Sick Leave Entitlements in Australia (2026): Personal, Carer's and Compassionate Leave Explained

Sick leave is the entitlement that turns up in every small business's payroll sooner or later, usually on a Monday morning with a text message. This guide explains Australian sick leave entitlements for 2026 in plain terms: how much paid personal/carer's leave the National Employment Standards (NES) give, how it builds up in hours, when it can be used to care for someone else, what evidence an employer can ask for, what casuals get, how compassionate and family and domestic violence leave fit in, and what happens during long absences or when someone leaves. Worked examples are in Australian dollars.

Quick answer

Full-time employees get 10 days of paid personal/carer's leave a year under the NES; part-timers get the same pro rata. It accrues at 1/26 of ordinary hours (76 hours for a 38-hour week), carries over with no cap, and is paid at the base rate. It covers your own illness or injury and caring for an immediate family or household member. Casuals get no paid sick leave but do get unpaid carer's and compassionate leave.

• Same balance covers sick leave and carer's leave

• Employer can ask for reasonable evidence, even for one day

• 2 days compassionate leave per occasion — separate from sick leave

• Not paid out when employment ends

• Cash-outs only under an award or agreement, leaving at least 15 days

Who gets sick and carer's leave

Paid personal/carer's leave is one of the NES in Division 7 of Part 2-2 of the Fair Work Act 2009. It's commonly called sick leave, carer's leave or personal leave — legally they're all one entitlement drawn from one balance. It applies to every full-time and part-time employee of a national system employer, including fixed-term employees and people on probation. It doesn't matter whether the employee is covered by a modern award, an enterprise agreement or is award and agreement-free.

Casual employees don't get paid sick or carer's leave. Section 96 excludes periods of casual employment, and the 25% casual loading is partly there to make up for it. If a casual converts to permanent employment — including through the employee choice pathway explained in our casual employees guide — paid leave starts accruing from the date of conversion.

Awards, agreements and contracts can be more generous, but never less generous, than the NES. Some enterprise agreements give 15 days a year, and some employers offer extra "wellbeing" days by policy. Those sit on top of the statutory minimum.

Personal leave at a glance (2026)

10 days

Paid sick and carer's leave a year

Full-time; pro rata part-time

76 hours

Annual accrual on 38 hours a week

1/26 of ordinary hours

2 days

Compassionate leave per occasion

All employees

10 days

Paid family and domestic violence leave a year

Includes casuals

How much sick leave: 10 days, measured in hours

Section 96(1) gives 10 days of paid personal/carer's leave for each year of service. The word "days" causes confusion, because people work days of different lengths. In 2020 the High Court settled the point in Mondelez Australia v AMWU: a "day" means a notional day of one-tenth of the employee's ordinary hours over a two-week period. In practice the entitlement is measured in hours.

The Fair Work Ombudsman describes it as 1/26 of ordinary hours worked in a year. A full-time employee on 38 hours a week gets 76 hours a year. A part-timer averaging 19 hours a week gets 38 hours. How the hours are spread across the week doesn't change the total. The FWO's example compares one employee who works 38 hours over five days with another who works 38 hours over four longer days — both accrue 76 hours a year.

That's important when someone on 12-hour shifts takes a sick day. A nurse who works three 12-hour shifts a week (36 hours) accrues 72 hours a year. A single sick shift uses 12 hours of that balance, not one "day" out of ten. Ten days of leave for one person might cover fewer shifts than for someone else, but the hours always match their own ordinary hours.

How personal leave accrues and carries over

Personal/carer's leave accrues progressively from the first day of employment, according to ordinary hours, and accumulates from year to year (s 96(2)). There's no ceiling and no "use it or lose it" rule. An employee who's rarely sick can build a balance of many weeks, which protects them if they ever face a serious illness. Probation doesn't delay accrual, although a new starter can only take what they've built up so far.

Payroll systems normally accrue sick leave each pay cycle. For a weekly-paid full-timer on 38 hours, that's 76 ÷ 52 = 1.4615 hours a week. For any employee, multiply ordinary hours actually worked or paid in the cycle by 1/26 (0.03846). Overtime hours don't count, because accrual follows ordinary hours.

