Final pay calculator Australia 2026–27: redundancy, notice, leave, long service leave and tax

How your final pay is built

Final pay is not one rule but five, from three different sources of law: the Fair Work Act (NES), your state’s long service leave Act, and the tax law. The calculator stacks them:

1. Redundancy pay (NES): 4 to 16 weeks of base pay by years of continuous service, only for genuine redundancy, and not for small-business employers.
2. Notice: 1 to 4 weeks by service, plus 1 week if you are over 45 with at least 2 years. Paid in lieu if you do not work it.
3. Unused annual leave: every accrued day is paid at your base rate, plus 17.5% loading where your award or agreement provides it.
4. Long service leave: 8.67 weeks after 10 years in NSW, QLD, WA and TAS; 13 weeks in SA and NT; 6.07 weeks after 7 years in VIC and ACT; with pro-rata rules that depend on why the job ended.
5. Tax: the tax-free part of a genuine redundancy ($13,598 + $6,801 per completed year in 2026–27), the ETP rate on the excess (32% under 60, 17% over), and 32% on leave paid out on redundancy.

A worked case: $90,000, 8 years, age 47, NSW, 12 days of leave

A weekly base rate of $1,731 and eight completed years put this employee in the 14-week band of the NES scale: $24,231 of redundancy pay. Being over 45 with more than two years of service adds a week to the four weeks of notice, so notice in lieu is $8,654. Twelve days of unused annual leave at the daily rate come to $4,154. In New South Wales, eight years is past the five-year pro-rata threshold and the employer ended the job, so long service leave is payable: $12,000 for 6.93 accrued weeks. The gross final pay is $49,039. The tax-free limit for eight completed years is $68,006, which covers the redundancy and notice components entirely; the leave components are withheld at 32%, $5,169, leaving a net of $43,870.

Worked examples 2026–27

Genuine redundancy, age 45, notice paid in lieu, 10 days of unused annual leave, no loading.

Two things stand out. The 10-year row in Queensland shows the NES quirk: redundancy drops from 16 to 12 weeks at ten years, but long service leave becomes payable in full, so the total still rises. And the 12-year row in South Australia shows the effect of the most generous state scheme, 13 weeks after ten years, which alone adds more than a month of pay.

What makes a redundancy genuine

Almost everything in the calculation hinges on one question: is the redundancy genuine? Under section 389 of the Fair Work Act, a redundancy is genuine when the employer no longer requires the job to be performed by anyone because of changes in operational requirements, and the employer has complied with any consultation obligations in the applicable award or agreement. If the job still exists and someone else is doing it, or if redeployment within the business or an associated entity was reasonable and not offered, it is not a genuine redundancy, and the employee may bring an unfair dismissal claim within 21 days. For tax, the ATO applies a related but separate test: the dismissal must be caused by the position being abolished, the employee must be under pension age, and the payment must exceed what would have been paid on voluntary resignation. Only then does the tax-free limit apply.

Long service leave: eight laws, one country

Each state page explains the termination rules in detail: NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, TAS, ACT, NT.

Long service leave is the entitlement most often left off a final payslip, because it is state law rather than federal and because the pro-rata rules between the threshold and the full entitlement depend on why the employment ended. In Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory, pro-rata leave is paid on any termination once the threshold is reached. In New South Wales, Queensland, Tasmania and the ACT, it is paid only when the employer ends the employment (other than for serious misconduct) or the employee leaves for illness, incapacity or domestic or other pressing necessity. A resignation to take another job at eight years in Sydney pays nothing; the same resignation in Melbourne pays six weeks.

Key values 2026–27

Popular calculations

• Final pay on a $50,000 salary
• Final pay on a $60,000 salary
• Final pay on a $70,000 salary
• Final pay on a $80,000 salary
• Final pay on a $90,000 salary
• Final pay on a $100,000 salary
• Final pay on a $120,000 salary
• Final pay on a $150,000 salary

• Redundancy pay after 1 year
• Redundancy pay after 2 years
• Redundancy pay after 3 years
• Redundancy pay after 5 years
• Redundancy pay after 7 years
• Redundancy pay after 10 years
• Redundancy pay after 15 years

