I’m new to Australia and have started working full time since 19 January 2026. Originally from the UK.
I had to take 3 days personal leave due to a minor surgery on my leg. I’m fine now but I’m trying to work out your friggin personal leave system. A few questions:
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Full time worker: Am I entitled to the 10 days personal leave once I start or do I have to accrue it? My contract says I’m entitled to 10 days but I don’t know if that means I get it straight away or if I have to accumulate it for a year.
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Are the hours in YTD is what is my accumulated leave to date? Note that this is for the period from 16.2 to 1.3
Thanks.
Source: Impressive_Print_169
7 Comments
It’s 10 days per year, not straight away.
Personal leave accumulates over time. So by the end of the year as a full time worker you’ll have accrued 10 days. See fairwork.gov.au
You accumulate the 10 days through the year – so don’t have it yet – if you used none of it then you would have10 days to use at year end.
Yes – in YTD is total hours you have to use, so you have a touch under 9 hours and accumulating 2.92 more per pay period by the looks.
Welcome to Australia! Let’s break this down step by step so you can understand how personal leave (sick leave) works for a full-time employee here.
1. Personal leave entitlement for full-time employees
Under the Fair Work Act 2009:
Full-time employees are entitled to 10 days of paid personal/carer’s leave per year.
This leave accrues progressively — it is not automatically 10 days on day one, unless your contract specifically states otherwise.
How it works in practice
You start accruing leave from your first day of employment.
Accrual is proportional to the time worked.
Example: If you start on 19 Jan 2026, by 1 March 2026 you’ve worked ~6 weeks.
You’ve accrued roughly:
So you cannot usually take more than you’ve accrued, unless your employer allows “advance leave” as a benefit.
Many contracts will say: “You’re entitled to 10 days per year,” but legally you still accrue it gradually.
2. Understanding the payslip numbers
You mentioned your payslip shows something like this (simplified):
DESCRIPTION
HOURS
CALC. RATE
AMOUNT
YTD
Base Wages
76.0
Wages
17.54
8.77 5.85 2.92
Personal Leave Accrual
?
?
?
?
Key points
YTD = Year to Date
This shows your total accrued or earned amounts so far in the financial year.
For personal leave, YTD usually shows how much leave you’ve accrued.
Example: If it says 2.92, that could mean 2.92 hours of personal leave accrued.
Accruals are usually shown in hours, not days, because full-time employees have a set weekly hour standard (usually 38 hours/week).
So 10 days × 7.6 hours/day = 76 hours per year.
Each pay period, you accrue a portion of your annual entitlement:
That matches your payslip showing 2.92 hours accrued — exactly one pay period of personal leave accrual.
3. Taking leave before full accrual
If you take 3 days personal leave early in your employment, your employer may allow it in advance, but technically you may have negative leave until you accrue it.
Most employers allow short-term absences without issue, but it’s good to confirm.
Summary
Full-time workers accrue personal leave gradually.
Legal entitlement: 10 days/year (~76 hours).
Accrual starts from day one, proportional to time worked.
Your payslip shows how much you’ve accrued YTD (e.g., 2.92 hours per pay period).
YTD accrual = accumulated leave so far
For your first 6 weeks: you’ve likely accrued ~3–4 hours/week × number of weeks.
Your 3-day surgery leave
If your employer allowed it, it may be advanced leave; otherwise, it will be deducted as accrued leave over future pay periods.
If you want, I can calculate exactly how many hours of personal leave you’ve accrued since 19 Jan 2026 and how much you can still take safely, based on a full-time 38-hour week. This will make it super clear.
Do you want me to do that?
You accrue leave each pay cycle, which is what you see happening in the leftmost column. If you’ve not used any of your leave since starting this job, the accumulated amount is probably in the YTD (year to date) column
Personal leave is accrued per pay period, so you start with no personal leave.
YTD figure is accrued personal leave in the Year To Date, so roughly 1.1 workdays of personal leave every 6/7 pay periods from what I can see.
Employers are allowed (but not obligated) to allow negative personal leave (taking more days than accrued). You can apply for this and its approved or denied at employer discretion.
If you already took the leave and had surgery, YTD may continue positive on pay slip (as its still being earned) but actually be immediately paying off the ‘debt’ from negative personal leave being taken, so you wouldn’t have leave accruing for a few months in that scenario.
That’s an MYOB payslip. MYOB shows the current balance on the right hand side as what leave is available. It’s extremely badly implemented, because it looks like a YTD figure.