Calculate my pay: take-home pay, tax and super in Australia

Australian payroll works on a 38-hour full-time week, the most ordinary hours the National Employment Standards (NES) allow before overtime. Multiply by 52 weeks and you get 1,976 hours. A calendar year is really 52 weeks and 1 day, but every major pay tool divides by 52, so use that to compare offers. The common mistake is to compare an hourly rate with a salary built on a longer week. Always ask how many hours a week sit behind a salary before you divide it.

Worked example at the minimum wage:

1. $26.44 × 38 hours = $1,004.72 a week.
2. $1,004.72 × 52 weeks = $52,245.44 a year.
3. Less $5,977 income tax and $1,045 Medicare levy = $45,223 take-home, or $22.89 for each hour worked.
4. Your employer pays $6,269 super on top at 12%.

Your salary is the same whatever the pay cycle. Weekly pay is the salary divided by 52, fortnightly by 26 and monthly by 12. A month holds 4.33 weeks, so multiplying a weekly figure by four undercounts a month by about a third of a week. Tax is taken out each pay using the ATO table for that cycle, covered in PAYG withholding. For pay after tax at any salary, see take-home pay.

A normal financial year has 26 fortnightly pay days and 52 weekly ones. Because 2026-27 runs 365 days, one weekday turns up an extra time. The ATO counts pay days that fall inside the financial year (1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027), not the weeks worked. In 2026-27, a fortnightly pay day on 1 July 2026 gives 27 pays, and a weekly pay day on a Wednesday gives 53.

The extra pay does not raise your salary. It moves one pay into this financial year. The tax tables assume 26 pays, so you can ask your employer to withhold a little more each pay. On fortnightly earnings of $1,700 or more, the ATO suggests an extra $12 or more per pay.

Paid hours are finish time minus start time, less unpaid breaks. A shift that ends earlier on the clock than it started has crossed midnight. A shift from 22:00 to 06:30 with a 30-minute unpaid break is 8 paid hours. Payroll uses decimal hours, so 7:45 on a clock is 7.75 hours, not 7.45.

Overtime starts past ordinary hours, and your award sets the rates. A common pattern is time and a half for the first 2 hours, then double time. Worked on 42 hours at $26.44: 38 ordinary hours earn $1,004.72, 2 hours at time and a half earn $79.32, and 2 at double time earn $105.76. Total $1,189.80. Rates by award are in overtime and penalty rates.

A job ad that says "$80,000 pro rata" quotes the full-time salary. You are paid your share of it. Working 22.8 of 38 hours, or 3 of 5 days, is 60% of full time:

1. $80,000 × 60% = $48,000 a year.
2. That is $1,846.15 a fortnight or $4,000.00 a month.
3. The hourly rate stays $40.49. Pro-rating cuts the hours, not the rate.
4. Starting halfway through the year (6 months) pays $24,000 in that year.

Part-time staff get the same leave as full-time staff, scaled to their hours. Super is 12% of what you earn, so it scales too.

Full-time and part-time employees have regular hours, paid annual leave of 4 weeks, 10 days of paid personal leave, notice and redundancy pay. A casual has no firm advance commitment to ongoing work and is paid the 25% casual loading instead of those entitlements. Since 26 August 2024, a casual can ask to become permanent after 6 months (12 with a small business), and the employer has 21 days to reply in writing.

At the minimum wage, the casual earns $33.05 an hour against $26.44. Both take 4 weeks off and 5 sick days. The casual is paid for 47 weeks and the permanent employee for all 52, yet the casual still ends $6,782 ahead. Leave rules are in leave, and the wage floors in minimum wage.

A salary is a fixed yearly amount paid in equal instalments. Hourly pay follows the hours you work, so extra hours show up in the next pay. If an award covers you, your salary must still be at least what the award would pay for the hours you actually work, including overtime and penalty rates. Check this by dividing your salary by your real yearly hours, not by 1,976.

Only the extra dollars are taxed at your top rate, so a raise never leaves you worse off. On $80,000, a $10,000 raise adds $6,800 a year after tax and Medicare ($261.54 a fortnight), because each extra dollar here loses 32%. Your employer also pays $1,200 more super. Award minimums rose 4.75% from 1 July 2026. If you repay a study loan, a raise can lift that too: see HECS-HELP.

Every Australian resident pays tax on the same scale, so take-home pay depends mainly on your taxable income. Here is the sum on $80,000:

1. Income tax on $80,000 from the resident scale: $14,520.
2. Low income tax offset: $0. It is worth $700 up to $37,500 and runs out at $66,667.
3. Medicare levy at 2%: $1,600.
4. $80,000 less $16,120 = $63,880 take-home.
5. Divide by 26 for a fortnight ($2,456.92) or 12 for a month ($5,323.33).

Lower down the scale the offset matters more. On $40,000 the offset cuts $575 from tax and you keep 91.3% of your pay. The first $18,200 is tax-free, and with the offset no income tax is payable until $22,867. Rates and brackets are in income tax, offsets in tax offsets.

Gross pay is what you earn before anything is taken out. Net pay is what lands in your bank. Taxable income is gross pay less pre-tax items such as salary sacrifice, and it is the figure tax is worked out on. Employer super sits outside all three.

Your payslip net will not match the annual sum divided by 26 to the cent. Employers use the ATO's withholding formulas, which round to whole dollars and do not pass on the whole offset during the year. On $80,000, fortnightly withholding leaves $2,454.92 against $2,456.92 from the annual figure. The difference comes back, or is owed, at tax time. How each pay is taxed is in PAYG withholding.