From notice to payment: what happens and when

1. Consultation. Every modern award and most enterprise agreements require the employer to consult once it has decided on a major change likely to cause redundancies: the reasons, the likely effects and measures to avert them, including redeployment. Skipping this step can turn a genuine redundancy into an unfair dismissal.
2. Written notice of the termination date, or payment in lieu. The notice period runs from the day after the notice is given.
3. Final pay within seven days of the end of employment under most awards, or on the next scheduled pay day, with a payslip showing each component separately.
4. Income statement in myGov through Single Touch Payroll, showing the ETP with its code (R for a genuine redundancy, O for other) and the tax-free amount. You need it to lodge your tax return.
5. Separation certificate for Centrelink if you intend to claim JobSeeker, which is subject to an income maintenance period equal to the number of weeks the redundancy and leave payouts represent.
6. Disputes: underpayment claims go to the Fair Work Ombudsman or the Federal Circuit Court; unfair dismissal applications to the Fair Work Commission within 21 days.

Notice and annual leave: the two everyone gets

Notice applies to every permanent employee, whatever the reason for termination other than serious misconduct: one week for up to a year of service, two weeks for one to three years, three weeks for three to five, four weeks beyond, plus a week for employees over 45 with at least two years. If the employer chooses payment in lieu, it must equal the full amount you would have earned working the period, including allowances, loadings and overtime that would have been payable. Unused annual leave accrues at four weeks a year (five for some shift workers), never expires, and must be paid out in full on termination at the rate you would have received had you taken it, which includes leave loading where the award provides it. The guides on notice and annual leave go into the detail.

Tax: three regimes on one payslip

The ATO treats the components of a final pay differently. Redundancy pay and notice in lieu on a genuine redundancy are tax-free up to a limit that depends on completed years of service, and the excess is an employment termination payment taxed at a concessional rate up to the ETP cap. Unused annual leave and long service leave paid out on a genuine redundancy are withheld at a flat 32%, which is often less than the marginal rate on a large lump sum. On a resignation or ordinary dismissal, none of the concessions apply: leave is taxed at marginal rates on top of the year’s salary, and any ex gratia payment is a non-excluded ETP subject to the whole-of-income cap. The calculator applies the right regime from the reason for termination you select; the tax-free limit guide explains each threshold.

7 things to check on your final payslip

1. Base rate, not loaded rate: NES redundancy and notice use ordinary base pay; but annual leave is paid at what you would have earned, including loading.
2. Completed years for the tax-free limit: 9 years and 11 months counts as 9.
3. Your award may be more generous than the NES: redundancy scales in some awards and enterprise agreements exceed 16 weeks.
4. Long service leave pro-rata: if you are between 7 and 10 years, the reason for termination decides whether it is paid.
5. Superannuation is payable on annual leave and LSL paid out in some cases, not on genuine redundancy or notice in lieu (ETP).
6. Payment summary: your employer must issue an ETP payment summary; check the tax-free amount is shown separately.
7. Continuous service: unpaid leave and periods as a casual before conversion may not count; check the start date used.

Common errors in final payslips

Three mistakes account for most underpayment claims after a redundancy. Redundancy pay calculated on the current part-time rate when the employee was full-time for most of the service period, where the award or agreement requires an average; the NES itself uses the current base rate, so check which instrument applies. Long service leave omitted because the employer assumed a ten-year threshold applied in every state. And notice in lieu paid at the base rate without the allowances and penalty rates the employee would have received. Each of these can be checked against the figures the calculator produces, and each is recoverable for up to six years.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from one of these official sources, read on 2026-09-16. Parameters apply to the 2026-27 financial year, 2026-07-01 to 2027-06-30.

• Fair Work Ombudsman — redundancy pay and entitlements under the National Employment Standards
• Fair Work Ombudsman — notice of termination and final pay
• ATO — genuine redundancy payments and the tax-free limit
• ATO — Schedule 11, PAYG withholding on employment termination payments
• ATO — income tax rates for Australian residents
• Long service leave — the eight Acts applied by the calculator: NSW — Long Service Leave Act 1955 (NSW) · VIC — Long Service Leave Act 2018 (Vic) · QLD — Industrial Relations Act 2016 (Qld) · WA — Long Service Leave Act 1958 (WA) · SA — Long Service Leave Act 1987 (SA) · TAS — Long Service Leave Act 1976 (Tas) · ACT — Long Service Leave Act 1976 (ACT) · NT — Long Service Leave Act 1981 (NT)