According to the FWO, personal leave keeps accruing while an employee is on paid annual leave, paid sick or carer's leave, community service leave (including jury duty) and long service leave. It doesn't accrue during unpaid annual leave, unpaid sick or carer's leave, unpaid parental leave or unpaid family and domestic violence leave. Workers compensation absences depend on state or territory law.

When you can take sick leave and carer's leave

Section 97 allows paid personal/carer's leave in two situations.

Sick leave — when the employee isn't fit for work because of a personal illness or injury. The FWO notes this can include stress and pregnancy-related illness, and its own example involves menopause symptoms serious enough that a doctor advised two weeks off. Pre-arranged medical appointments and elective surgery are trickier: the FWO says they're only covered if the employee is actually unfit for work. A routine dental check-up on a day you'd otherwise be fit usually isn't sick leave; recovering from day surgery usually is.

Carer's leave — to care for or support a member of the employee's immediate family or household who needs care because of a personal illness, injury or an unexpected emergency. Immediate family means a spouse or former spouse, de facto partner or former de facto partner, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling, plus the same relatives of a spouse or de facto partner. Step-relations and adoptive relations count. A household member is anyone who lives with the employee.

"Unexpected emergency" isn't limited to illness. The FWO gives the example of having to collect a child from school unexpectedly. Whether a situation qualifies depends on how much warning the employee had, whether they could work from home or make other arrangements, and how old and independent the person needing care is.

There's no minimum or maximum amount that must be taken at once. An employee can take an hour to collect a sick child or several weeks for surgery, up to their balance.

Public holidays and FDV leave during sick leave

If a public holiday falls during a period of sick leave, section 98 says the employee isn't on sick leave that day. They're paid for the public holiday as normal, and it isn't deducted from the balance. The same applies if paid family and domestic violence leave overlaps. Our public holidays guide covers the 2026 dates.

If an employee falls sick during annual leave, they can switch those days to sick leave by giving notice and any evidence requested, which preserves their annual leave. See our annual leave guide.

Notice and evidence: medical certificates and statutory declarations

Section 107 sets the rules. The employee must tell the employer they're taking leave as soon as practicable — which can be after the leave has started — and say how long they expect to be away. If the employer asks, the employee must provide evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person that the leave was taken for a genuine reason.

What this means in practice, according to the FWO:

• An employer can ask for evidence for an absence of one day or less. There's no NES rule that evidence is only required after two or three days. Many workplaces choose not to ask for single days, but that's a policy choice.
• A medical certificate or a statutory declaration are both examples of acceptable evidence. The FWO's example involves an employee who couldn't get a doctor's appointment for a Monday cold and gave a statutory declaration instead — and was paid.
• An award or enterprise agreement can specify when evidence is needed and what type. The request must still be reasonable in the circumstances.
• If the employee doesn't give the notice or evidence requested, they may not be entitled to be paid for that leave.
• The FWO doesn't consider it reasonable for an employer to contact the employee's doctor or attend a medical appointment with them, unless the employee asks.

Evidence about health is personal information. If your business is covered by the Privacy Act, store certificates securely and only use them to decide the leave claim.

How to handle a sick leave request properly

1. 1

   Receive the notice

   Accept a call, text or email as soon as practicable — it can come after the shift starts. Note the expected period of leave.

2. 2

   Decide whether to ask for evidence

   Apply your policy consistently. You can ask even for one day, but the request must be reasonable.

3. 3

   Accept reasonable evidence

   A medical certificate or statutory declaration is normally enough. Don't contact the doctor.

4. 4

   Pay at the base rate

   Pay the ordinary hours the employee would have worked, at their base rate — not overtime they'd have worked.

5. 5

   Record and deduct the hours

   Deduct the hours from the balance, keep the record, and show leave on the payslip.

