Australians letting leave go begging

Compared to their global counterparts, Australian workers are letting annual leave entitlements go unclaimed.

Analysis of over 4,500 full-time employees from Deel APAC contracts uncovered that despite having the region’s most generous 20-day annual leave entitlement, Australians used a smaller share of it in 2025 than workers in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, or Japan.

In fact, the median Australian leave taken in 2025 was 16 days, which is only 80 per cent of an employee’s entitled amount.

Last year, only 26.5 per cent of Australians used 100 per cent of their leave. This proves to be significantly less than its peers, with 57.2 per cent of Singaporeans using their maximum leave entitlements, 53.3 per cent of South Koreans, 50.8 per cent of Malaysians, and 42.9 per cent of Hongkongers.

However, when Australians do take leave, they like to take it in large amounts. Among Australian multi-day leave requests, 2.9 per cent were for 16 days or more, which is more than double the rate in Japan, the next-highest country at 1.3 per cent.

Singaporean workers recorded a median leave taken of 19 days, with Hong Kong not far behind at 16.5 days, despite both countries having lower statutory minimums than Australia.

Lauren Thomas, economist at Deel, said: “Australians have one of the most generous annual leave entitlements in the region, and a cultural habit of saving most of it up for one big trip a year.”

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