Paid by the hour? Multiply your rate by your hours for gross pay, then take out tax. At the minimum wage of $26.44 for 38 hours a week, a fortnight is $2,009.44 gross. The employer withholds $278, leaving $1,731.44. Each hour you work is worth $22.78 after tax. A casual adds the 25% loading to the rate first, and the loading is taxed like the rest of your pay.

To find the gross pay behind a take-home target, work backwards through the tax tables. To take home $1,500 a week you need $1,939.00 a week before tax, about $100,828 a year. If a job is advertised as a total package that includes super, take the super out before you compare: divide the package by 1.12 to get the salary.

Four things move take-home pay most: a study loan, private hospital cover, tax residency and salary sacrifice. Repaying HELP takes a share of the income above the repayment threshold (see HECS-HELP). Salary sacrifice lowers taxable income but also cash in hand. Earning $105,001 or more without private hospital cover adds the Medicare levy surcharge (see Medicare). A foreign resident gets no tax-free threshold and no offset. The common mistake is to compare your pay with a friend's without checking these.

From 1 July 2026 the rate on the second bracket fell, so the same $80,000 now takes home $268 more a year than in 2025-26 ($10.31 a fortnight). A further cut and a new work tax offset are already law for 2027-28, worth another $518 a year on this salary. Dates are in the changes calendar.

The Fair Work Ombudsman sets the rules for payslips. Every employee gets one, casuals included, and it can be paper or electronic. It must show your employer's name and ABN, the pay period and payment date, gross and net pay, and any loading, allowance, bonus or penalty rate that can be separated out. Each deduction needs the name of the fund or account it went to. Super must show the amount and the fund. If you are paid by the hour, check the rate and hours against your roster.

No payslip, or a wrong one, is a breach. Ask payroll first, in writing. Keep every payslip: they prove your income for a loan and let you check super later. ABN contractors are not employees and send invoices instead, covered in contractors.

PAYG withholding is tax taken out of each pay. It is not a final bill. The ATO tables set the amount from your gross pay, your pay cycle and the choices on your tax file number (TFN) declaration. Claim the tax-free threshold and less is taken. Do not claim it, as you would at a second job, and more is taken. The full method is in PAYG tax tables.

STSL stands for study and training support loans. It covers HECS-HELP, FEE-HELP, VET Student Loans and similar debts. Once you tick the study loan box on your TFN declaration, payroll adds STSL whenever your pay is above $69,528 a year, which is about $1,337 a week or $2,674 a fortnight. Under that, the line shows nothing.

STSL does not cut your debt the day it is taken. The ATO credits it against your compulsory repayment when your tax return is assessed, and any excess comes back as part of your refund. The common mistake is to keep STSL running after the debt is paid off. Give your employer a withholding declaration to stop it. Thresholds and rates are in HECS-HELP.

Your employer pays 12% of your qualifying earnings into super. Under Payday Super, from 1 July 2026, it is due with each pay and must reach your fund within 7 business days (20 for a new employee or a new fund). Your payslip shows the amount and the fund name. Check it against your fund account every few months, because a payslip line proves only that super was owed, not that it arrived. More in super.

YTD figures add up every pay since the financial year began and reset at the start of the next one. Lenders use them to check your income. To turn YTD into a yearly figure, divide by the number of pays so far and multiply by the pays in a year:

1. YTD gross after pay 10: $30,000.
2. $30,000 ÷ 10 pays = $3,000 a pay.
3. × 26 fortnights = $78,000 a year.

If you started part-way through the year, count only your pays, not the weeks since the year began. Otherwise the yearly figure comes out too low.

On day one, give your employer a TFN declaration. It asks for your tax file number, your residency, whether you claim the tax-free threshold and whether you have a study loan. Without a TFN, tax is taken at 47%. Applying for a TFN is free through the ATO.

Claim the $18,200 threshold from one employer only, usually the one that pays most. On a second job paying $2,000 a fortnight, not claiming it means $498 withheld instead of $276. That extra covers the tax you would otherwise owe at year end.

You also choose a super fund, or your employer uses the fund you already have. Give your bank details, and check your pay rate against your award or agreement (see award rates and minimum wage). Your first pay may cover only part of a period. If tax was withheld, lodge a tax return after the year ends on 30 June 2027 to get back anything overpaid (see tax time).

Australia uses a marginal system. Your taxable income is split into slices, and each slice is taxed at its own rate. Moving into a higher bracket never changes the tax on the dollars below it. Taxable income is your salary and other assessable income after deductions, so the brackets apply to a smaller figure than your gross pay if you claim work expenses.

The scale on the ATO site shows income tax only. Two other things change what you pay: the low income tax offset, which wipes out tax for low earners (see tax offsets), and the Medicare levy, which most residents pay on top (see Medicare levy). Your employer takes an estimate of all three from each pay, and your tax return settles the real figure.

Your marginal rate is what the tax system takes from your next dollar. Your average rate is your whole tax bill divided by your income. At $100,000 the next dollar costs 32%, yet the average rate is only 22.5%, because the first $18,200 is tax free and the next band is cheap.

Below the middle bracket the real rate on the next dollar is often higher than the bracket rate. Two things cause it. The Medicare levy phases in at 10c in the dollar just above its threshold, and the low income tax offset shrinks as income rises from $37,500 to $66,667. The table shows every band where the real rate changes.

