Should I be licensed to charge during the holiday period? Here’s how to check and calculate your potential additional earnings.

Full-time and part-time workers are entitled to annual leave in Australia.

However, in certain industries, employees may receive additional pay on top of their annual leave pay: holiday loading.

Here’s how permit charging works, who’s entitled to them, and how to calculate how much extra you could get in your pocket.

What is laying down the burden?

Under Australian law, every worker is entitled to at least four weeks (20 working days) of paid annual leave, but some employees receive additional pay on top of your base salary when you take annual leave.

This additional payment is known as leave loading.

Is intended to compensate workersparticularly those who work overtime and shifts, for additional expenses incurred during annual leave.

Unlike paid licenses, license charging is It is not an automatic right.

How much is the license charging?

According to the Fair Work Ombudsman, the licensing burden is often a additional 17.5 percent in addition to an employee’s normal salary.

However, some awards, for example the General Retail Industry Award, state that the annual leave burden is 17.5 per cent of the base salary or the relevant weekend penalty rate, whichever is greater.

How to calculate license burden

To calculate your vacation load, you can use this formula:

Number of weeks of annual leave taken x 17.5 percent x employee’s weekly salary

Here is an example using the above formula:

Tom has accumulated three weeks on paid annual leave and wants to go on vacation.

Your base salary is $800 per week.

3 x 17.5 percent x $800 = $420 — That’s how much Tom gets for laying down the load..

Tom’s three weeks’ annual pay (excluding licensing fees) is $2,400.

If you add the $420 (license fee), your total annual leave pay is $2,820.

Here is another example of the Ombudsman analyzing workers who receive fines on weekends:

Katya works 5 hours each day from Tuesday to Saturday, which makes a total of 25 hours a week. Her minimum hourly wage is $20 per hour. She also gets paid a 25 percent weekend fine on Saturday. Her salary on Saturdays is $25 an hour.

Minimum weekly payment without weekend penalties

25 hours x $20 = $500

Minimum weekly salary plus license fee

$500 + 17.5 percent = $587.50

Minimum weekly payment plus weekend fines

20 hours x $20 = $400

5 hours x $25 = $125

= $525

Katya’s minimum weekly wage plus the leave charge is greater than her minimum weekly wage plus weekend fines.

Katya is paid $587.50 for her week of annual leave.

When is the loading license paid?

The annual leave burden is generally paid at the same time as your annual leave pay – usually before, during or after your free time.

Who is allowed to charge?

The annual leave charge is a legal right in most industry awards – so it only applies to workers employed under those awards.

An award agreement is a legal document that establishes minimum wage rates for a particular industry.

Some common industries with awards that entitle employees to annual leave charges include construction and building, manufacturing, hospitalityand real estate.

The right to annual leave pay may also be stipulated in company agreements, employment contracts or other registered agreements between a worker and his or her employer.

If you are unsure whether you are entitled to receive leave charging, check your employee’s entitlement or contact the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Is the leave charge payable upon termination of employment?

Yeah.

Annual leave burden that accrues and is not used is paid when employment ends.

This is what the Ombudsman says:

The employee is entitled to the same annual leave pay upon dismissal as they would have received if they had taken the period of leave.

This includes any applicable annual leave loading, penalty rates or shift loading. The amount of annual leave is calculated in the same way at the time of dismissal as during employment.

Be sure to check that you have received the correct sum and all final payments to which you are entitled.

Can my employer force me to take annual leave during the holiday closure period?

It depends.

About him Fair Work Ombudsman websitethere is a clear outline of which employees must take annual leave during a closure and which must not.

Here’s a quick summary:

An employer may direct its employees to take annual leave while the business closes for the holidays if its award or registered agreement allows it. However, there are rules surrounding this.
If the award or agreement allows it, employees can agree with their employer to take annual leave before it has been accrued or take unpaid leave, this is if they do not have enough annual leave to cover a closure.
If an award or agreement does not have closure rules, employers cannot order employees to take annual leave.

How to make the most of your Christmas holidays

And while we’re on the topic of annual holidays, here’s how to organize a long summer holiday over Christmas 2023 and New Year’s 2024 without using up too much holiday.

Most people are granted three public holidays during this period: Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

You can get a 10 day break off work (December 23 to January 1) for taking only three days off from December 27 to 29.

When do school holidays start?

With the holiday period just around the corner, that can only mean one thing: the end of the fourth term and the start of the Christmas school holidays.

Here’s when the first day of the holiday begins in each state and territory:

QLD— Saturday December 9
WA— Friday December 15
ACT, NT and SA – Saturday December 16
New south Wales- Wednesday, December 20
VIC— Thursday December 21
TAS— Friday December 22