Australian Leave Tracker

Track your annual leave and personal/carer's leave balance as it accrues, log leave as you take it, and see the public holidays and leave rules that actually apply in your state.

Entitlements checked against the Fair Work Ombudsman and each state's official leave legislation

Your Employment Details

Enter this once. Your balances will then accrue automatically every time you open this page.

Full-time is commonly 38 hours, but plenty of jobs run on 37.5 or another figure — this doesn't change your days of leave, but lets this tool show your balance in hours too, so you can check it against what payroll shows you.
The date your "opening balance" below applies to.
Want to check your employer's numbers? Set the opening balance date to your actual start date, set both opening balances to 0, then log every day of leave you've taken since (from your payslips or what payroll has told you) in the section below. This tool will then calculate your balance completely independently, so you can compare it against what you've been told.
4 weeks is the legal minimum — check your payslip if your award/agreement gives more.
10 days is the legal minimum for full-time employees.

Backup & Restore

Everything is saved automatically in this browser. Export a backup regularly so nothing's lost if this browser's data ever gets cleared.

Public Holidays 2026

Long Service Leave

State-Specific Notes

How Leave Actually Works in Australia

A common misconception worth clearing up first.

Annual and personal leave are federal, not state-based

Despite what a lot of people assume, annual leave (4 weeks/year) and personal/carer's leave (10 days/year) come from the National Employment Standards under the federal Fair Work Act — they're the same across every state and territory for national system employees, which covers the vast majority of Australian workers. What genuinely differs by state is public holidays and long service leave, which is why this tool asks for your state.

Your actual entitlement might be higher than the legal minimum

The NES sets the floor, not the ceiling. Awards, enterprise agreements and individual contracts can (and often do) provide more generous leave than the legal minimum — check your payslip or contract rather than assuming you're only on the base entitlement.

Personal leave accumulates indefinitely; it doesn't reset each year

Unused personal/carer's leave carries over year to year with no cap, unlike some workplace conventions might suggest. It's also not paid out when you leave a job, unlike annual leave, which must be paid out in full on termination.

Casual employees don't accrue paid leave

Casuals aren't entitled to paid annual or personal leave under the NES. Instead, casual pay includes a loading (commonly 25%) specifically intended to compensate for the lack of paid leave, job security and notice entitlements that permanent employees receive.

Christmas shutdowns using your annual leave are usually lawful

An employer can direct staff to take paid annual leave during a temporary shutdown (a Christmas/New Year closure is the textbook example) if their award or agreement allows it, or if award-free, where the direction is reasonable — which a seasonal shutdown generally is. Most modern awards require at least 28 days' written notice of the shutdown dates. What changed in 2023: employers can no longer direct staff into unpaid leave during a shutdown if they haven't accrued enough paid leave to cover it, for the large majority of awards. If this happens to you, it's worth logging it here with the "employer-directed" flag, both for your own records and so it's clearly distinguished from leave you chose to take yourself.

Frequently Asked Questions

This is general information, not legal or payroll advice. Leave entitlements can be affected by your specific award, enterprise agreement, employment contract, and individual circumstances (including unpaid leave, which pauses some accruals). Long service leave figures shown here are simplified estimates only — each state's rules include exceptions and specific qualifying conditions this tool doesn't capture. For an authoritative figure, contact the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) or your state's long service leave authority before making decisions based on these numbers, particularly around resignation or termination.