A common worry is that a raise will push you into a higher bracket and cut your pay. It cannot. Take a salary of $134,000 and a raise of $2,000 that crosses the $135,000 line. Only the part above the line is taxed at 37%. The raise adds $710 in tax and levy, so you keep $1,290, or 64.5% of it.

The first $18,200 of a resident's taxable income is tax free. You claim it by answering yes on the TFN declaration you give your employer. Spread over the year it is about $350 a week or $700 a fortnight. Because the withholding scale also builds in part of the low income tax offset, an employer withholds nothing until your pay passes $363 a week, $726 a fortnight or $1,573 a month.

Claim it from one payer only, normally the one that pays you most. The usual mistake is claiming it at two jobs at once: each employer then withholds too little and you get a bill at tax time. On a second job paying $1,000 a fortnight, not claiming it means $180 is withheld instead of $42. The exception is when your total income from all jobs will stay at or under $18,200.

If you arrive in Australia or leave part-way through the year, you get a part-year threshold: a flat $13,464 plus a share of $4,736 for each month you were resident, counting the month you arrived. Six months of residence gives $15,832. Foreign residents and working holiday makers cannot claim the threshold at all.

The Stage 3 changes started on 1 July 2024. They cut the second rate from 19% to 16%, replaced the 32.5% rate with 30%, and moved the 37% threshold from $120,000 to $135,000 and the top threshold from $180,000 to $190,000. On $80,000 that was worth $1,679 a year. You did not need to apply for any of it: employers switch to the new withholding tables and the tax return uses the new scale.

Residency for tax is not the same as your visa or citizenship. If you are a foreign resident for tax purposes, you pay 30% from your first dollar up to $135,000, with no tax-free threshold and no low income tax offset. You also do not pay the Medicare levy. The latest foreign resident table the ATO has published is for 2025-26, and the 2026-27 scale is the same.

Working holiday makers have their own scale for 2026-27: 15% from the first dollar up to $45,000, then the same rates as everyone else. The usual mistake is ticking the tax-free threshold on the TFN declaration. A working holiday maker must answer no, or the employer withholds too little.

A deduction lowers the income your tax is worked out on, so it saves you your marginal rate on each dollar. An offset is subtracted from the tax itself. At a 30% rate, a $100 deduction saves $30, while a $100 offset saves the full $100. The offsets on this page are all non-refundable: once your tax hits nil, whatever is left of the offset is lost.

LITO goes to Australian residents for tax purposes. Foreign residents and working holiday makers do not get it. You do not apply: the ATO works it out from your taxable income when it assesses your return. It is also partly built into the withholding tables, which is why an employer withholds nothing until your pay passes $726 a fortnight when you claim the tax-free threshold.

The amount depends only on taxable income. Up to $37,500 you get $700. Between $37,501 and $45,000 it falls by 5c for each dollar over $37,500, leaving $325. From there it falls by 1.5c a dollar and runs out at $66,667. That withdrawal is a hidden extra tax on each dollar you earn in those ranges (see the real marginal rates under income tax).

SAPTO is for people who meet the pension conditions, which usually means reaching age pension age, or who receive certain pensions and allowances. Eligibility also depends on rebate income, a wider measure than taxable income. The amounts below are for 2025-26, the latest the ATO has published.

The offset starts to shrink once rebate income passes the shading-out threshold, by 12.5c for every dollar over it. For a couple there are two different tests, and mixing them up is the common error. Your eligibility is tested on half your combined rebate income. How much you get is then worked out on your own income. If your partner cannot use all of theirs, part can transfer to you: the whole unused amount moves across when their taxable income is $6,000 or less, and it shrinks by 15c per dollar above that. Getting at least a dollar of SAPTO also lifts your Medicare levy threshold.

The zone tax offset is for people whose usual place of residence is in a remote area on the ATO's zone list. The test is 183 days or more living in zones during the income year. If those days are split across areas, each area counts in proportion to its days. Working in a remote area is not enough on its own: a fly-in fly-out worker whose home is in a city cannot claim. Australian Defence Force members serving overseas claim the overseas forces offset instead, on the same Zone A amounts.

The offset has two parts: a fixed amount for the area, plus a share of a base amount for your dependants. A special area replaces the Zone A or Zone B amount; it is not added on top. A remote area allowance from Centrelink or DVA reduces what you get. You claim it on your return, or ask your employer to take it into account in your pay through a withholding declaration. These amounts are for 2025-26, the latest the ATO has published.

WATO is now law and applies from the 2027-28 income year. It goes to residents whose net labour income, meaning pay from work less work deductions, is above $18,200. Interest, rent and other investment income do not count towards it. It is worth up to $250, it is not refundable, and unused amounts cannot be carried forward or passed to a partner.

The same year the second tax rate drops to 14%. The two changes stack, but low earners get little from either. At or below $23,200 you already pay no income tax once LITO applies, so neither change helps. The full $250 needs a labour income of about $24,986. It does not apply to 2026-27, so do not expect it in a refund before then.

The levy is 2% of your whole taxable income, not just the part above a threshold. Below the low-income threshold you pay nothing. Just above it, the levy phases in at 10c for each dollar over the threshold, and once that figure reaches 2% of your income the normal rate takes over. The tax tables your employer uses include an amount for the levy, so it comes out of each pay with your income tax. The tax brackets on the ATO site leave it out, which is a common reason estimates come in low.

Families get a higher threshold, which rises for each dependent child. The test then uses the combined taxable income of you and your spouse, so a low earner with a partner and children can owe nothing even when a single person on the same pay would. People entitled to the seniors and pensioners tax offset (see offsets) get higher thresholds again. The ATO had not published 2026-27 levy thresholds when this page was checked, so the 2025-26 figures below are the latest.

