Annual leave balance calculator: how much leave you have now
Put in your start date, your weeks of leave a year, the days in your working week and the leave you have taken. The calculator counts the leave reached at each anniversary of your start date, takes off what you have used, and shows your balance and when the next four weeks arrive.
Worked out for the example. Change the boxes to make it yours.
| Started | Monday 13 February 2023 |
|---|---|
| Anniversaries reached | 3 (the latest 13 Feb 2026) |
| Leave at each anniversary (4 weeks of 5 days) | 20 days |
| Leave reached so far | 60 days |
| Leave taken or cashed up | 42 days |
| Your balance | 18 days |
| Next anniversary, 13 Feb 2027 | adds 20 days |
| Building towards it, not yours until then | about 12.9 days |
- A week of annual leave is your own working week: four weeks for someone who works three days a week is 12 days.
- From 6 August 2028 the Employment Leave Act 2026 replaces anniversaries: leave builds up by the hour from your first day, at least 0.0769 of an hour for each standard hour (s 24).
Your Career keeps your balance and counts it forward: each anniversary adds your weeks and the leave you log comes off. Part of the Career and Timesheets plan, after asking.
How annual leave is reached today
Under section 16 of the Holidays Act 2003, you are entitled to at least four weeks' paid annual holidays after each completed 12 months of continuous employment. The leave does not build up day by day: nothing is yours until the anniversary of your start date, and then the whole four weeks arrive at once. A week is your own working week (section 17), so someone working three days a week gets 12 days at each anniversary, and someone working five days gets 20. The calculator counts the anniversaries between your start date and the date you choose, multiplies them by your weeks and days, and takes off the leave you have used. Agreed unpaid leave of more than a week can push your anniversaries back (section 16(2)(b)), so if you have had any, check the dates on your payslip.
Leave in advance, and leaving before a year
Your employer can agree to let you take some leave before you are entitled to it (section 20), and it comes off your next entitlement. The calculator shows that as leave taken in advance. If you leave a job before your first anniversary, you have no annual holidays to be paid out: your final pay includes 8% of your gross earnings instead (section 23). Our page on what final pay must include covers the rest. The figure shown as building towards your next anniversary is a guide to how close it is, not leave you can take.
Taking the leave you have
Your employer must let you take your annual holidays within 12 months of the anniversary that brought them, must not unreasonably refuse a request, and must let you take two weeks in one go if you ask (section 18). If you cannot agree on dates, your employer can require you to take leave with 14 days' notice (section 19). Our article on whether your employer can make you take annual leave covers closedowns. Unused leave carries on until you take it or it is paid out.
From 6 August 2028: leave by the hour
The Employment Leave Act 2026 replaces the Holidays Act on 6 August 2028. From then, annual leave builds up by the hour from your first day, at least 0.0769 of an hour of leave for each standard hour (section 24), and your employer converts the leave you hold into hours. Until then, this calculator follows today's rules. What the Employment Leave Act changes sets out the rest.
Questions
How much annual leave do I get in NZ?
At least four weeks after each completed 12 months with the same employer (Holidays Act 2003, section 16). The weeks are your own working weeks, so four weeks of a three-day week is 12 days.
Does annual leave accrue each pay in New Zealand?
Not under today's law. The four weeks arrive together on each anniversary of your start date. From 6 August 2028, under the Employment Leave Act 2026, leave builds up by the hour instead.
Can I take annual leave before my first year?
Only if your employer agrees to leave in advance (section 20). What you take comes off the four weeks you get at your first anniversary.
What happens to my annual leave if I leave in the first year?
You are paid 8% of your gross earnings since you started, less any leave you took in advance, in your final pay (section 23).
What happens when I save the balance?
Your account fills in your leave balances in Your Career, after asking, and counts forward from there: each anniversary adds your weeks and the leave you log comes off. Your Career is part of the Career and Timesheets plan, with a 7-day free trial.
Sources
- Holidays Act 2003, sections 16 to 23.
- Employment Leave Act 2026, sections 2 and 24.
- Employment New Zealand: annual holidays.
- Employment New Zealand: taking annual holidays.
- Employment New Zealand: Employment Leave Act 2026.
More free tools: see all the calculators.