There is no legal difference between sick leave and personal leave in Australia, because “sick leave” is not a separate entitlement. Under the National Employment Standards (NES), there is one combined entitlement — paid personal/carer’s leave — and sick days and carer’s days both come out of the same balance.
That single fact causes more Australian payroll errors than almost any other leave misunderstanding. Employers who set up two separate buckets end up granting 20 days a year instead of 10. Employees who assume they have “10 sick days plus carer’s leave” find out otherwise at exactly the wrong moment.
Key Takeaways
- The Fair Work Act 2009 creates one entitlement: paid personal/carer’s leave. “Sick leave” is a colloquial label for one of its two uses.
- Full-time employees get 10 days per year, accruing progressively from day one and accumulating with no cap — Fair Work Ombudsman.
- Ten days is the total for illness and caring combined — not 10 of each.
- Compassionate leave and family and domestic violence leave are genuinely separate entitlements.
Why “Sick Leave” Is Not a Legal Term in Australia
Australian workplace law inherited the phrase “sick leave” from pre-2010 state awards, and it stuck in everyday speech, payroll software labels, and job advertisements. The Fair Work Act never adopted it as a distinct entitlement.
What the Act actually creates, in Division 7 of Part 2-2, is paid personal/carer’s leave: a single accruing balance an employee may draw on for either of two reasons. The Fair Work Ombudsman uses the label “sick and carer’s leave” on its website, which is helpful but keeps the two-bucket myth alive.
The slash in “personal/carer’s” is doing real work. It signals one pool, two doors in.
Sick Leave vs Personal Leave: Is There a Difference in Practice?
The only difference is the reason you use the leave. The balance, the accrual, the pay rate, and the notice rules are identical.
| Used as “sick leave” | Used as “carer’s leave” | |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory name | Paid personal/carer’s leave | Paid personal/carer’s leave |
| Qualifying reason | You are unfit for work because of personal illness or injury | You care for or support an immediate family/household member who is ill, injured, or affected by an emergency |
| Comes from | The same 10-day balance | The same 10-day balance |
| Paid at | Base rate for ordinary hours | Base rate for ordinary hours |
| Accrual | Progressive, from day one | Progressive, from day one |
| Carries over | Yes, uncapped | Yes, uncapped |
The Fair Work Act defines immediate family broadly: spouse or de facto partner, child, parent, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling, and the equivalent relations of a spouse or de facto partner. A household member is anyone who genuinely lives with you, related or not.
How Much Personal/Carer’s Leave Do You Get?
Full-time employees accrue 10 days per year of service. For a standard 38-hour week, that is 76 hours. Part-time employees accrue the same 10 days pro rata against their ordinary hours, which is why hours — not days — is the safer unit to track.
Two properties make this entitlement unusual:
- It accrues from day one. There is no qualifying period. A new employee starts accruing personal/carer’s leave immediately.
- It accumulates without cap. Unlike some leave types that expire at year end, unused personal/carer’s leave carries forward indefinitely.
An employee who uses none of their 10 days in 2026 starts 2027 with 10 fresh days plus whatever they had left over from 2026 and every prior year.
Evidence Requirements
For absences of one day or less, an employer can require the employee to provide evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person — a medical certificate, a statutory declaration, or a doctor’s appointment confirmation.
For absences of more than one day, the employer can require a medical certificate or similar evidence. The Fair Work Ombudsman states that the evidence must be reasonable and the employer cannot demand a specific type of evidence if another type would reasonably suffice.
A statutory declaration (stat dec) is sufficient for both sick and carer’s use. An employee who is caring for a family member can provide a stat dec confirming the caring responsibility rather than a medical certificate for the family member.
Compassionate Leave Is a Separate Entitlement
Compassionate leave — also called bereavement leave — is genuinely distinct from personal/carer’s leave. Under the NES, an employee is entitled to 2 days of paid compassionate leave per occasion when an immediate family or household member dies or suffers a life-threatening illness or injury.
This is in addition to personal/carer’s leave, not drawn from it. An employee who takes personal/carer’s leave to care for a dying family member retains their full 10-day balance for the year and is still entitled to 2 days of compassionate leave when the death occurs.
Family and Domestic Violence Leave Is Also Separate
Since 1 February 2023, all employees (including casuals) have been entitled to 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave per year. This is a separate entitlement from personal/carer’s leave and does not affect the 10-day balance.
The leave is for situations where an employee needs to do something to deal with the impact of family and domestic violence, and it is impractical to do so outside ordinary hours of work. Evidence can be requested, but the Fair Work Act requires it to be a document or information that a reasonable person would consider is given for the purpose.
Common Payroll Mistakes
The most frequent errors employers make with personal/carer’s leave:
- Running two separate buckets. If your payroll system has “sick leave” and “carer’s leave” as distinct balances, you are likely granting 20 days when the law provides 10. Fix the system, not the balance.
- Requiring a medical certificate for carer’s use. A statutory declaration is sufficient. Requiring a medical certificate for a family member’s illness is unreasonable and may breach the employee’s privacy.
- Forgetting part-time accrual. Part-timers accrue the same 10 days pro rata. A 3-day-a-week employee accrues 6 days per year, not zero.
- Expiring unused leave. Personal/carer’s leave accumulates without limit. Any policy that says it expires at year end is unlawful.
How Leave Balance Helps
Leave Balance tracks personal/carer’s leave as a single combined balance, supports statutory declarations as evidence for both sick and carer’s use, and automatically calculates part-time accrual against ordinary hours. It removes the two-bucket error at the system level.
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