Foreign residents pay no levy for the time they were foreign residents. Some temporary visa holders who are not entitled to Medicare can claim an exemption with a statement from Services Australia, but visitors from countries with a reciprocal health care agreement are covered by Medicare and do pay. A medical exemption applies to some veterans and blind pensioners, and it can drop to half if you have a dependant who is not exempt. You claim any exemption on your tax return.

The surcharge applies if your income for surcharge purposes is above the base tier and, for any part of the year, you or your dependants did not hold appropriate private patient hospital cover. That income is wider than taxable income. It adds reportable fringe benefits, net investment losses and reportable super contributions, which is why salary sacrifice rarely gets you under a threshold. The rate is then charged on your taxable income plus fringe benefits.

The surcharge is a cliff, not a marginal rate. One dollar over a threshold brings the rate on your whole income: at $105,000 you pay nothing, at $105,001 you pay $1,050. Family thresholds apply if you have a spouse or a dependent child, are tested on combined income, and rise by $1,500 for each child after the first. With three children the family base tier reaches $213,000. Your employer does not withhold for the surcharge, so it usually shows up as a bill when you lodge.

To avoid the surcharge you need hospital cover, not extras. The excess must be no more than $750 for a single policy or $1,500 for a couple or family policy. The simple test is cost: at $130,000 a single person without cover pays a surcharge of $1,625, so a policy costing less than that after the rebate leaves you ahead before you count any benefit from the cover itself.

The government rebate on premiums is tested on the same income tiers and rises with the age of the oldest person on the policy. The rates below apply from 1 July 2026 to 31 March 2027. Separately, if you first take out hospital cover when you are older than 30, you pay a Lifetime Health Cover loading of 2% on the hospital premium for each year over that age, up to 70%. The loading stops after 10 years of continuous hospital cover.

The rules cover HELP debts and the other study and training support loans the ATO collects, such as VET Student Loans and Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans. Repayments are compulsory once your repayment income is over the threshold. That applies to employees, the self-employed and people living overseas. Repayment income is not just taxable income. It adds reportable fringe benefits, reportable super contributions, net investment losses and exempt foreign employment income. So salary sacrificing into super, or making a loss on a rental, does little to cut a HELP repayment.

Before 2025-26, the repayment was a percentage of your whole income once you crossed a threshold, so a small raise could add hundreds of dollars. The marginal system charges a rate only on the income above the threshold. Since 2025-26 the bands have been indexed once, on 1 June 2026, which lifted the threshold from $67,000 to $69,528.

The top band works differently. Above $186,050 you repay 10% of your whole income. The bands are set so the change is smooth: at $186,050 you repay $18,605, and one dollar more gives $18,605. A common error is to apply 10% to every income, which overstates the repayment for nearly everyone below the top band.

When you tell an employer you have a study loan on your TFN declaration, they withhold an extra amount each pay, shown as STSL. It is worked out on your pay for that period, not on your yearly income, using the ATO's Schedule 8 formulas. On $3,500 a fortnight the STSL is $124, about $3,224 over a year, close to the $3,221 you would actually owe on that salary.

STSL does not cut your debt each payday. The ATO works out your real repayment when you lodge, credits what was withheld, and reduces the balance then. If too much was withheld, it comes back in your refund. If you have a second job, that employer uses the no tax-free threshold scale, which starts withholding sooner: $64 on a $2,400 fortnight, against $0 with the threshold. Tell every employer about the loan, or you will owe the gap at tax time. Once the debt is paid off, give your employers a new declaration so STSL stops.

Each 1 June the ATO indexes any unpaid balance. On 1 June 2026 the rate was 2.8%. A voluntary repayment made before that date is applied first, so the indexation is charged on a smaller balance. Separately, the ATO applied a one-off reduction of 20% to study loan balances held on 1 June 2025. That cut came off balances; it did not change the repayment bands.

Voluntary repayments do not lower your compulsory repayments, which depend on income alone. What they change is how long you keep paying. They go straight to the ATO and are not tax deductible.

Both use spare income, but they are taxed very differently. Salary sacrifice goes into super before income tax and is taxed at 15% in the fund. A HELP voluntary repayment comes from pay that has already been taxed. Sacrificing does not reduce your compulsory HELP repayment, because reportable super counts in repayment income. Super money is locked away until you can access it; a smaller HELP balance saves you future indexation, and nothing more.

Every tax table is the output of one method. Your pay for the period is turned into a weekly figure, called the weekly equivalent. A fortnightly pay is halved. A monthly pay is multiplied by three and divided by thirteen. The cents are dropped and 99 cents is added. That figure falls into a band of the ATO scale, and each band has two numbers, a and b. The weekly tax is a times the weekly equivalent, minus b, rounded to the nearest dollar. It is then doubled for a fortnight or converted back for a month.

The bands are not the same as the income tax brackets in income tax rates. They fold in part of the low income tax offset and the Medicare levy, which is why withholding on low pay looks lower than the bracket rate and withholding on middle pay can look higher.

• Halve the pay and drop the cents, then add 99 cents: the weekly equivalent is $1,000.99.
• With the threshold claimed (Scale 2), that falls in the band where a is 0.3227 and b is 185.1935. The formula gives $137.83, which rounds to $138 a week.
• Double it: $276 is withheld each fortnight, leaving $1,724.
• With no threshold claimed (Scale 1) the band is different: $249 a week, so $498 a fortnight.
• Under the 2024-25 and 2025-26 tables the same pay had $286 withheld with the threshold claimed. The 2026-27 figure is lower because the second tax rate fell from 16% to 15% for payments made from 1 July 2026.

