Long Service Leave NSW: Entitlements, Payout, Calculator & Rules

The 5-Year and 10-Year Rule At A Glance

Most confusion about NSW long service leave comes from treating the 5-year and 10-year thresholds as if they work the same way. They do not, and the difference matters when you are planning to resign.

NSW defines one month of long service leave as 4.3333 weeks (4⅓ weeks), so the entitlement is measured in weeks. Official details are on the NSW Government long service leave page.

What Is Long Service Leave NSW?

Long service leave is additional paid leave recognised for long service with the same employer under the Long Service Leave Act 1955 (NSW). It is separate from annual leave, personal or carer's leave and community service leave, and it cannot be swapped for those entitlements. Full-time, part-time and casual employees can all be covered, provided their employment is continuous.

Two concepts drive every calculation. Continuous service is the unbroken period you have worked for the employer, including periods of absence that the law treats as service. Ordinary pay is the rate at which your leave is paid, which for many employees is their ordinary gross weekly wage but becomes more subtle when hours, commissions or bonuses fluctuate.

One warning before you go further: if you work in building and construction, contract cleaning or community services, a portable scheme may apply to you with different rules. Do not assume the general Act calculation below matches your situation — see the portable schemes section further down.

When Do You Get Long Service Leave in NSW?

Three thresholds matter, and only the last one gives you leave you can actually take.

After 5 years

You may qualify for a pro-rata payment — but only if employment ends for a reason the Act recognises. You cannot request five weeks of leave and take it.

After 10 years

You earn 2 months (8.6667 weeks) of paid long service leave. This is the first point at which taking leave becomes available, and the entitlement is vested once earned.

Every additional 5 years

You earn another 1 month (4.3333 weeks) on completing each further 5-year period — at 15, 20, 25 years and beyond.

Long Service Leave NSW After 5 Years (Pro-Rata)

The 5-year rule is the single most misunderstood part of NSW long service leave. Reaching 5 years does not mean everyone gets a payout. A worker with at least 5 but less than 10 years of continuous service may receive a pro-rata payment only if employment ends because:

• Employer made my role redundant
• Employer dismissed me for another reason
• I resigned because of illness, incapacity or disability
• I resigned because of domestic or pressing necessity
• I have died (payment to estate)

Long Service Leave NSW Payout

Before 10 years

Payment is possible only through the pro-rata route above, and only when one of the statutory circumstances applies. Where they do, the payment is a proportionate share of the 10-year entitlement based on completed years of service.

At or after 10 years

Once you have 10 years, the entitlement is yours. If employment ends — resignation, redundancy, dismissal or retirement — the accrued but untaken long service leave must be paid out. NSW guidance requires the amount owing to be paid when the employment ends.

How Much Long Service Leave Do You Get in NSW?

These totals are the statutory position before deducting any long service leave you have already taken, and before considering whether an award, enterprise agreement or contract provides a better entitlement.

Long Service Leave NSW 15 Years

Fifteen years produces 13 weeks in total: 8.6667 weeks for the first 10 years plus 4.3333 weeks for completing the next 5. If you have already taken some long service leave — say 4 weeks at year 12 — your remaining balance is reduced accordingly, so 13 weeks minus 4 weeks taken leaves 9 weeks.

Long Service Leave NSW 20 Years

Twenty years produces 17.3333 weeks: 8.6667 weeks at 10 years, 4.3333 weeks at 15 years and a further 4.3333 weeks at 20 years. Note that this is a total earned over two decades — it does not mean all of it is available to take at once if you have already used part of it, and employers and employees still need to agree when the leave is taken.

Long Service Leave NSW Calculator

The calculator works out your likely entitlement under the general NSW scheme from your dates of service and ordinary weekly wage. It has two modes: still employed and calculating accrued leave, or employment ending and calculating a payout, including whether the 5-year pro-rata conditions appear satisfied. NSW Government and Service NSW publish their own long service leave calculator; ours is an independent estimate and does not replace it.

How Is Long Service Leave Calculated in NSW?

Conceptually, the calculation has four steps. Establish the service period and whether it was continuous. Count completed years. Convert those years into weeks using the 10-year and additional 5-year structure (or the pro-rata basis for 5-to-under-10 cases). Then value the weeks at the applicable rate of pay.

