The calculator applies the National Employment Standards rule for untaken annual leave when a job ends (Fair Work Act 2009, s90). It does not know your award or agreement, which can only add to the figure.
When your employment ends, your employer must pay you for any untaken paid annual leave the amount you would have been paid had you taken that leave (s90(2)). Leave taken while employed is paid at your base rate of pay for ordinary hours (s90(1)): no overtime, penalty rates, bonuses or allowances (s16). So the starting point is untaken hours × your ordinary hourly rate. If you give the figure in days or weeks, the calculator converts it using your ordinary hours per week.
Because the payout is what you would have been paid on leave, anything your award or agreement would have added while you were on leave is owed on the payout too. For most award-covered employees that is 17.5% annual leave loading; for some shiftworkers it is the shift penalty if it is higher. The Fair Work Ombudsman's guidance says final pay includes annual leave loading if it would have been paid during employment, and the Full Federal Court reached the same reading of s90(2) in 2015. Tick the loading box if your payslips show loading on your leave. Not every workplace pays it: check your award or agreement.
Casual employees do not get paid annual leave under the Act (s86), so there is nothing to pay out; the casual loading (usually 25%) is paid instead. If you were a casual who converted to permanent, only leave built up since the conversion is owed. Part-time employees get the same 4 weeks a year, pro rata by their ordinary hours (s87), so their payout uses their actual hours and rate.
The figure shown is before tax. How much tax is withheld depends on why you left and when the leave was earned; see tax and super below. Super guarantee is generally not paid on unused annual leave paid out when a job ends.
76 hours of untaken leave (two weeks for a full-timer) at $39.47 an hour = $3,000. If the award pays 17.5% leave loading, add $525, so the payout is $3,525 before tax. The same two weeks entered as weeks, on $1,500 a week with no loading, is 2 × 38 h × $39.47 = $3,000.
General information only. This calculator does not work out the tax; your payroll will withhold it, and the ATO pages linked below have the current rules.
Unused annual leave paid when a job ends is an "unused leave payment", not an employment termination payment. Your employer withholds tax using the ATO's Schedule 7, tax table for unused leave payments on termination of employment:
The payment goes on your income statement as a lump sum A (or lump sum B for pre-1978 amounts) and is included in your taxable income, so the final tax is settled in your tax return. Unused annual leave is not covered by the redundancy tax-free limit; that applies only to redundancy pay itself. See our redundancy pay calculator.
Super guarantee is paid on ordinary time earnings, and the law leaves out "an unused annual leave payment, or unused long service leave payment" made as a lump sum when employment ends (Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992, s6(1), definition of ordinary time earnings). So your employer generally does not have to pay super on this payout. Leave you take while employed, and leave you cash out while still employed, is ordinary time earnings and does attract super. An agreement can promise more, so check yours.
Yes, if you would have been paid loading had you taken the leave. The Fair Work Act says a payout must equal what you would have been paid on leave (s90(2)), and the Fair Work Ombudsman's position is that this includes annual leave loading where it would have been paid during employment, even if the award or agreement says loading is not paid on termination. If your award or agreement does not pay loading at all, none is owed on the payout.
It is an unused leave payment, taxed under the ATO's Schedule 7. If you resigned or were dismissed, leave built up since 18 August 1993 is withheld at your marginal rate (spread over the year, so usually less than a lump-sum rate); older leave has concessional rates. If you left through a genuine redundancy, invalidity or an early retirement scheme, withholding on the whole amount is capped at 32%. It is not covered by the redundancy tax-free limit, and the final tax is settled in your tax return. This calculator does not work out the tax.
Generally no. Super guarantee is paid on ordinary time earnings, and the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 leaves out lump sums for unused annual leave or long service leave paid when employment ends (s6(1)). Leave you take, or cash out, while still employed does attract super. Your agreement or contract can promise super on termination payments, so check it.
Yes. Annual leave builds up on all periods of service, including paid leave and the notice period you work, so your payout should include leave earned right up to your last day. It does not build up on unpaid leave or on notice paid out instead of worked, because employment has ended. Leave builds up progressively, so a part week still earns a few hours.
Part-time employees get the same 4 weeks a year, pro rata by their ordinary hours (s87), so a 19-hour-a-week employee builds up 76 hours a year rather than 152. The payout is simply your untaken hours multiplied by your ordinary hourly rate (plus loading if it would have been paid), so type your actual hours per week and your actual pay and the pro rata is already built in.
No. Casual employees are not covered by the annual leave rules (s86) and are paid a casual loading, usually 25%, instead of paid leave. If you converted from casual to permanent, only the leave built up since you became permanent is paid out. Casuals who regularly work the same hours may be able to ask to convert, which is where paid leave starts.
All checked 8 November 2026. Primary sources first. Not reloaded marks an official page our checker could not load on that date; the statement relies on the Act and earlier checks.