The column comes from the TFN declaration you gave your employer. Scale 2 is for a resident who claims the tax-free threshold of $18,200 from this payer. That is the same as $350 a week, $700 a fortnight or $1,517 a month, but withholding starts a little higher because the scale also builds in part of the low income tax offset. Scale 1 is for a resident who does not claim it, which is the usual setting for a second job. Scale 3 is for foreign residents: no threshold and no Medicare levy. If you give no TFN at all, the payer takes 47% of every pay, or 45% for a foreign resident.

Scale 2 includes the Medicare levy. It is nil on a weekly equivalent up to $538 and phases in until $673 a week, matching the low-income levy threshold of $28,011 a year. See Medicare levy for the annual rules.

You normally claim the tax-free threshold from one payer only, the one that pays you most. Claim it on two jobs and both use Scale 2, so too little is withheld and you get a bill at tax time. Claim it on neither and too much is withheld. You get it back in your return, but you go without the cash all year. The chart shows that cost. The details for a second job are in bonus, commission and second jobs.

If you tell your employer you have a HELP or other study loan, a second amount is added from ATO Schedule 8. With the threshold claimed it starts at a weekly pay of about $1,340. Since the change to marginal repayments it is a share of the pay above that point, not a flat percentage. The table column "Claimed + study loan" shows the total. How the yearly repayment works is in HECS-HELP.

Some years have 53 weekly or 27 fortnightly paydays. The tables assume 52 or 26, so you can ask your employer to take a small extra amount each pay to avoid a shortfall. To change your threshold claim, residency or loan status with an employer you already work for, give them a withholding declaration. A new employer needs a new TFN declaration.

A bonus, back pay or one-off commission paid on top of normal wages is withheld under ATO Schedule 5. Most payroll systems use Method A. It spreads the bonus across the year, adds one slice to a normal pay, and charges the extra tax that slice causes for every pay period. Method B(ii) uses your average earnings so far this year instead, so the two agree only when your pay has been even all year. Either way the amount withheld is capped at 47% of the bonus, including any study loan amount.

Worked example: $5,000 bonus, $80,000 salary, paid fortnightly

• Divide the bonus by 26 fortnights and drop the cents: $192.
• Tax on a normal fortnight of $3,076.92: $622. Tax on that fortnight plus the slice: $682.
• The slice adds $60. Times 26 gives $1,560 withheld from the bonus, below the $2,350 cap. You receive $3,440.
• At tax time the bonus really adds $1,500 of income tax and $100 of Medicare levy, $1,600 in all. The withholding was close, so the bonus barely moves your refund.

The common mistake is to compare the bonus withholding with your average tax rate. The bonus sits on top of your salary, so it is taxed at your marginal rate, not your average one. If a bonus pushes you past a bracket edge, only the part above the edge takes the higher rate.

Commission is salary and wages. Paid with your normal pay, it is simply part of that pay's gross and goes through the normal tax table in PAYG withholding. Paid separately, it is a Schedule 5 payment like a bonus. Commission for ordinary hours also counts for super, at the 12% guarantee rate; see super. Commission-only pay is allowed only where an award or enterprise agreement permits it, and award-free employees on commission must still get at least the national minimum wage.

A sales job advertised with an OTE, or on-target earnings, quotes base salary plus the commission you earn at exactly 100% of target. Take a $70,000 base with $30,000 of target commission: the OTE is $100,000, and 70% of it is guaranteed. Hit 80% of target and you earn $94,000, with $11,280 of super guarantee on top. For the Fair Work high income threshold of $190,100, only the $70,000 base counts, because commission cannot be known in advance.

You normally claim the tax-free threshold only on your main job. The second job then withholds on Scale 1, which taxes its pay from the first dollar. That looks heavy, and people often ask whether a second job is taxed at half. It is not: the top marginal rate is 45%, or 47% with the Medicare levy.

The real risk runs the other way. Scale 1 assumes the second job's pay starts in the lowest bracket. Stacked on a $60,000 salary, it all lands in your marginal bracket, and it also reduces your low income tax offset. A $500 a week second job has $90 withheld each week, or $4,680 a year. The real extra tax is $8,420, leaving $3,740 to pay at tax time. You can ask the second employer to withhold more through a withholding declaration.

A foreign resident for tax pays 30% on every dollar up to $135,000, then 37% and 45%. There is no tax-free threshold, no low income tax offset and no Medicare levy. Employers withhold on Scale 3. The ATO's latest published foreign resident table is for 2025-26. Residency is a test of where you live, not your visa or citizenship. If you become a resident part way through the year, your threshold is cut to $13,464 plus a share of $4,736 for the months you were resident.

Working holiday makers on a 417 or 462 visa have their own 2026-27 scale: 15% from the first dollar to $45,000, then the same higher rates residents pay. They must answer No to the tax-free threshold question on the TFN declaration. The employer has to register with the ATO as a working holiday maker employer to use the lower rates. Compared with a foreign resident on the same pay, a working holiday maker pays less at every income, because the first $45,000 is taxed at 15% instead of 30%.

Your employer withheld tax from each pay using the PAYG tables. Those tables assume you earn the same every pay and claim nothing. Your return replaces that guess with the real figure. Most refunds come from deductions, from part-year work, or from income that was uneven across the year. A bill usually means two jobs, a study loan no employer knew about, or income with no tax withheld.

