Quick answer
Under Australia’s National Employment Standards, most full-time and part-time employees receive four weeks of paid annual leave for each year of service, based on their ordinary hours of work.
A simple way to estimate annual leave accrual is:
ordinary weekly hours × 4 ÷ 52 = annual leave accrued each week
For someone working 38 ordinary hours a week, that is 152 hours of annual leave a year, or about 2.923 hours a week. Eligible shiftworkers may receive five weeks of annual leave, while casual employees generally do not receive paid annual leave.
What this means
Annual leave accumulates progressively from the start of employment and is based on an employee’s ordinary hours of work. The basic National Employment Standards entitlement is four weeks of annual leave each year for full-time and part-time employees.
For example:
- 38 ordinary hours a week:
38 × 4 = 152 hoursa year - 30 ordinary hours a week:
30 × 4 = 120 hoursa year - 20 ordinary hours a week:
20 × 4 = 80 hoursa year
To estimate weekly accrual:
- 38 hours:
152 ÷ 52 = 2.923hours a week - 30 hours:
120 ÷ 52 = 2.308hours a week - 20 hours:
80 ÷ 52 = 1.538hours a week
Part-time employees receive four weeks based on their own ordinary working hours, not four weeks based on a standard full-time schedule. Overtime is not normally included because annual leave accumulates based on ordinary hours.
Common scenarios
You are a shiftworker. Some shiftworkers receive five weeks of paid annual leave. Eligibility depends on the applicable award or enterprise agreement and how it defines a shiftworker.
You are a casual employee. Casual employees generally do not receive paid annual leave under the National Employment Standards. Check your contract, award or enterprise agreement if you are unsure about your employment type.
A public holiday falls during annual leave. It generally does not come out of your annual-leave balance if it falls on a day you would ordinarily work.
You have unused leave. Under the National Employment Standards, unused annual leave generally carries over from year to year. Awards and agreements can contain rules about excessive leave balances, directing employees to take leave or cashing out leave.
You need to request leave. There is no single notice period for every request. The process may be set out in an award, enterprise agreement, employment contract or workplace policy.
How to plan this in Offdays
Start with your ordinary working pattern and current annual-leave balance. Then add the public holidays that apply in your state or territory, because Australia’s public-holiday calendars differ by location even though the basic NES annual-leave entitlement is national.
If a public holiday falls on a normal workday during a longer break, record it separately rather than automatically counting it as annual leave. If you normally work Monday to Friday and book a week containing a public holiday on Monday, you may only need four days of annual leave for that week.
Use the Australia guides to check location-specific public holidays, then compare your Offdays plan with your payroll or HR leave balance before submitting a request.
Final thoughts
For most full-time and part-time employees in Australia, the starting point is four weeks of annual leave based on ordinary hours of work. A 38-hour week produces 152 hours of annual leave for a full year of service, while part-time employees receive four weeks based on their own ordinary hours. Check your award, enterprise agreement or employment policy for additional entitlements such as shiftworker leave or annual leave loading.
Is this rule the same across Australia?
The basic four-week annual-leave entitlement comes from the National Employment Standards, so it applies nationally to employees covered by Australia’s national workplace relations system. An award, enterprise agreement, employment contract or other workplace rule may provide additional benefits. State and territory rules can also matter for long service leave and public holidays.