Leave payout calculator

This calculator works out how much money your employer owes you for annual leave you did not take before your employment ended. It converts your monthly salary into a daily rate, counts the leave days you have built up, subtracts the days you used, and multiplies what is left by the daily rate. It is for anyone in South Africa who is resigning, has been dismissed, is being retrenched, or whose fixed-term contract is ending, and who wants to check the leave line on a final payslip.

The figure is a statutory minimum. The Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997, usually called the BCEA, sets the floor. Your contract, a bargaining council agreement or a company policy may give you more, and if it does the higher entitlement applies.

What this calculator works out and who it is for

Annual leave is the paid holiday time the law guarantees every employee. While you are still employed you must take it as time off. The law does not let an employer buy it back with cash. The one exception is the day your employment ends. On that day, leave that has accrued and has not been taken becomes money, payable with your final wages.

You enter five things: your gross monthly salary, whether you work a five-day or a six-day week, how many months you have worked in the current leave cycle, how many leave days you have already taken in that cycle, and how many days you carried over from earlier cycles. The tool returns your daily rate, the days accrued this cycle, the days owed, and the rand amount.

Use it if you are an employee about to leave, a small employer preparing a final payslip, or a union representative checking a settlement. It does not apply to independent contractors, who are not employees under the BCEA, or to employees who work fewer than 24 hours a month for an employer, because the leave chapter of the Act does not cover them.

How the calculation works

The service runs a short, fixed sequence. Here it is in words, in the order the code runs it.

First, it chooses the working pattern. The LawMatch rate table gives a five-day week 15 working days of leave per 12-month cycle and 260 working days a year. It gives a six-day week 18 working days of leave per cycle and 312 working days a year. Both are the working-day equivalent of the 21 consecutive days the Act guarantees.

Second, it works out your daily rate. It multiplies your monthly salary by twelve, then divides by 260 on a five-day week or 312 on a six-day week. The result is the value of one working day.

Third, it works out the leave accrued in the current cycle. It takes the full entitlement for your week type, 15 or 18 days, multiplies it by the months you have worked in the cycle, and divides by twelve. Six months on a five-day week is 7.5 days. The tool accepts half months and rounds to two decimals.

Fourth, it adds the days you carried over from earlier cycles and subtracts the days you have already taken this cycle. If that sum falls below zero, the tool shows zero. It never shows a negative balance.

Fifth, it multiplies the days owed by the daily rate and rounds to the cent. That is the headline figure.

The tool adds two warnings where they apply. If you have taken more leave than has accrued plus what you carried over, it warns that an employer may only recover the excess if your contract allows it. If your carried-over balance is bigger than one full cycle, it warns that leave must normally be taken within six months after the end of its cycle and that an employer may dispute old balances. Read that warning together with the forfeiture rule explained below: the tool adds whatever carry-over you enter, but statutory leave that was not taken within the six months may already have been forfeited.

The law behind the numbers

Three parts of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 drive this calculator, and the rate table names them as its source.

The first part sets the entitlement. Every employee gets at least 21 consecutive days of annual leave on full pay in each 12-month leave cycle, or, by agreement, one day of leave for every 17 days worked. The cycle runs for twelve months from the day you start, or from the end of your previous cycle. Twenty-one consecutive days is three calendar weeks, which is 15 working days on a five-day week and 18 on a six-day week.

The second part sets the pay. Leave pay is the remuneration you would have received for working over the same period. Remuneration is wider than basic salary. It includes regular allowances that form part of your pay, which is why the tool asks for gross salary including them.

The third part deals with termination. When employment ends, the employer must pay the employee for any leave that accrued and was not taken, including leave accrued in the current, incomplete cycle. This rule is what turns unused days into money and why the pro rata step exists.

The Act also says, in section 20(4), that leave must be granted no later than six months after the end of the cycle in which it accrued. The Labour Court has held that this works both ways. In Jooste v Kohler Packaging (2004), Ludick v Rural Maintenance (2014) 2 BLLR 178 (LC) and Hartley v SMD Trading Group CC [2024] ZALCD 16, it found that statutory annual leave not taken within that six-month period is forfeited. Leave that has not been forfeited must still be paid out on termination under section 40. Where you asked for leave and the employer refused it, the position is arguably different, because an employer should not benefit from its own refusal, but no higher court has settled the point. Extra leave given by your contract, and any agreed carry-over, is governed by the contract or policy rather than by the six-month rule.

The leave figures in the rate table carry an effective date of 1 January 2019. They change only when the Act is amended, but check the current position if your payout is contested.

