State and territory legislation

Portable long service leave, accrued by your state's rules

Australia has no single long service leave entitlement: Victoria opens it at 7 years, New South Wales and Queensland at 10. Payout depends on why you left. 7.5 years in Victoria accrues 6.5 weeks, $10,400 at $1,600 a week.

7 vs 10 years

Victoria lets you take leave at 7 years, NSW and Queensland at 10

our table below

8.67 weeks

NSW and Queensland entitlement at 10 years of continuous service

NSW Industrial Relations

1 in 60

the Victorian accrual: one week for every 60 weeks of continuous employment

Workforce Inspectorate Victoria

This tool covers NSW, Victoria and Queensland only. Every other state and territory has its own Act with different rules: the by-state guide below names the agency to contact.

years

Enter it as a decimal, for example 7.5 for seven years and six months. Regulators calculate from exact dates, so check the last decimal place against your start date.

weeks
$

Long service leave is paid at ordinary pay, which excludes overtime and shift penalties. Each state defines it slightly differently.

Long service leave accrued (weeks)

6.5

Accrual is the easy part. Whether you can take it, or be paid it, is where the states differ.

Service needed before leave can be taken (years)7
Weeks you could take now, during employment6.5
Weeks payable if employment ended today6.5
Value of that payout at your ordinary pay$10,400

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Long service leave by state: NSW, Victoria and Queensland compared

Last updated

Weeks accrue at almost exactly the same rate in all three states. What differs, and differs sharply, is when you can take the leave and whether it is paid out when you leave. This table shows the same worker under each Act.

Computed with this page's own formulas from the entitlements published by NSW Industrial Relations, the Workforce Inspectorate Victoria and Business Queensland: NSW and Queensland 8.6667 weeks at 10 years, Victoria one week per 60 weeks of continuous employment from 7 years. Weeks are rounded to two decimals, so a regulator's own example that rounds to one decimal can differ by 0.03 of a week. Qualifying reason means the termination reasons each Act lists, such as illness, incapacity, domestic or other pressing necessity, death, or dismissal for a reason other than serious and wilful misconduct.

Long service leave by state: NSW, Victoria and Queensland compared
Continuous serviceWeeks accruedNSW: payable if you left todayVictoria: payable if you left todayQueensland: payable if you left today
5 years4.334.33, qualifying reason onlyNothingNothing
7 years6.076.07, qualifying reason only6.07, any reason6.07, qualifying reason only
8 years6.936.93, qualifying reason only6.93, any reason6.93, qualifying reason only
10 years8.678.67, any reason8.67, any reason8.67, any reason
12 years10.4010.40, any reason10.40, any reason10.40, any reason
15 years13.0013.00, any reason13.00, any reason13.00, any reason
  • A worker who resigns at 8 years' service walks away with about 6.93 weeks of long service leave in Victoria and nothing in Queensland or New South Wales unless the reason for leaving qualifies: the same tenure, the same accrual, a different Act.
  • All three states accrue long service leave at roughly 0.867 of a week per year of continuous service, which is 8.67 weeks at 10 years and 13 weeks at 15.
  • Victoria is the only one of the three where the entitlement opens at 7 years rather than 10, and where the payout on termination at that point does not depend on why the employment ended.

Cite this page

“Long service leave by state: NSW, Victoria and Queensland compared”, Long Service Leave Calculator, https://longserviceleavecalc.com/ (updated 2026-10-30). Computed with this page's own formulas from the entitlements published by NSW Industrial Relations, the Workforce Inspectorate Victoria and Business Queensland: NSW and Queensland 8.6667 weeks at 10 years, Victoria one week per 60 weeks of continuous employment from 7 years. Weeks are rounded to two decimals, so a regulator's own example that rounds to one decimal can differ by 0.03 of a week. Qualifying reason means the termination reasons each Act lists, such as illness, incapacity, domestic or other pressing necessity, death, or dismissal for a reason other than serious and wilful misconduct.

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Tell us the state and the shape of the question, and we will pass your details to up to three payroll and HR service providers, who contact you directly.

