95(4), it has to be the primary reason you left.

Keep records made at the time, because the reason is what decides the payment: medical certificates, a doctor's advice to stop work, or the family circumstances that forced the move. Retiring is not a ground in its own right. A worker retiring between 7 and 10 years is paid only if illness or a pressing necessity is the reason.

Ever casual or part-time? Your payout uses every ordinary hour you worked

Once you have been casual or regular part-time at any point, section 105 builds your minimum payout from every ordinary hour you worked across the entire period of service, and the full-time years stay in that total. Business Queensland's formula is total ordinary hours ÷ 52 × 8.6667 ÷ 10 = hours of long service leave, paid at your ordinary hourly rate on the day the termination takes effect. Casuals are paid at the loaded casual rate.

What counts towards your 7 years

• Paid working time and paid leave count in full.
• Business Queensland says time on WorkCover may also count.
• Unpaid leave your employer approved does not break continuity but is not service, and that includes time on the Australian Government Parental Leave Pay scheme. Your anniversary moves back by its length (s 134).
• Parental leave does not break continuity and is not counted towards service (s 90).
• Casual engagements stay continuous across a break of 3 months or less, and that break counts; a break longer than 3 months ends the run (s 103).
• Not a casual? A re-hire by the same employer within 3 months of the job ending keeps continuity, though the weeks in between do not add to your service (s 134).
• When a business changes hands your service moves with it, including where you were dismissed up to 1 month before the transfer and re-employed within 3 months (s 132).
• Service in the reserve forces counts as continuous service with your employer (s 112).
• Service only has to be partly in Queensland (s 93). Business Queensland notes that after Infosys Technologies Limited v Fox [2025] QCA 45, employees are entitled even where a very short period of employment is performed in Queensland.

Close to 10 years? The date the reason stops mattering

From 10 years of continuous service, Business Queensland calls the payment on termination "an automatic entitlement" that is not subject to the reason criteria. Resignation, any dismissal and every other exit pay, reduced only by leave already taken and paid.

Count to the date carefully. Approved unpaid leave and parental leave push the 10-year date back by their length, so add those weeks to your start date before you work out your anniversary, and confirm the date with your employer before you time a resignation to it.

Can you take or cash out pro-rata leave while still employed?

Not in the private sector. Leave can be taken from 10 years (s 95(2)); the 7-year amount is only a payment when the job ends. Cashing out needs either an award or agreement that allows it, a signed agreement, and payment under that instrument, or an order of the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission on compassionate or financial hardship grounds (s 110). Business Queensland says those Form 13 applications can only be made once you have qualified for a leave entitlement.

Queensland public servants and Queensland Health staff work under a different rulebook. Directive 10/24 accrues 1.3 weeks for each year of continuous service and lets them take pro-rata leave after 7 years. It shows up in the same searches, but it does not apply to private sector employees.

Not paid your pro-rata leave? How to claim in Queensland

1. Ask your employer in writing for the calculation and the service dates it used.
2. Call the Industrial Relations Infoline on (07) 3406 9999.
3. Lodge the Office of Industrial Relations online long service leave claim form. OIR can investigate, and an inspector can apply on your behalf.
4. Make an unpaid wages claim, which covers leave and termination amounts, to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission if the total is $100,000 or less (ss 475, 476), or to a magistrate (s 379), within 6 years of the amount becoming payable. Claims can go to conciliation first.

Division 9 of the Act sets no separate payment deadline: section 101(3) makes the amount payable at a time agreed with your employer or, if you cannot agree, decided by the commission.

Tax on a Queensland pro-rata payout

Anyone leaving between 7 and 10 years in 2026 started after 17 August 1993, so only the reason matters. Tax is withheld at your marginal rate if you resign or are dismissed; a genuine redundancy is withheld at 32%, which is a 30% cap plus the 2% Medicare levy. Estimate your own figure with the long service leave tax calculator.

For the full Queensland entitlement, including leave taken at 10 and 15 years, see QLD long service leave. Each other state's rule is compared in pro-rata long service leave by state, and for everything else owed when a job ends, final pay and redundancy pay.

Sources

• Industrial Relations Act 2016 (Qld), in force from 1 January 2026, retrieved 5 October 2026.
• Business Queensland, long service leave entitlements and continuous service, retrieved 5 October 2026.
• Business Queensland, calculating long service leave, retrieved 5 October 2026.
• Business Queensland, transferring, taking and cashing in long service leave, retrieved 5 October 2026.
• Business Queensland, long service leave in Queensland, retrieved 5 October 2026.
• Queensland Law Handbook (Caxton Legal Centre), long service leave factsheet, November 2022, retrieved 5 October 2026.
• Queensland Government, Directive 10/24 Long Service Leave (public sector), retrieved 5 October 2026.
• ATO, PAYG withholding Schedule 7, published 17 June 2026, retrieved 4 August 2026.

Published 5 October 2026. Checked against these sources on 5 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.