Employment & leave Australia
Sick Leave Calculator
Paid personal leave in Australia is one entitlement covering both your own illness and caring for an immediate family member. Enter your hours and start date to see the balance, and how it has built up since you started.
Free, no signup Runs in your browser
Personal leave available
—In days
—
Accrued in total
—
Annual entitlement
—
Accrual per week
—
NES minimum only. This estimates the National Employment Standards minimum. Awards, enterprise agreements and contracts can provide more. Evidence requirements, unpaid carer's leave and compassionate leave sit alongside this entitlement and are not calculated here.
How many sick days do you get in Australia?
Ten days of paid personal and carer's leave a year under the National Employment Standards, which is 76 hours on a 38-hour week. It accrues progressively and rolls over year to year with no cap. Part-time employees get the same ten days proportional to their ordinary hours.
One entitlement, two uses
Australia does not have separate sick leave and carer's leave balances. There is a single paid personal and carer's leave entitlement, and it covers two situations.
The first is your own illness or injury. The second is providing care or support to an immediate family or household member because of illness, injury or an unexpected emergency.
Both draw from the same balance. An employee who uses the whole entitlement caring for a child has none left for their own illness, which is a common and unpleasant surprise.
It rolls over and it does not get paid out
Two rules that pull in opposite directions.
Unused personal leave carries forward indefinitely. There is no annual reset and no cap, so a balance accumulates across a whole period of employment.
But it is not paid out when employment ends. Unlike annual leave, which is cashed out on termination, an untaken personal leave balance simply disappears — unless an award, agreement or contract says otherwise, which is unusual.
That combination is the reason a very large personal leave balance is worth nothing on the way out the door, while an equivalent annual leave balance is worth real money.
How this is calculated
Ten days a year, expressed as ordinary hours so that part-time patterns work out correctly.
annual entitlement = ordinary weekly hours ÷ 5 × 10for a 38-hour week: 7.6 × 10 = 76 hoursaccrual per week worked = annual entitlement ÷ 52accrued = accrual per week × weeks of servicebalance = accrued − leave already used (no annual reset)
The National Employment Standards define this as ten days rather than a fixed number of hours, and a day means the ordinary hours in a working day. That is why the entitlement is derived from weekly hours divided by five rather than assumed to be 76.
Unlike annual leave in some other countries, the balance does not reset. Unused personal leave carries forward year after year with no cap, which is why long-serving employees can hold very large balances. It is not paid out on termination.
A worked example: two years part-time
A part-time employee working 22.8 ordinary hours a week, two years into the job, who has used 30 hours.
- Hours in a working day — 22.8 ÷ 54.56 hours
- Annual entitlement — × 10 days45.6 hours
- Accrual per week — 45.6 ÷ 520.877 hours
- Weeks of service104.3 weeks
- Accrued — 0.877 × 104.391.5 hours
- Less leave used−30 hours
About 61.5 hours available, which is 13.5 days at this employee's pattern.
Note that the entitlement is still ten days a year — the hours are lower than a full-time employee's because this employee's working day is shorter, not because the entitlement is reduced.
Casuals, evidence and unpaid carer's leave
Casual employees do not accrue paid personal leave. They are entitled to two days of unpaid carer's leave per occasion, and to unpaid compassionate leave.
Employers can require reasonable evidence for paid personal leave — usually a medical certificate or a statutory declaration. What counts as reasonable depends on the circumstances, and a blanket policy demanding a certificate for every single day has been contested more than once.
Compassionate leave is separate again: two days per occasion when an immediate family or household member dies or suffers a life-threatening illness or injury, paid for permanent employees and unpaid for casuals. It does not come out of the personal leave balance.
What this calculator does not do
- Estimates the NES minimum — awards and agreements may provide more
- Assumes continuous service; unpaid leave periods do not accrue
- Does not cover compassionate leave, which is a separate entitlement
- Does not model workers compensation, which displaces personal leave for a work injury
Common questions
How many sick days per year in Australia?
Ten days of paid personal and carer's leave under the National Employment Standards, which is 76 hours on a 38-hour week. Part-time employees get the same ten days proportional to their hours.
Does sick leave roll over?
Yes, with no cap. Unused personal leave carries forward year after year for as long as the employment continues.
Is sick leave paid out when I leave?
No. Unlike annual leave, an untaken personal leave balance is not paid out on termination unless an award, agreement or contract specifically provides for it.
Do casuals get sick leave?
Not paid personal leave. Casuals are entitled to two days of unpaid carer's leave per occasion and to unpaid compassionate leave.
Can my employer ask for a medical certificate?
Yes — an employer can require reasonable evidence that the leave was taken for a permitted reason. What is reasonable depends on the circumstances, and requirements should be set out in a policy rather than applied ad hoc.
Where these numbers come from
- Fair Work Ombudsman — sick and carer's leave National Employment Standards entitlement, accrual and evidence
- Fair Work Ombudsman — compassionate and bereavement leave Separate entitlement, not drawn from this balance
Rates last verified 2026-10-28 The method on this page is re-checked against the sources above at least once a year. Out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.
Related AU calculators
Annual leave
Leave accrued under the NES, for full-time or any part-time pattern.
Open calculator Health & nutritionkJ to calories
Kilojoules to calories and back, with Australian daily intake context.
Open calculator AutomotiveL/100km
Real fuel consumption from a tank fill, plus conversion to and from MPG.
Open calculatorAustralia · Employment & leave