Worked example

This example is illustrative. Sipho earns R26 000 a month, works a five-day week, and resigns six months into his leave cycle. In that cycle he has already taken two days. He also has three days he never used from the previous cycle, which his employer's leave policy allows him to carry over.

His daily rate is R26 000 multiplied by twelve, which is R312 000, divided by 260 working days. That comes to R1 200 a day.

His accrued leave this cycle is 15 working days multiplied by six months, divided by twelve. That is 7.5 days.

The days owed are 7.5 accrued, plus 3 carried over, less 2 taken. That is 8.5 days.

His leave payout is 8.5 days at R1 200, which is R10 200.

If Sipho worked a six-day week instead, his daily rate would be R312 000 divided by 312, which is R1 000. His accrual would be 18 days multiplied by six over twelve, which is 9 days, and his days owed would be 10. The payout would be R10 000. More days at a lower daily rate gives a similar total.

If his contract gave him 20 working days a year rather than 15, the tool would not know that. Add the difference to the carried-over field, or use the balance on your payslip.

What the calculator does not include

The real figure on your final payslip may differ from the calculator's result for several reasons.

Commission and variable pay are not modelled. If a large part of your remuneration is commission, overtime or shift allowances, the daily rate must reflect what you actually earn, usually by averaging over a recent period. The tool uses a flat monthly figure divided by working days.

Sick leave and family responsibility leave are not paid out. Only annual leave converts to cash on termination. Unused sick leave is simply lost.

Public holidays are not added. If a public holiday falls inside a period of annual leave, the law extends the leave by that day, but the calculator does not count public holidays anywhere.

Tax is not deducted. Leave pay is taxed as ordinary income in your final payslip. The tool shows the gross figure.

Any better entitlement in your contract, policy or bargaining council agreement is not applied automatically.

Notice pay, severance pay and any pro rata bonus are separate lines. For a full package, use the retrenchment package calculator or the notice period calculator.

When to get advice

Get advice if any of these apply to you.

Your final payslip shows no leave line at all, or a balance far below what you calculated. Ask for the leave records. Employers must keep a written record of leave taken.

Your employer says leave "expired" or was "forfeited" because you did not take it within six months of the cycle end, and you had asked for the leave and been refused, or your contract or policy allowed you to carry it over.

Your employer has deducted money for leave you supposedly took in advance, and you never agreed to that in writing.

You are being asked to sign a document accepting the final figure in full and final settlement.

The free route is the Department of Employment and Labour. Unpaid leave pay is a BCEA claim, and you can lodge a complaint at your nearest Labour Centre, where an inspector can order the employer to pay. You can also refer a claim for money owed under the BCEA to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, the CCMA, on 0861 16 16 16. Referring a dispute to the CCMA is free and you may represent yourself. If you cannot afford an attorney, Legal Aid South Africa on 0800 110 110 may be able to help, and our legal aid page explains who qualifies.

For the wider picture, read our guides on whether you get paid for unused leave when you leave a job, the notice period when you resign and how to claim UIF after being retrenched.

LawMatch is not a law firm and this page is general information, not legal advice. Confirm the figure with your payslip, the Department of Employment and Labour or an attorney before you make decisions.

Frequently asked questions

Do I get paid for leave if I resign?

Yes. The rule that unused annual leave is paid on termination does not depend on why the employment ended. Resignation, dismissal, retrenchment and the end of a fixed-term contract all trigger the payout.

Can my employer refuse to pay out leave older than six months?

Often, yes. The Labour Court has held that statutory annual leave not taken within six months after the end of its cycle is forfeited, so a large old balance may not be payable. If you asked for the leave and your employer refused, there is a reasonable argument that it was not forfeited, but no higher court has settled that, and leave carried over by written agreement is governed by that agreement. Get advice if a large old balance is being refused in those circumstances.

What if I took more leave than I earned?

If you took leave in advance and left before it accrued, the employer may only recover the overpayment if you agreed to that in writing, and any deduction must stay within the limits the law allows. The calculator shows zero days owed rather than a negative figure, and displays a warning.

Is leave pay taxed?

Yes. Leave pay is remuneration and is taxed as ordinary income in the month it is paid. The calculator shows the gross amount before tax.

My salary includes commission. Which figure do I enter?

Enter your total regular remuneration, including commission and allowances that form part of your pay. If your commission varies widely from month to month, the daily rate should really be an average over a recent period, which the calculator cannot do for you.