How much sick leave do you actually have banked right now? For many Australian workers the answer is a surprise — because unlike annual leave, sick leave never expires. Under the National Employment Standards, paid sick leave accrues progressively from your first day, rolls over year after year with no cap, and quietly builds into a serious safety net. This guide explains how sick leave accrual works, how to calculate your balance, and what happens to it when you change jobs.
Strictly speaking, what most people call “sick leave” is legally personal/carer’s leave: one combined entitlement that covers both your own illness or injury and time off to care for an immediate family or household member who is ill, injured or facing an unexpected emergency. To check how your balance converts into pay, use the sick leave calculator.
The basic entitlement: 10 days a year
Under the National Employment Standards (NES) in the Fair Work Act, full-time and part-time employees are entitled to 10 days of paid personal/carer’s leave per year of service. For a full-time employee working 38 ordinary hours a week, that is 76 hours a year. Part-time employees receive the same entitlement on a pro-rata basis, calculated from their ordinary hours.
The Fair Work Ombudsman expresses the formula as 1/26 of your ordinary hours of work in a year. In practice that means your annual accrual in hours is simply twice your ordinary weekly hours:
| Ordinary hours per week | Annual sick leave accrual |
|---|---|
| 38 hours (full-time) | 76 hours (10 days) |
| 30 hours | 60 hours |
| 24 hours | 48 hours |
| 22.8 hours (3 days) | 45.6 hours |
| 20 hours | 40 hours |
| 19 hours | 38 hours |
| 15 hours | 30 hours |
| 10 hours | 20 hours |
Because the entitlement is based on hours rather than calendar days, the spread of your hours does not matter. A full-timer working 38 hours over four days accrues exactly the same 76 hours a year as a full-timer working five days. What matters is your ordinary hours, not your roster pattern.
How accrual actually builds up
Sick leave does not arrive as a lump sum on your work anniversary. It accrues progressively during the year, based on your ordinary hours of work, from your very first day of employment. A full-time employee accrues about 2.92 hours per fortnight (76 hours divided by 26 fortnights), so after six months you have roughly 38 hours banked, even though your first anniversary is still months away.
This progressive accrual has two practical consequences. First, if you fall ill early in a new job, you can only take the leave you have accrued so far — although many employers allow you to go into a negative balance by agreement, and some awards or agreements provide more generous arrangements. Second, if you resign partway through a year, you have accrued a proportionate amount for the time you worked, but as the next section explains, that balance does not follow you out the door as cash.
A registered agreement, award or contract can provide a more generous sick leave entitlement than the NES, but never less. Some employers offer 15 or 20 days a year, or allow leave to be taken in advance. Check your instrument — the NES figure is a floor, not a ceiling.
The rollover: sick leave never expires
The feature that surprises most workers is accumulation. Unused personal/carer’s leave carries over from year to year without any cap. There is no “use it or lose it” rule, no excessive-balance rule like the one that applies to annual leave, and no expiry date. An employee who works for the same employer for 10 years without taking sick leave would have 100 days banked.
That accumulated balance is a genuine financial safety net. A serious illness, surgery with a long recovery, or a period caring for a sick family member can consume weeks of leave — and a worker with years of accrued balance can ride it out on full pay, while a new starter with a few weeks accrued faces unpaid leave much sooner. It is also why comparing jobs on sick leave matters: changing employers resets your balance to zero, because accrued personal leave does not transfer between employers (with limited exceptions for transfers of business).
It is worth being clear-eyed about one thing, though: a large banked balance is insurance, not a bonus. Unlike annual leave, it is not paid out when you leave.
What sick leave is paid at — and what it is not paid out as
Paid personal/carer’s leave is paid at your base rate of pay for the ordinary hours you would have worked during the absence. It does not include overtime, penalty rates or loadings — if you are normally paid weekend penalties, you do not receive them while on sick leave. For shiftworkers and others whose ordinary hours include regular penalties, this can make a sick day noticeably cheaper than a worked day, which is worth knowing before you budget around it.