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What this is based on

  • Long service leave in Australia is state and territory legislation, not federal: there is no single national entitlement, and this site does not publish one. The Fair Work Ombudsman says those laws set most employees' entitlement: how long you must work and how much you get (Fair Work Ombudsman: long service leave).
  • New South Wales: the Long Service Leave Act 1955 gives full-time, part-time and casual workers 2 months (8.67 weeks) paid leave after 10 years' continuous service. Each further 5 years adds a month, which is 4 1/3 weeks. Pro-rata applies from 5 years only for a qualifying reason, and from 10 for any (NSW Industrial Relations).
  • Victoria: most workers qualify after 7 years with one employer. Leave accrues at one week per 60 weeks of continuous service, about 0.866 of a week each year. No payment is due if employment ends before 7 years. From 7 years the full accrued but untaken entitlement is payable however employment ends (Workforce Inspectorate Victoria).
  • Queensland: employees take 8.6667 weeks after 10 years' continuous service, and 4.3333 more after another 5 (13 in total). Beyond 15 years, leave can be taken as it accrues. Under 7 years there is none; from 7 to 10 years a pro-rata termination payment needs a qualifying reason, and from 10 it is automatic (Business Queensland).
  • The accrual rate works out at about 0.867 of a week a year in all three states, so the weeks accrued column is effectively common ground. Everything that actually differs is in the qualifying period and the termination rules, which is why this calculator reports those separately.
  • This tool covers NSW, Victoria and Queensland because those are the three schemes we have read end to end. The ACT, Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia have their own Acts with different qualifying periods and accrual rates, and we do not guess at them. The by-state guide names the responsible agency for each.
  • Separate portable long service leave schemes apply in several industries, including building and construction, contract cleaning and community services. The black coal mining industry runs a national scheme through Coal LSL. If you have changed employers within one of those industries your entitlement may not come from the general state Act at all.
  • Some employees take long service leave from a pre-modern award or an enterprise agreement instead of the state Act. The Fair Work Ombudsman says state and territory long service leave laws do not apply where entitlements sit in a federal pre-modern award covering the employer before 1 January 2010.
  • Ordinary pay is defined differently in each state, and generally excludes overtime and shift penalties. NSW additionally takes the higher of ordinary remuneration at the prescribed date and the average over the previous five years for some workers. The single weekly figure here is an approximation: verify the rate before relying on a dollar amount.
  • Continuous service is not the same as elapsed time. Agreed unpaid leave and unpaid parental leave commonly do not count as service in NSW even though they do not break it, which pushes a milestone later. Absences for illness or injury generally do count. Check your own absences against your state's rules before trusting a milestone date.

Long Service Leave Calculator is an information site. It is not affiliated with NSW Industrial Relations, the Workforce Inspectorate Victoria, Business Queensland, the Fair Work Ombudsman or any government body, and nothing here is legal or accounting advice, confirm your entitlement with your state's long service leave agency before acting.

Straight answers

How much long service leave do I get in Australia?

It depends on your state. Long service leave is state and territory legislation, not federal. NSW and Queensland give 8.67 weeks at 10 years of continuous service, while Victoria accrues one week per 60 weeks and lets you take it from 7 years.

After how many years do you get long service leave?

7 years in Victoria, and 10 years in New South Wales and Queensland before you can take the leave. Queensland allows a pro-rata payment on termination from 7 years and New South Wales from 5 years, but only where the reason for leaving qualifies.

Do I get paid long service leave if I resign?

In Victoria, yes, once you have 7 years' continuous employment, however the employment ends. In New South Wales and Queensland, resigning below the 10 year mark only pays out if the reason qualifies, for example illness, incapacity or a domestic or other pressing necessity.

How is long service leave accrued?

At roughly 0.867 of a week for each year of continuous service in all three states covered here. Victoria expresses it as one week for every 60 weeks of continuous employment; New South Wales and Queensland express it as 8.6667 weeks at the 10 year milestone.

Does unpaid leave count towards long service leave?

Usually not, though it does not break your service either. NSW Industrial Relations states that agreed unpaid leave and unpaid parental leave do not count as service. So the milestone moves later by the length of the absence, while absence for illness or injury does count.

Why does this calculator only cover three states?

Because those are the three schemes we have read end to end and can reproduce against the regulators' own worked examples. For the ACT, Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia we name the responsible agency rather than publish a figure we have not verified.

Sources

This site's own datasets, every figure quoted from its source and dated:

  • The LSL Statutory Entitlements carries 18 published figures read from 12 sources' own pages, from 5 to 10 year, read 7 November 2026.
  • The LSL Termination Tax carries 3 published figures read from 2 sources' own pages, from 5 to 47 percent, read 7 November 2026.
  • The Portable LSL Scheme Register carries 18 published figures read from 14 sources' own pages; the 12 published figures given by industry run from 0.10 to 2.75 percent, read 7 November 2026.
  1. Fair Work Ombudsman, long service leave and state agencies
  2. NSW Industrial Relations, long service leave
  3. Workforce Inspectorate Victoria, long service leave
  4. Business Queensland, long service leave entitlements
  5. Comprehensive Guide to the Victorian Long Service Leave Act 2018

Your state's rules, not a national average.

Weeks accrued, what you can take now, and what is payable if you left today.

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