Aussie workers sitting on 209m days of annual leave

On average, Aussie workers have accrued 14.3 days of annual leave, adding up to a total of over 200 million days across the nation, research has found.

Roy Morgan research revealed that 9.7 million Australian workers have accrued a total of 209 million days of annual leave. In a series of interviews conducted by Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), an annual average of 28,902 Australians over the age of 14 were interviewed between April 2018 and September 2025, revealing Australia’s annual leave habits.

A changing workforce

The research found that Aussies went from accruing 150 million days of annual leave in September 2020 to 200 million days in September 2023, before a record peak at 216 million days in March 2025, back down slightly to 209 million in September 2025.

Michele Levine, chief executive at Roy Morgan, noted that on average, Aussies have two more days of unclaimed annual leave (14.3 days) compared to the pre-pandemic (12.3 days).

The research noted that levels of full-time employment – in which most annual leave is accrued – is falling, and part-time employment is rising. Levine said: “The overall level of accrued annual leave has generally increased due to a rapidly expanding workforce post-pandemic.”

Pandemic impacts

The biggest jump was in the number of workers who currently have less than two weeks of usable annual leave (2 million), up from 1.8 million Aussie workers two years ago. Additionally, 5.2 million workers (34.7 per cent) in paid employment had no annual leave left.

Despite many Aussies depleting their annual leave entitlements, Levine noted a large spike in accrued annual leave during the pandemic years (2020–2022), “as Australians were forced to stay at home and weren’t allowed to travel internationally, and for much of this time not even allowed to travel interstate either”.

“The annual leave Australians have accrued soared from 2020–2023 and has continued to rise during 2023–2025 during a protracted cost-of-living crisis for many Australians. Only recently have the increases in annual leave days due stalled – due to a change in employment composition,” Levin said.

‘Excessive’ leave balance

Roy Morgan’s data revealed that 1.51 million Aussie workers currently have “excessive” annual leave, down from 1.59 million two years ago. Under the National Employment Standards in the Fair Work Act 2009, employers are permitted to direct employees to take annual leave if they have accrued “excessive” annual leave, which equates to more than eight weeks (or 10 weeks if they are a shift worker).

Burnout recovery expert Nick Orchard (pictured) stressed the importance for managers to “model the behaviour that they want to see”.

“If the people at the top aren’t taking real breaks, neither will anyone else,” he added.

Orchard said that annual leave must involve “real disconnection”. He suggested that workers set boundaries, establish backup plans, and employers encourage a culture “that doesn’t punish people for switching off.”

With the nation’s annual leave bank reaching heights in early this year, Orchard found that workers cited that workload and cost-of-living pressures caused them to avoid taking leave.

“In other words, they’re not choosing rest – they’re choosing survival. And that’s a dangerous tightrope to walk,” Orchard said.