How sick leave is paid

Section 99 requires paid personal/carer's leave to be paid at the employee's base rate of pay for the ordinary hours they would have worked during the leave. Base rate excludes incentive payments, bonuses, loadings, monetary allowances, overtime and penalty rates. The FWO's example: an employee who works 9 to 5 but has done overtime until 7 pm every Wednesday for six months is paid only 9 to 5 if sick on a Wednesday.

Some awards and agreements are more generous and require penalty rates or all-purpose allowances to be paid during sick leave, so check the leave clause in the relevant instrument.

For super, the ATO lists sick, personal and carer's leave as ordinary time earnings, so the super guarantee of 12% applies to sick leave pay. On the payslip, sick leave hours should be shown separately — see our payslip requirements guide.

When employment ends, unused sick leave isn't paid out. The FWO says so directly, and the ATO confirms unused personal leave on termination isn't ordinary time earnings. This is the big difference from annual leave, which must be paid out in full.

Unpaid carer's leave, compassionate leave and FDV leave

Three other NES leave types sit alongside sick leave and cause most of the questions small employers get wrong.

Unpaid carer's leave. Every employee, including casuals, can take 2 days of unpaid carer's leave each time a family or household member needs care because of illness, injury or an unexpected emergency (s 102). Permanent employees can only use it once their paid personal leave has run out. It can be taken as one continuous period or in separate periods by agreement.

Compassionate (bereavement) leave. Every employee gets 2 days of compassionate leave per occasion (s 104) when an immediate family or household member dies or develops a life-threatening illness or injury, when a baby in the family or household is stillborn, or when the employee or their current spouse or de facto partner has a miscarriage. It's paid at base rate for full-time and part-time employees and unpaid for casuals. It doesn't come out of sick leave, doesn't accumulate and can't be cashed out. It can be taken as two consecutive days, two separate days or other periods by agreement. For other relatives such as cousins, it's available if they're part of the household or the employer agrees. The employer can ask for evidence such as a death or funeral notice.

Personal leave types compared

Leave type	Full-time and part-time	Casual	Paid at
Sick and carer's leave	10 days a year (pro rata), accumulates	None	Base rate
Unpaid carer's leave	2 days per occasion once paid leave runs out	2 days per occasion	Unpaid
Compassionate leave	2 days per occasion	2 days per occasion	Base rate (unpaid for casuals)
Family and domestic violence leave	10 days a year, resets	10 days a year, resets	Full rate

Sick and carer's leave

Full-time and part-time

10 days a year (pro rata), accumulates

Casual

None

Paid at

Base rate

Unpaid carer's leave

Full-time and part-time

2 days per occasion once paid leave runs out

Casual

2 days per occasion

Paid at

Unpaid

Compassionate leave

Full-time and part-time

2 days per occasion

Casual

2 days per occasion

Paid at

Base rate (unpaid for casuals)

Family and domestic violence leave

Full-time and part-time

10 days a year, resets

Casual

10 days a year, resets

Paid at

Full rate

Family and domestic violence leave. Since 2023, all employees — including casuals and part-timers in full — get 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave in each 12-month period (s 106A). It's available in full from day one, resets on the work anniversary and doesn't accumulate. Unlike sick leave it's paid at the full rate, including loadings and penalties, and casuals are paid for the hours they were rostered. Employers must keep any evidence confidential. If you or someone you know needs support, 1800RESPECT is on 1800 737 732.

Cashing out sick leave

Cashing out personal leave is far more restricted than annual leave. Section 100 says paid personal/carer's leave must not be cashed out except under terms in a modern award or enterprise agreement. Award and agreement-free employees can't cash it out at all — there's no equivalent of the section 94 agreement used for annual leave.

Where an award or agreement does allow it, section 101 requires that:

• the cash-out must leave the employee with at least 15 days of accrued personal/carer's leave;
• each cash-out needs a separate written agreement; and
• the employee is paid at least the full amount they'd have received for taking the leave.

Most modern awards don't include personal leave cash-out terms, so in practice this mostly arises under enterprise agreements. An employer also can't pressure an employee to agree; undue influence is prohibited by section 344.