The arithmetic that surprises most people is that the additional entitlement arrives in blocks: at 17 years you have 13 weeks, not 13 weeks plus two-fifths of another block. Because this is exactly the area NSW Industrial Relations clarified in its guidance effective 1 March 2026 — including accruals after 15 years — complex or long-tenure cases should be checked against the current guidance rather than a calculator alone.

Long Service Leave Pay: Ordinary Remuneration vs Average Weekly Wage

The general 10-year entitlement is paid at your ordinary rate of pay. For an employee with stable hours and salary, that is effectively the ordinary gross weekly wage. Where the picture is more complicated, NSW guidance distinguishes between ordinary remuneration and an average weekly wage, and clarifies how to treat:

• employees whose ordinary hours fluctuate from week to week
• bonuses and commission forming part of regular earnings
• cascading or loaded rates
• periods of paid and unpaid leave within the reference period

The practical takeaway: do not value long service leave as a simple annual-salary-times-weeks calculation if your pay varies. Use the average of ordinary earnings over the relevant period, or ask NSW Industrial Relations how your specific pay structure is treated.

Casual Employees and Long Service Leave in NSW

Casual employees are covered by the NSW long service leave scheme. The critical issue for casuals is continuity: a genuine casual engagement with a regular and systematic pattern of work can be continuous service even though individual shifts are technically terminated and re-engaged. The 2026 guidance also clarified how absences should be assessed for casual workers, which matters when calculating the service period.

Casuals also differ on value, not on weeks. A casual with 10 years of continuous service accrues the same 8.6667weeks as a full-time employee with 10 years — the pay rate used to value those weeks reflects the casual's ordinary hours and earnings. Converting from casual to permanent employment does not normally reset service, but keeping records of your engagement history is important.

Part-Time Employees

Part-time employees accrue the same leave in weeks and are subject to the same thresholds. What varies is the value of the leave, which reflects ordinary part-time hours. Changing from part-time to full-time (or the reverse) does not restart the clock and does not require the same hours to have been worked across the whole service period. If your hours changed materially, the rate of pay when leave is taken becomes the important question rather than the number of weeks.

Continuous Employment in NSW

Continuity is the make-or-break issue in most long service leave disputes. Broadly, service remains continuous even though:

• you take annual leave, personal/carer's leave, community service leave or public holidays
• you take paid parental leave
• you are absent on workers' compensation for a work-related injury
• your job title, duties, hours or employer entity change within the same corporate group
• the business is transferred to a new employer as a going concern

Unpaid absence is treated differently: it generally does not break continuity, but the period itself may not count as service — which pushes your 10-year milestone later. Fixed-term contracts, and the interpretation of absences for casual workers, were both clarified in the updated NSW guidance effective 1 March 2026.

Records matter more than memory. Keep your contract start date, payslips showing service, approved leave records and any agreement about unpaid leave. Where a business changed hands, the transfer documents usually state whether prior service carries across.

Who Pays Long Service Leave NSW?

For the general scheme, your employer pays. They fund the leave while you are off work and pay any accrued entitlement when employment ends. The NSW Government does not pay your long service leave and there is no state-funded scheme you claim from for ordinary employment.

If you are covered by a portable scheme, the answer changes: the Long Service Corporation administers the entitlement, holds your service records, collects levies from employers and pays the benefit or leave on your behalf. Employers in those industries must register, lodge service returns and pay levies — they cannot simply pay out portable service themselves and consider the matter closed.

Can You Cash Out Long Service Leave in NSW?

It is worth separating three different things that people call "cashing out":

1. Taking leave as time off — the intended use of the entitlement, available once you reach 10 years.
2. Payment when employment ends — required for accrued leave at 10+ years, and available pro-rata between 5 and 10 years in the statutory circumstances.
3. Receiving money instead of taking leave while still employed — generally not available under the NSW scheme. Unlike annual leave under the National Employment Standards, there is no cash-out agreement mechanism for long service leave, and modern awards and enterprise agreements deal with the question differently — some allow payment in place of leave after a long period of service, while others are silent.