On termination, unused personal/carer’s leave is generally not paid out. Your balance ends with your employment. The contrast with annual leave is stark: annual leave is a payout entitlement, sick leave is a use-it-while-employed entitlement. Cashing out personal leave during employment is also generally not permitted, unless an applicable award or enterprise agreement specifically allows it and strict conditions are met.
Casual employees are not entitled to paid personal/carer’s leave under the NES at all. They can take 2 days of unpaid carer’s leave per permissible occasion, and compassionate leave provisions apply separately. The 25% casual loading is, in part, compensation for the absence of paid leave entitlements.
Evidence, notice and common traps
To take paid personal leave you must notify your employer as soon as practicable and provide evidence if your employer reasonably requires it — typically a medical certificate or statutory declaration. Employers can require evidence for any period of leave, not just long absences, although many workplaces only ask for absences of two or more days. Keep certificates even for single days if your workplace is strict about it.
Common traps include:
- Assuming sick leave pays out on resignation. It does not. If you are leaving and genuinely unwell, using leave you need before you go is legitimate; expecting a payout is not.
- Confusing days with hours. Your balance is tracked in hours. A “day” of sick leave for a 7.6-hour worker is 7.6 hours; for a part-timer working 6-hour shifts, a “day” is 6 hours.
- Thinking a new job keeps your balance. It does not transfer. Factor a reset balance into your risk planning when changing jobs.
- Forgetting carer’s leave draws on the same balance. Caring for a sick child or partner uses the same pool as your own sick days — it is one entitlement, not two.
- Not checking your payslip. Most payslips show your personal leave balance. Check it regularly; payroll errors in accrual are easier to fix early.
Worked examples
Full-time worker, three years, light usage. Maya works 38 hours a week and takes 3 days of sick leave a year. Each year she accrues 76 hours and uses 22.8, banking 53.2 hours. After three years she holds about 159.6 hours — roughly 21 working days — of paid leave.
Part-time worker, two years. Josh works 24 hours a week (three 8-hour days). He accrues 48 hours a year. After two years with no sick leave taken, he holds 96 hours — 12 of his working days.
New starter, six months in. Priya works full-time and has been employed for six months. She has accrued about 38 hours — five working days — of personal leave, available to use for her own illness or to care for a family member.
Frequently asked questions
How much sick leave do I accrue per year in Australia?
Full-time employees accrue 10 days (76 hours) of paid personal/carer’s leave per year, and part-time employees accrue the same entitlement pro-rata — twice your ordinary weekly hours, per year. It accrues progressively from your first day.
Does sick leave expire in Australia?
No. Unused personal/carer’s leave accumulates from year to year with no cap and no expiry date, as long as you stay with the same employer.
Does sick leave carry over when I change jobs?
Generally no. Your accrued balance does not transfer to a new employer, and it is not paid out on termination. A new job means starting your balance from zero.
Is sick leave paid out when I resign?
No. Unlike annual leave, unused personal/carer’s leave is not paid out when employment ends.
Do casuals get sick leave?
No paid sick leave, but casuals can take 2 days of unpaid carer’s leave per occasion, and compassionate leave rules apply separately. Casual loading compensates in part for the absence of paid leave.
Can my employer ask for a medical certificate for one day off?
Yes. An employer can reasonably require evidence for any period of personal leave, although many workplaces only request it for absences of two or more days or for repeated single-day absences.
The bottom line
Sick leave accrual in Australia is slow, steady and uncapped: 10 days a year for full-timers, pro-rata for part-timers, building fortnight by fortnight and never expiring while you stay with your employer. Treat it as insurance rather than income — check your balance on your payslip, understand that it resets when you change jobs, and remember that it covers caring for family as well as your own illness. To see what your own balance is worth in dollars, run your rate and hours through the sick leave calculator.