Worked example: $75,000 salary, 2025-26 return

• Withheld over 26 fortnights on the 2025-26 tables: $14,820.
• Taxable income: $75,000 minus $1,500 of deductions = $73,500.
• Income tax on the 2025-26 scale: $12,838. No low income tax offset applies at this income. Medicare levy: $1,470. Total: $14,308.
• Refund: $14,820 minus $14,308 = $512. The deductions alone are worth about $480, at the 32% marginal rate including the levy.

Use the right year. The return you lodge after the income year ends covers that year, so its rates are last year's, not this year's. Running a 2025-26 return through a 2026-27 calculator understates the tax.

A deduction cuts your taxable income, not your tax, so it saves you your marginal rate on the amount. It must be for your work, paid by you, not reimbursed, and backed by a record. For 2025-26 and earlier you need no written evidence if your work claims total $300 or less, and laundry of $150 or less can be claimed at $1.00 a load of work clothes only, or $0.50 a mixed load. The ATO says both of these exceptions stop from 1 July 2026, when the new standard deduction for work-related expenses starts.

Working from home. The fixed rate for 2025-26 is 70 cents per hour worked at home. It covers energy, internet, phone and stationery. On 600 hours that is $420. You need a record of every hour, such as a timesheet or diary, not an estimate. Equipment such as a desk is claimed separately.

Car. The cents per kilometre method pays a flat rate for each work kilometre, up to 5,000 km per car. It covers fuel, servicing, insurance and depreciation, so you cannot add any of them on top. Driving from home to your usual workplace is private travel and does not count. At the 2026-27 rate, 3,200 work km is worth $2,912. If your employer pays a car allowance at the ATO rate, nothing is withheld up to the cap. On 6,000 km the $910 paid for the kilometres over the cap is taxed like wages.

The ATO sets reasonable amounts each year, in TD 2026/4 for 2026-27. They are not rates your employer must pay. They are the level below which you can claim what you spent on an allowance without written evidence, and below which your employer does not withhold tax from it. An award overtime meal allowance up to $40 is also free of withholding. Overseas accommodation has no reasonable amount, so it must always be backed by receipts and is always withheld from.

The ATO answers your return with a notice of assessment. It shows the taxable income it accepted, the tax worked out, the credits for tax already withheld and the refund or amount owing. If you left something out, amend the return. If you disagree with the ATO's decision, you can object. An unpaid amount after its due date attracts the general interest charge, at 11.51% a year for October to December 2026, worked out daily.

A late return can attract a failure to lodge penalty of one penalty unit for each 28 days or part, capped at 5 units. The unit is $364 for failures from 1 July 2026, and $330 before that. The ATO usually warns you first and generally does not charge it when the return results in a refund or nil. Lodge on 15 January 2027 instead of the 2 November 2026 due date and the return is 74 days late: 3 units, or $1,092 if you owe tax. A tax agent client who gave the agent everything on time is protected if the agent lodges late.

The income year runs from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. When a due date falls on a weekend or a public holiday in any whole state, you have until the next business day. The dates below are already moved. Changes to pay rates and rules through the year are in the pay and tax changes calendar.

Capital gains tax is part of income tax, not a separate tax. When you sell shares, an investment property or another asset for more than its cost base, the gain goes in your return. Take off any capital losses first. Then, if you held the asset for 12 months or more, an individual takes off a 50% discount. Companies get none. What is left is added to your taxable income. Your main home is usually exempt.

Buy shares for $20,000, sell them for $30,000, and earn $80,000 in salary. The gain is $10,000. After the discount $5,000 is taxable, which adds $1,600 including the levy. Sell inside 12 months and the whole gain is taxed: $3,200.

The rules change for CGT events from 1 July 2027. Under the Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 1) Act 2026, resident individuals lose the discount on most assets, the cost base is indexed for inflation instead, and a minimum tax of 30% applies to gains made after that date. Gains that built up before it keep the current rules.

SG does not come out of your pay, so a salary of $85,000 "plus super" means $85,000 of pay and $10,200 of super. The rate climbed a little each year and reached 12% on 1 July 2025. No further general rise is legislated. Norfolk Island is the one exception, on a transitional 11% this year.

SG stops at the maximum contribution base. Earn more than $270,830 a year and your employer only has to pay $32,499.60. This base used to be quarterly ($62,500 a quarter). It became an annual figure when Payday Super began. Job ads quote pay with and without super, so see package versus base salary before you compare offers.

Employers used to pay super once a quarter. Now each payday creates its own super debt. The money counts as on time only when the fund receives it within 7 business days. For a new employee, or a first payment to a new fund, the limit is 20 business days. A public holiday that covers a whole state, in any state, pushes the deadline out a day.

Super is now worked out on qualifying earnings. Many summaries say this means super on overtime and every bonus. It does not. The ATO says the only new item is commissions for work done entirely outside ordinary hours. Overtime outside set ordinary hours is still excluded. Salary you sacrifice still counts, so sacrificing does not cut your employer's SG.

The free Small Business Superannuation Clearing House shut after 30 June 2026, so small employers now pay through payroll software or the fund.

Late or short super triggers the super guarantee charge (SGC). For pay from 1 July 2026 it has 4 parts: the individual final super guarantee shortfall, notional earnings, administrative uplift and choice loading. Notional earnings run at the general interest charge, compounded daily. That rate resets every quarter. For October-December 2026 it is 11.51% a year. The choice loading is 25% of the contributions when an employer ignores your choice of fund, capped at $1,200 per notice period.