Because your outcome depends on the Act, your industrial instrument and current NSW Industrial Relations guidance, check those before assuming you can convert leave into a pay cheque without leaving your job.

Portable Long Service Leave NSW

Portable long service leave recognises service to an industry rather than to a single employer. It exists because workers in three NSW industries change employers frequently and would otherwise never reach the 10-year mark with any one of them. Service is recorded through registration with the Long Service Corporation, employers lodge quarterly service returns and pay levies, and the accrued entitlement follows the worker between jobs.

NSW currently operates three portable schemes: building and construction, contract cleaning and community services. Each has its own rules — they do not share one formula, and the general NSW calculator should not be used for any of them.

NSW Building and Construction Portable Long Service

The building and construction scheme is the BCI Long Service Payments Scheme. The name is important: eligible workers receive a paymentfrom the Long Service Corporation rather than a period of leave from an employer. Workers register, accrue service days for eligible work across all registered employers — including, under the scheme's mutual recognition rules, recognised service earned interstate — and become eligible for a long service payment of about 8.67 weeks of pay after 10 years of service, with further payments for additional periods of service. There are also provisions for workers who permanently leave the industry.

NSW Contract Cleaning Portable Long Service

The CCI Long Service Leave Scheme covers eligible contract cleaning workers. Recognised industry service accrues across employers, and eligible workers can receive approximately 8.67 weeks of pay after 10 years of recognised service, with a further 4.33 weeks after each additional 5 years. A pro-rata payment can be available after 5 years where the worker permanently leaves the industry. Payments are calculated using an average ordinary wage under the scheme's own rules.

NSW Community Services Portable Long Service (From 1 July 2025)

This is the newest scheme. The Community Services Industry portable long service leave scheme began on 1 July 2025 and covers eligible community services workers. It differs sharply from the general Act, so read it separately:

• Eligible workers accrue recognised service across employers in the sector.
• After 7 years of recognised service, eligible workers are entitled to approximately 6.1 weeks of paid long service leave, with further accrual for additional service.
• Employers covered by the scheme must register with the Long Service Corporation, lodge service returns and pay levy contributions.
• The portable scheme does not replace long service leave you have already earned with your current employer under the Long Service Leave Act 1955 (NSW). The two can run alongside each other, so keep records of both.

Worked Examples

Each example below was calculated with the same engine that drives the calculator above. Assume an ordinary gross weekly wage of $1,500 unless stated. They are illustrative, not advice.

Example 7 is the one to remember: identical service to example 4, different outcome, purely because of the reason for leaving.

The March 2026 NSW Guidance Update

From 1 March 2026, NSW Industrial Relations applies updated guidance on how certain provisions of the Long Service Leave Act 1955 (NSW)should be interpreted and applied. The Act itself was not amended. The guidance was published to make the regulator's compliance approach clearer and more consistent, and it addresses:

• how continuous service is assessed
• how absences are assessed for casual workers
• entitlements for workers on fixed-term contracts
• calculating ordinary hours where hours fluctuate
• when to use ordinary remuneration and when an average weekly wage applies
• how bonuses are treated
• the impact of taking a single day of long service leave, on payment and on accrual
• how accruals after 15 years of service are treated

Two points on scope. The updated interpretation is not applied retrospectivelyto complaints already resolved or prosecutions already finalised, although it may affect cases still open. And NSW Industrial Relations states the guidance is not determinative of how a court would apply the law in every case — it sets out the regulator's preferred approach.

Common Mistakes

• Assuming everyone gets a payout after 5 years
• Assuming 5 years means you can take leave — only 10+ years can
• Confusing the general scheme with a portable scheme
• Applying Queensland, Victorian or WA rules to a NSW job
• Ignoring the updated guidance effective 1 March 2026
• Expecting the Long Service Corporation to pay when you are not in a portable industry
• Overlooking that serious and wilful misconduct blocks the under-10-year pro-rata
• Assuming casual employees are excluded
• Using the general calculator for building and construction service
• Applying outdated community services rules before the scheme commenced
• Forgetting long service leave already taken when estimating a balance
• Valuing leave at base salary when bonuses and commission are part of ordinary earnings

Related: QLD long service leave calculator · Sunday penalty rates · NSW teacher salary · Penalty rates calculator