Long service leave in every state and territory

How many years until you qualify?

The qualifying period is seven years in Victoria and the ACT and 10 years everywhere else. That's continuous service with one employer, so leaving to go travelling and coming back usually resets the clock, while paid leave and sick days don't.

Say you started with a Melbourne employer in March 2019. You qualified in March 2026. Do the same job in Sydney and you're waiting until 2029, for the same work with the same employer.

Whether you can take some of it early depends on the state. In New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, you can, if your employer agrees. In the other states and territories, check with your employer or the state authority before you count on it.

How much leave do you get?

Most states give you 8.67 weeks at 10 years, which is two months off on full pay. South Australia and the Northern Territory are more generous at 13 weeks. Victoria and the ACT give you about six weeks, but three years earlier.

The leave keeps building after that, at roughly 0.87 of a week for every year you stay in most states, and 1.3 weeks a year in South Australia and the Northern Territory. Twenty years in Brisbane gets you about 17 weeks. In Adelaide, it's 26.

Part-timers and casuals get it too. A week of leave means a week of your usual hours at your usual pay, so it scales with how much you work.

What if you leave before you qualify?

Leaving before you reach the milestone doesn't always mean losing what you've built up, though the rules are more involved than the qualifying periods and they differ in each state.

Most states will pay out part of your leave from seven years (five in New South Wales and the ACT). What decides it from there is the reason you're leaving.

In Victoria, Western Australia and South Australia, any reason will do, including taking a better job. In New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory, a plain resignation gets you nothing until you reach the full milestone. You're paid out early only if your employer ends the job, or you leave because of illness or what the acts call a domestic or other pressing necessity.

Take Mel, who's been with a Darwin firm for nine years and has a job offer in Brisbane. If she resigns, she gets nothing. If she's made redundant instead, she'd be paid almost 12 weeks, and if she can hold on one more year, she's paid out whatever the reason.

If you're close to a milestone, it's worth checking the date before you put it in a resignation letter. Your notice period counts as service, so working it out rather than taking pay in lieu can be the difference. Working out your last day shows how to count it.

Is it paid out if you're made redundant?

Yes, once you've passed your state's pro-rata point, because your employer ending the job counts everywhere. It's paid on top of your redundancy pay and taxed separately, as how redundancy pay is taxed explains. What you're owed if you're made redundant covers how the two fit together.

Does time off break your service?

Every state asks for continuous service, but continuous doesn't mean you never had a day off. There are two separate questions to ask about any break: whether it ends your service altogether, and whether the time away counts towards your milestone. A break can leave your service intact and still push the date back.

• Paid leave: counts everywhere, including long service leave itself.
• Sick leave: doesn't break your service. Paid sick leave counts towards it. Unpaid sick leave counts in some states and not others.
• Unpaid parental leave: never breaks your service, but usually doesn't count towards it either. Victoria counts up to 52 weeks. In New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, a year at home pushes your milestone back a year.
• The business being sold: your service goes with you to the new owner, and the sale contract can't take it away.
• Leaving and coming back: a short gap can be bridged, 12 weeks in Victoria and three months in Queensland and Tasmania. Longer than that and you start again.

What about construction and other portable schemes?

Some industries never expected you to stay with one employer, so every state runs a portable scheme where your years in the industry count instead.

Building and construction is covered everywhere, and contract cleaning and community services in some states, including the ACT and South Australia. If that's you, you're registered with the scheme rather than covered by the standard act, and the rates are different again. Check with the scheme itself.

Whatever your state, the figure worth having is the date you qualify. The long service leave calculator gives you the figures for your state, and your state's industrial relations authority can confirm them against your own dates. This is general information, not legal advice.