Long-term illness and dismissal protection

What happens when an employee is off for months? The Fair Work Act protects employees from being dismissed because of a temporary absence due to illness or injury. Under regulation 3.01 of the Fair Work Regulations, an absence is protected if the employee provides evidence and either:

• the absence is less than 3 months in a row, or less than 3 months in total over the last 12 months; or
• the employee is still on paid sick leave.

The FWO points out that an employee who is on paid sick leave the whole time can't be dismissed because of the absence, however long it lasts. Protection under this rule ends only once the absence exceeds three months and paid personal leave is exhausted.

Even then, a dismissal isn't automatically lawful. State and territory workers compensation laws restrict dismissing injured workers — see our workers compensation guide. The employee may also bring an unfair dismissal claim, a general protections claim or a disability discrimination complaint. Before acting, get up-to-date medical information about capacity to return, consider reasonable adjustments, and document a fair process.

Worked examples in A$

These examples use an hourly base rate of A$30.00. Use the rate from your award's pay guide or the current minimum wage.

1. Full-time accrual and a two-day absence. Mia works 38 ordinary hours a week, Monday to Friday, in a Perth office. She accrues 76 hours a year (1.4615 hours a week). After eight months she has about 50.7 hours. She calls in sick on Tuesday and Wednesday and provides a medical certificate. She's paid 2 × 7.6 × A$30.00 = A$456.00, and 15.2 hours come off her balance. Super of 12% applies to the A$456.00.

2. Part-timer on long shifts. Sam works three 10-hour shifts a week (30 hours). His annual entitlement is 30 ÷ 26 × 52 = 60 hours. A single sick shift uses 10 hours and pays 10 × A$30.00 = A$300.00. If Sam had been rostered overtime after the shift, that overtime isn't paid during sick leave.

3. Carer's leave for a sick child. Priya's daughter wakes with a fever. Priya is permanent with 30 hours of personal leave left, so she takes a 7.6-hour day of paid carer's leave (A$228.00). Later in the year, with her paid balance exhausted, her father is hospitalised; she can take 2 days unpaid carer's leave for that occasion.

4. Compassionate leave for a casual. Jordan, a regular casual barista, is rostered on Thursday and Friday when his grandmother dies. He's entitled to 2 days of unpaid compassionate leave and can't be penalised for taking it. A permanent colleague in the same situation would be paid at base rate for those days.

5. Public holiday during sick leave. Mia is sick from Thursday 24 December to Tuesday 29 December 2026. Christmas Day (25 December) and the additional Boxing Day holiday (Monday 28 December) are public holidays where she works, so she's paid for those as public holidays. Only Thursday 24 and Tuesday 29 December — 15.2 hours — come off her sick leave balance.

Common sick leave mistakes

• Counting "days" instead of hours. A 12-hour sick shift uses 12 hours, not a tenth of the entitlement. Since Mondelez, payroll should accrue and deduct in hours.
• Refusing to pay without asking for evidence. If you didn't request evidence, you generally can't refuse to pay later. Set a clear, consistent policy.
• Demanding a doctor's certificate when a stat dec is reasonable. The FWO accepts statutory declarations where a certificate isn't practical, unless the award or agreement says otherwise.
• Deducting public holidays from the sick leave balance. A public holiday inside a period of sick leave is paid as a public holiday.
• Paying out unused sick leave on termination. It isn't payable unless a contract or agreement says so, and it's not ordinary time earnings.
• Treating compassionate leave as sick leave. It's a separate 2 days per occasion and doesn't reduce the balance.
• Forgetting casuals' rights. Casuals get unpaid carer's and compassionate leave and paid FDV leave — and adverse action for taking it is unlawful.