The administrative uplift starts at 60% of the shortfall. Owning up fast, with a clean record, can take it to nil. A separate late payment penalty of 25% (50% for a repeat) applies only if an assessed charge then goes unpaid after a notice. Unlike the old rules, the charge is now tax-deductible for the employer, apart from interest on late SGC and that penalty.

Pay before 1 July 2026 still sits under the old quarterly charge. Its last statement was due 28 August 2026, with 10% nominal interest and a $20 fee per employee per quarter.

The concessional cap limits before-tax money going in: $32,500 in 2026-27. Your employer's SG, any salary sacrifice and any personal contribution you claim as a deduction all count. The fund pays 15% tax on them. The common mistake is to sacrifice the full cap and forget the SG already in it. On $85,000, SG alone uses $10,200.

Go over and the excess is taxed at your marginal rate, less a 15% offset. You can take out up to 85% of it to pay the bill. The non-concessional cap is $130,000 of after-tax money. You can bring forward 3 years ($390,000) if your total super balance is under $1,840,000, 2 years if under $1,970,000, and nothing at $2,100,000 or more, which is the transfer balance cap.

A Treasury plan to stop Payday Super timing from pushing people over the 2026-27 cap has been announced. The bill to make it law (Treasury Laws Amendment (Tax Reform No. 3) Bill 2026) is before the House of Representatives. The ATO's wording: "This is not yet law."

If your total super balance was under $500,000 on 30 June last year, you can use unused concessional cap from the past 5 years. Amounts only go back to 2018-19. The oldest is used first, and each one expires after 5 years. It suits people coming back from time out of work. To claim a deduction for a personal contribution, give your fund a notice of intent and get its reply before you lodge.

The person above has a $300,000 balance, so they pass the test. Their available cap is $32,500 plus $43,500 unused, which is $76,000. Contributing $50,000 goes $17,500 over the general cap, all covered by old amounts, so nothing is excess.

Division 293 adds 15% tax on concessional contributions once your income plus those contributions passes $250,000. It applies to the excess over the threshold or to the contributions, whichever is less. Income here is the Medicare levy surcharge income test without the super itself, so fringe benefits count too. Example: $240,000 income and $15,000 of contributions is $5,000 over, so the tax is 15% × $5,000 = $750. You can pay it from your fund. Even then, those contributions are taxed at 30% in total, below the top marginal rate of 45%.

Division 296 is separate. From 1 July 2026 it taxes earnings on balances above $3,000,000 at an extra 15%, and a further 10% above $10,000,000.

LISTO refunds the 15% contributions tax for people earning $37,000 or less, up to $500. SG alone earns the full amount once pay reaches about $27,778: on $30,000 it is $500. From 2027-28 the threshold rises to $45,000 and the maximum to $810. Temporary visa holders miss out.

The co-contribution adds $50 for every $100 of after-tax money you put in, up to $500 for a $1,000 contribution. The full amount goes to incomes up to $49,293 and it phases out by $64,293. On $55,000 the most you can get is $310. Salary sacrifice does not count. A partner can also put up to $3,000 into a low-earning spouse's fund and claim an offset of up to $540, phasing out as the spouse's income goes from $37,000 to $40,000.

Contractors and sole traders get no SG on their own income. See contractors and sole traders for how to price that in.

You agree in writing with your employer to send part of your future pay to super. It must cover pay you have not yet earned, so set it up before the pay period starts. The sacrificed amount is a concessional contribution. It counts towards the $32,500 cap along with your employer's 12%. Under Payday Super your employer still works out SG on your full salary, so sacrificing does not shrink it.

The saving is the gap between your marginal rate plus the 2% Medicare levy and the 15% fund tax. It is small for low earners and largest in the higher brackets. If your income plus contributions passes $250,000, Division 293 adds another 15% (see super caps). The usual mistake is to sacrifice up to the cap and forget that your employer's SG is already inside it.

Extra super gets the tax break. Extra mortgage repayments come from after-tax pay, but every dollar saves interest at your loan rate and stays within reach through redraw or an offset account. Super is locked away until your preservation age, which is 60 for anyone born on or after 1 July 1964. The common mistake is to compare only the tax saving. Weigh it against your loan rate, how many years you have left on the loan, and whether you might need the money first. One middle path: sacrifice enough to use the tax gap, and put the rest in an offset account.

A $112,000 package that includes super splits into $100,000 of salary and $12,000 of super. A $100,000 "plus super" offer is worth $112,000 in total. Tax is worked out on the base salary only. Above the maximum contribution base, super stops growing and the split changes, so check take-home pay on the base, not the package.

Some employers do not pay FBT, or pay less, up to a yearly cap. Their staff can package rent, a mortgage, bills or meals from pre-tax pay. Each cap is a grossed-up value, not the face value of the bills. For most GST-free costs, divide by the 1.8868 gross-up rate to find what you can actually spend. The cap is not cut for part-year staff. At a public benevolent institution, a $70,000 worker who packages $15,900 ends up $5,276 a year better off, before provider fees.

FBT is your employer's tax, at 47% on the grossed-up value of benefits such as a car, a parking spot or paid school fees. The FBT year is 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, not the income year. A benefit worth less than $300 can be exempt as a minor benefit. If your benefits have a taxable value above $2,000, your employer reports a grossed-up amount on your income statement. You pay no tax on that amount, but it is added to your income for HELP repayments, the Medicare levy surcharge and Division 293. This year's car parking threshold is $11.48 a day and the benchmark interest rate is 8.27%.

