Final Pay: Everything You're Owed When You Leave a Job

The six components

Final pay is not one number. It is six possible parts added together. Check each one against your payslip.

1. Unpaid wages for time worked. Everything you earned up to your last day: ordinary hours, overtime, penalty rates and any shifts not yet paid. Compare the pay period end date with your actual last day.
2. Notice, worked or paid in lieu. Either you work out your notice period or your employer pays you for it instead. The National Employment Standards (NES) set the minimum: 1 week for under 1 year of service, 2 weeks for 1 to 3 years, 3 weeks for 3 to 5 years and 4 weeks beyond 5 years. You get an extra week if you are over 45 and have at least 2 years of service. Your contract or award may require more.
3. Unused annual leave. All accrued, unused annual leave is paid out when you leave. If your award provides 17.5% annual leave loading, it is added on top. Many awards include loading; some contracts do not, so check yours.
4. Long service leave. Long service leave comes from state and territory law, and sometimes from awards or agreements. Most schemes require a minimum period of service before anything is payable, and some pay a pro-rata amount on termination once you pass a set window. The rules depend on where you work.
5. Redundancy pay. If your role is genuinely redundant, meaning the job no longer needs doing, the NES provide redundancy pay on a scale from 4 weeks (1 year of service) to 16 weeks depending on how long you have worked there. Employers with fewer than 15 employees are generally exempt, which is the small-business exception.
6. Anything contractual. Bonuses, commissions, allowances and other entitlements promised in your contract or enterprise agreement. Whether they are payable on exit depends on the wording, so read the relevant clause.

A worked example

Take an employee with 5 years of service on a salary of $85,000 (about $1,634.62 a week), whose role is genuinely redundant. We have assumed exactly 5 years of service, which gives 3 weeks of notice under the NES scale, 10 weeks of redundancy pay, 3 weeks of unused annual leave with 17.5% loading, and 4.3333 weeks of long service leave (the NSW pro-rata entitlement at 5 years).

These are estimates. Your own balances, award and tax position will change the result. Run your own numbers in the Final Pay Calculator.

When it must be paid

Most awards require your final pay on your last day or within 7 days of your employment ending. The exact rule is in your award or agreement, so check it. Do not accept "it will go in next month's pay run" without confirming that your award allows it. If your employer has no good reason for a delay, ask for the payment date in writing.

Superannuation: the part people miss

Super is payable on the wages and notice you actually work. It is not payable on unused annual leave or long service leave paid out when you leave, so do not expect a super contribution on those lines. Payment in lieu of notice is also generally not super-bearing. Your last contribution is still due on the wages you did earn, so check your super fund account after your final pay date to confirm it arrived.

Deductions

Your employer can only take money out of your final pay where it is authorised: by you in writing, by your award or agreement, or by a law. A claimed "training debt", an unreturned uniform or a missing piece of equipment is not automatically deductible. If a deduction looks wrong, ask which authority allows it and request that in writing.

How final pay is taxed

Final pay is not taxed like a normal fortnightly payslip. Wages for time worked are taxed as usual, but the termination components follow ATO schedules. Leave lump sums can have withholding capped at 32% when they are paid as part of a genuine redundancy, and the redundancy pay itself has a tax-free part that depends on your years of service. Your employer withholds an estimate, and your actual liability is settled when you lodge your tax return. Our calculator shows an estimate only. The detail of the tax-free limit is in the redundancy tax-free limit guide.

Before you finish: a short checklist

In your last week, confirm your last day in writing, ask for your leave balances (annual and long service) and check how your employer plans to calculate each one. Ask when final pay will be made and whether notice will be worked or paid out. Make a note of any bonus, commission or allowance you believe is owing. Doing this before you leave makes it much easier to spot a gap on your final payslip, because you already know what you expected to see. You can also run the figures through the Annual Leave Calculator and the Long Service Leave Calculator to compare them with what you are offered.

If it's wrong

Start with your final payslip and go through it line by line against the six components above. If something is missing or too low, ask payroll to explain or correct it in writing and keep a copy. If that does not fix it, the Fair Work Ombudsman can help you recover underpayments. For the methods behind our estimates, see the methodology page, or compare your numbers with the Redundancy Pay Calculator and the Notice Period Calculator.

Frequently asked questions