Sick and carer's leave compliance checklist

0/9

• Payroll accrues personal leave at 1/26 of ordinary hours, from day one
• Balances carry over with no cap; overtime excluded from accrual
• Written evidence policy that is reasonable and applied consistently
• Statutory declarations accepted where a certificate isn't practical
• Sick leave paid at base rate for ordinary hours (or more if the award says)
• Public holidays during sick leave paid as public holidays, not deducted
• Compassionate and FDV leave tracked separately from sick leave
• No cash-outs unless the award or agreement allows and 15 days remain
• Medical information stored confidentially

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Official links

• Sick and carer's leaveFair Work Ombudsman — overview
• Notice and medical certificatesFWO — evidence rules
• Compassionate and bereavement leaveFWO — 2 days per occasion
• Family and domestic violence leaveFWO — 10 days paid
• Leave CalculatorFWO — work out sick leave balances
• Fair Work Act 2009NES personal leave — sections 95–107

What to do next

Check that your payroll accrues personal leave in hours at 1/26 of ordinary hours, that it doesn't deduct public holidays, and that your evidence policy is written down and applied the same way to everyone. If an employee is expecting a baby, read our parental leave guide for unpaid leave and government Parental Leave Pay; if someone is leaving, our notice period guide explains what notice and final pay are owed — remembering that unused sick leave isn't paid out.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice — confirm on the official source or with a professional.

Frequently asked questions

How many sick days do you get in Australia?

Full-time employees get 10 days of paid personal/carer's leave for each year of service under the National Employment Standards. Part-time employees get the same entitlement pro rata to their ordinary hours. It accrues at 1/26 of ordinary hours worked — 76 hours a year for someone on 38 hours a week — and unused leave carries over from year to year with no cap.

Do I need a medical certificate for one sick day?

Your employer can ask for evidence for any absence, even a single day or part of a day, as long as the request is reasonable. Evidence must satisfy a reasonable person that you were genuinely unfit for work. A medical certificate or a statutory declaration usually works. If an award or enterprise agreement sets evidence rules, follow those. Without the evidence asked for, you may not be paid.

Do casual employees get sick leave?

Casual employees don't get paid sick or carer's leave — the casual loading compensates for that. But casuals are entitled to 2 days of unpaid carer's leave per occasion, 2 days of unpaid compassionate leave per occasion, and 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave a year. They can't be penalised for taking that leave.

Is sick leave paid out when you leave a job?

No. Unused personal/carer's leave isn't paid out when employment ends, whether you resign, are dismissed or are made redundant. The Fair Work Ombudsman confirms it simply lapses. An enterprise agreement or contract could provide otherwise, but that's rare. If you return to the same employer later, your previous balance doesn't come back unless there's a transfer of business or a contract term.

How much compassionate leave do you get in Australia?

Every employee, including casuals, gets 2 days of compassionate leave each time an immediate family or household member dies or develops a life-threatening illness or injury, a baby in the family is stillborn, or the employee or their partner has a miscarriage. It's paid at base rate for permanent staff and unpaid for casuals. It doesn't come out of sick leave.

Can my employer sack me for being on sick leave?

Not because of a temporary absence for illness or injury. Under Fair Work Regulations, an absence is protected if you provide evidence and the absence is less than 3 months in total in 12 months, or you're still using paid sick leave. Beyond that, other protections such as unfair dismissal, workers compensation and discrimination law may still apply.

Sources & verification

Figures on this page were checked against the sources below when it was last reviewed on 12 October 2026. Each rate and limit is stored once with its own official source and review date, and official update channels are monitored daily so changes are picked up. How we verify

1. 1.Paid sick and carer's leave — Fair Work Ombudsman · accessed 12 October 2026
2. 2.Notice and medical certificates — Fair Work Ombudsman · accessed 12 October 2026
3. 3.Compassionate and bereavement leave — Fair Work Ombudsman · accessed 12 October 2026
4. 4.Long periods of sick leave — Fair Work Ombudsman · accessed 12 October 2026
5. 5.Unpaid carer's leave and Payment for sick and carer's leave — Fair Work Ombudsman · accessed 12 October 2026
6. 6.Family and domestic violence leave — Fair Work Ombudsman · accessed 12 October 2026
7. 7.Fair Work Act 2009 — sections 95 to 107 (compilation C2026C00355 of 7 July 2026) — Federal Register of Legislation · accessed 12 October 2026
8. 8.List of payments that are ordinary time earnings — Australian Taxation Office · accessed 12 October 2026