Sick Leave Calculator (AU)
Your paid personal and carer’s leave under Fair Work: 10 days a year full-time, 76 hours on a 38-hour week, pro-rata for part-time.
Under the National Employment Standards (Fair Work Act 2009, s 96), permanent employees get 10 days of paid personal and carer’s leave per year of service. The Fair Work Ombudsman works it out as 1/26 of your ordinary hours over a year, so a 38-hour week gives 76 hours. Enter your details to see your annual entitlement and how much you have built up.
| Hours per week | Annual entitlement | Accrual per week |
|---|---|---|
| 38 (full-time) | 76 hours (10 days) | 1.46 hours |
| 30 | 60 hours (10 days) | 1.15 hours |
| 19 (half time) | 38 hours (10 days) | 0.73 hours |
| Casual | 0 paid hours | 0 hours |
General information only, not legal advice. Awards and enterprise agreements can give more than the NES minimum, so check yours. The accrued balance assumes no leave taken in that time.
How the entitlement works
Paid personal and carer’s leave is one combined entitlement, not two separate pots. The same 10 days cover a day off sick yourself and a day off to care for an immediate family or household member. It accrues progressively, about 1.46 hours a week on a 38-hour week, from your first day on the job. What you do not use carries over, with no cap, so a worker who never takes sick leave can hold a large balance after several years. That balance is not paid out when you leave: unlike annual leave, it ends with the job.
The High Court confirmed in Mondelez v AMWU (2020) that a “day” of leave is a notional day: one tenth of your ordinary hours over a fortnight. That is why the entitlement is best counted in hours. A part-timer on 19 hours a week still gets 10 days, but each day is 3.8 hours, so the annual total is 38 hours. Casuals sit outside the paid entitlement entirely: they get 2 days of unpaid carer’s leave per occasion, and their casual loading is the trade-off for paid leave.
Check your award too
The NES sets the floor. Some awards and agreements give more than 10 days, or add paid carer’s leave on top, or pay out part of the balance. If your payslip shows a different accrual rate from the one here, your award is the likely reason.
Evidence rules
An employer can ask for evidence that supports the reason for the leave, such as a medical certificate. The rules on when evidence can be required, and what counts, sit in your award or agreement, so check those before a dispute starts.
Frequently Asked Questions
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