South Australia Long Service Leave Calculator

How the entitlement is worked out

Under section 5(1)(a) of the Long Service Leave Act 1987 (SA), a worker who completes 10 years of service with the same employer is entitled to 13 weeks of long service leave. Section 5(1)(b) then adds a further 1.3 weeks for each subsequent completed year, so the leave grows one year at a time rather than in blocks.

Section 5(7) confirms the entitlement only arises for completed years of service, so a partial year past a milestone is not counted until it is finished. This calculator applies that same formula: nothing before 10 years, then 13 weeks plus 1.3 weeks for every completed year afterwards.

Before the qualifying period: pro rata payments

Section 5(3) allows a worker who has completed at least 7 years but less than 10 years of service to receive a payment on termination equal to 1.3 weeks for each completed year of service. Section 5(4) removes this pro rata payment only where the worker's contract is terminated for the worker's own serious and wilful misconduct, or where the worker unlawfully terminates the contract themselves.

Once a worker passes 10 years, section 5(2) provides that payment in lieu of long service leave is available on termination for any reason at all, with no misconduct exclusion.

Cashing out while employed

South Australia, like Western Australia and Tasmania, expressly allows cashing out accrued leave before employment ends. Section 5(1a) permits a worker to receive payment in lieu of long service leave, or part of it, but only where an individual agreement to that effect is made and recorded in writing, signed by both the employer and the worker, and only after the entitlement to that leave has already accrued.

Taking leave in advance

Section 7(4)(d) lets an employer and worker agree to the worker taking long service leave in anticipation of the entitlement accruing, meaning before the relevant milestone is actually reached.

Section 7(6) protects the employer if the arrangement does not work out: if the worker takes leave in advance and their employment ends, for any reason, before the entitlement actually accrues, the employer can deduct the difference between what was already paid for that leave and any payment in lieu the worker is otherwise owed, from the worker's final pay.

Portable long service schemes

South Australia runs two separate portable long service leave schemes outside the 1987 Act, and neither one replaces it for workers who are not covered by them. The Construction Industry Long Service Leave Act 1987 (SA) covers on site building, electrical and metal trades work, administered as SA Portable Long Service Leave, Construction. Workers doing eligible work regularly are required to be registered, and the scheme is funded by an employer levy rather than by any single employer's own long service leave liability.

A second scheme, created under the Portable Long Service Leave Act 2024 (SA), covers the community services sector. It commenced for employers and workers on 1 October 2025 and is administered as SA Portable Long Service Leave, Community. This calculator models only the general entitlement under the 1987 Act; it does not model either portable scheme, which have their own registration rules and are administered separately from an individual employer.

Pay basis: what rate leave is paid at

Section 8(1) provides that a worker on long service leave is paid at their ordinary weekly rate of pay. Section 3(2) defines that rate as the worker's weekly rate as at the relevant date, excluding overtime, shift premiums and penalty rates.

Two averaging rules apply to variable pay. Where pay is based on commission or results, section 3(2)(a) requires averaging over the 12 months immediately before the relevant date. Where a worker was hourly paid, worked varying weekly hours, or worked on a casual or part time basis at any point in the preceding 3 years, section 3(2)(b) instead requires averaging the hours worked per week over that 3 year period, multiplied by the current hourly rate. Section 3(4) disregards weeks of unpaid leave and weeks off work with a compensated work injury when building either averaging window, so the calculation reaches back further to find genuinely worked periods.

How service is counted

Section 3(1) defines a worker as a person employed under a contract of service, and defines service as continuous service with the same employer, or with related employers, under a contract of service or a series of contracts. There is no separate minimum hours test excluding casual workers; a casual employed under a contract of service is a worker like any other, and section 3(2)(b)(iii) folds casual and part time work into the pay averaging rule rather than excluding it from service.

Section 6(1) provides that continuity is not broken by absences such as illness or injury, any period of leave, a stand down followed by re-employment, an industrial dispute where the worker returns under the terms of settlement, or any other employer caused break where the worker returns within 2 months. Section 6(2) then sets out which of those gap periods actually count towards the years of service themselves, as opposed to merely not breaking continuity. Where a business changes hands, section 3(3) treats the new and old employer as related, so service carries over, without needing a separate transmission of business section.

Taking the leave: timing and notice

Section 7(1) provides that long service leave should be granted by the employer as soon as practicable after the worker becomes entitled, taking into account the needs of the employer's business. Section 7(3) says the employer should give the worker at least 60 days notice of the date leave is to start.

Both of those provisions use the word "should" rather than "must" or "shall," a softer form of words than the equivalent notice rules in some other jurisdictions. Section 7(4)(c) also lets the employer and worker agree to a shorter notice period than 60 days.

What this calculator does not model

This tool calculates the general entitlement under the Long Service Leave Act 1987 (SA) only. It does not model either the construction industry portable scheme or the community services portable scheme, both of which have their own separate formulas and registration rules. Section 16 also excludes from the Act any worker whose long service leave entitlement comes from another Act or from a Fair Work Act instrument, such as a modern award or enterprise agreement.

The calculator also does not attempt the 7 to 10 year pro rata formula on its own; that payment depends on how and why employment ended, which only applies at the point of termination.