Awards and agreements · not the NES
Annual leave loading, and whether you actually get it
The extra amount some employees are paid for taking annual leave. It is not a legal minimum, it is not always 17.5%, and in most awards it is not a flat percentage at all — it is whichever is higher, the loading or your usual penalty rates.
Award rules verified against the official sources — how we check.
Loading on this leave
$465.50
17.5% applies, on $2,660 of base pay for 76 hours.
Base pay $2,660Loading $465.50
How it’s made up
This is the comparison most awards make. Which penalties count, and what the loading is calculated on, differ by award — yours is the authority.
Enter your details above to see this.
Before tax. Loading is ordinary income and is taxed like the rest of your pay. General information only — not financial, tax or employment advice.
It is not a legal minimum
This is the part worth getting straight before anything else. Annual leave loading is NOT part of the NES. It comes from an award or enterprise agreement, and both the amount AND what it is calculated on vary between them. 17.5% is common, not universal, and not a default. If you are award-free and salaried, there is a good chance you have never had it and never will, and that is not an underpayment.
Where it does apply, the pattern that repeats across awards is a comparison: the employee is paid the HIGHER of a flat loading and the penalty or shift rates they would normally have received. Which penalties count, and what the loading is calculated on, differ by award.
How four real awards word it
These are Fair Work’s own published examples, and they are here to show the shape of the rule rather than to stand in for your award. The differences between them are exactly why a single percentage cannot answer this.
| Award | Who | What is paid |
|---|---|---|
| Retail Award | non-shiftworkers | The higher of a 17.5% loading on the minimum hourly rate, or the weekend or shift penalty rates normally received. |
| Security Award | employees taking annual leave | The higher of what the employee would have earned for those ordinary hours had they not been on leave, or the minimum hourly rate plus any first aid, supervision or relieving officer allowance plus 17.5%. |
| Road Transport Award | employees who would have worked shiftwork | The higher of 17.5%, or the shift loading including relevant weekend penalty rates. |
| Road Transport Award | employees who would have worked day work | The higher of 17.5%, or the relevant weekend penalty rates. |
Not a complete list. Awards vary in both the percentage and what it is calculated on.
If you are paid above the award
A common assumption is that an above-award salary quietly swallows the loading. Sometimes it does, and sometimes it plainly does not — and which it is comes down to how the award is worded.
Fair Work identifies two wordings under which loading is calculated on your actual, higher rate:
- The award says annual leave is paid at the amount the employee would have received for working ordinary time hours had they not been on leave, and loading is an additional payment calculated on that amount.
- The award says loading is calculated on the amount payable under the NES, since the NES amount can include a higher rate where that is the employee's base rate for ordinary hours.
Its published examples make the point concretely:
- A full-time forklift driver under the Building and Construction Award, paid above award, still gets loading and it is calculated on the above-award rate.
- A part-time kitchen hand under the Hospitality Award, paid above award, likewise gets loading on the above-award rate.
Three things that can absorb it
If your award provides loading and you are not receiving it, one of these is usually why. The first two are permitted arrangements with rules attached. The third is the one to look at hardest.
| Arrangement | How it affects loading |
|---|---|
| Annualised wage arrangement | Some awards and agreements let an annualised wage absorb entitlements including annual leave loading, under specific rules. |
| Individual flexibility arrangement | Every award must contain an IFA clause, and an IFA can vary the effect of certain clauses, which may include annual leave loading. |
| Contractual offsetting arrangement | Some employers rely on a contract to offset above-award pay against award entitlements such as loading. Fair Work notes employers should seek independent advice before doing this, and cannot advise on specific contracts. |
When you leave the job
When employment ends, unused accumulated annual leave is paid out as if the leave had been taken — calculated the same way, and including any annual leave loading, penalty rates or shift loading that would have applied.
So a payout is not simply your hours times your base rate. If you would have been paid loading, or penalties, or a shift loading on that leave, the payout has to carry them. The annual leave calculator works out the balance those rates would be applied to.
Frequently asked questions
Do I get annual leave loading?
Is annual leave loading always 17.5%?
Do I get loading on top of my above-award salary?
Why did I not get loading even though my award has it?
Do I get leave loading paid out when I resign?
Is leave loading taxed?
Where these rules come from
- Fair Work Ombudsman — Annual leave — Fair Work Act 2009 sections 86–87.
- Fair Work Ombudsman — Payment for annual leave.
- Fair Work Ombudsman Library — Annual leave loading in awards and agreements.
The same pattern turns up in time off in lieu, which is also an award term rather than an NES entitlement, and where the rule that catches people is that the time off is hour for hour.
We do not model individual awards, and we will not guess at one. Fair Work’s own tools are authoritative on what your award says; this page explains the shape of the rules so you know what you are reading when you get there. The methodology page sets out what every calculator here does and does not model.