In a novated lease your employer takes over the lease payments and running costs, and deducts them from your pay. Part comes out before tax. With a petrol or hybrid car, FBT applies to 20% of the car's cost each year. Providers usually then use the employee contribution method (ECM): they take that amount from your after-tax pay so the FBT falls to nil. ECM only stops paying off at a marginal rate of 49.44%, above the top resident rate including the Medicare levy, so it is the cheaper choice at every income.

An eligible electric car pays no FBT, so the whole cost can come from pre-tax pay. The car must be battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell, cost no more than $91,661, and first be held and used from 1 July 2022. Plug-in hybrids stopped qualifying from 1 April 2025. The catch: the car's value is still reported. In the example below, the electric car adds $18,868 to the income used for the surcharge test. Without private hospital cover, that pushes the worker into the Medicare levy surcharge and costs $1,050 more a year.

These figures leave out the lease interest rate, which your financier sets and which can erase the gain. Get the rate in writing and compare it with a car loan. If you leave your job, the lease goes back to you, and deductions then come from after-tax pay until you move it to a new employer.

The National Minimum Wage is the pay floor for adults in the national workplace system who have no award and no enterprise agreement. Most private sector workers in Australia are in the national system. If an award covers your job, you get the award rate for your classification, and the award rate is the number to check.

The rate rose by 6.0% in the Annual Wage Review 2026 ([2026] FWCFB 3500), from $24.95 to $26.44 an hour. Award rates rose by 4.75% in the same decision. The new rate starts from your first full pay period that begins on or after 1 July 2026, so if your pay period started a few days earlier, the old rate can still apply for that one pay.

A small group of workers is in a state system instead. In Western Australia, sole traders, partnerships and some trusts employ staff under the state system, where the WA State Minimum Wage is $26.27 an hour from 1 July 2026. In Queensland, state and local government staff sit in the state system, where the Queensland minimum wage is $1,004.90 a week from 1 September 2026. Other state differences are in pay rules by state.

If you are under 21 and award free, you get a set percentage of the adult minimum. The percentage is applied to the weekly rate and then divided by 38. Done in that order, the sums match the Fair Work Ombudsman's published hourly figures to the cent. Casual juniors add the 25% loading to their junior hourly rate. A 20-year-old gets 97.7% of the adult rate, and full adult pay starts at 21.

Most young people work under an award, and each award has its own scale. Retail pays 45% under 16 where Fast Food pays 40%, and the Hair and Beauty Award pays the full rate from age 18. Some awards, like Security and SCHADS, have no junior scale, so a junior gets the adult rate at any age. The common mistake is using the national table below when an award applies. It only covers award-free juniors.

There is no national minimum working age. Each state sets its own rules for children, and every state bars work during school hours.

The Fair Work Commission has decided that 18 to 20-year-olds under three awards will move to the adult rate in steps. It is a phase-in, not an overnight jump. It covers the General Retail, Fast Food and Pharmacy awards, and only staff with more than 6 months with their employer. Staff with less service stay on the current scale, and rates for under-18s do not change.

The first step applies from your first full pay period on or after 1 December 2026. Under the Fast Food Award an 18-year-old moves from 70% to 75% at that step and reaches 100% from 1 July 2029. Retail follows the same steps for 18 and 19-year-olds, because retail 20-year-olds with that service already get the adult rate. Pharmacy uses larger yearly steps: an 18-year-old pharmacy assistant reaches 100% from 1 July 2029.

The minimum has risen every year since 2010-11, from $15.00 to $26.44 an hour. The biggest rise was 8.6% in 2023-24, after a period of high inflation. The smallest was 1.75% in 2020-21. Each rise comes from the Annual Wage Review. The latest one was decided on 2 June 2026 and applies from 1 July 2026.

Apprentices are paid under their trade's award, not the junior scale. Pay rises with each stage of the apprenticeship, and many awards pay more if you finished Year 12. Apprentice rates need a formal training contract. Someone who starts at 21 or older is an adult apprentice and often gets a higher rate. The lowest first-year rate in the table is $16.20 an hour, well under the adult minimum, which is legal for apprentices.

Compare trades with care. Some rates already include all-purpose allowances, such as the electrical tool and licence allowances, while building trade rates exclude allowances that are paid on top. Trainees are different again: most are paid under the National Training Wage in the Miscellaneous Award.

A modern award is a national rulebook for an industry or occupation. It sets the minimum hourly and weekly rate for each classification, plus casual loading, penalty rates, overtime, allowances and rules on hours and rosters. Awards are made and varied by the Fair Work Commission and apply in every state. Your employer can pay more than the award, never less.

Award rates are not the same as the National Minimum Wage. Most entry rates sit above it, but 8 of the 30 awards in the table have an introductory or entry level below the adult minimum of $26.44. Those levels are lawful because the award, not the National Minimum Wage, is the floor for award-covered staff. Junior and apprentice scales inside awards are covered in minimum wage, junior and apprentice rates.

The table lists the first adult classification in each award, which is where most new adult starters begin. Your own rate may be higher if your duties match a later level, so read the classification descriptions in your award, not just the first row.

Awards set a weekly rate for a full 38-hour week. The hourly rate is the weekly rate divided by 38. Part-time staff get the same hourly rate as full-time staff for each hour they work, with one notable exception: the Cleaning Award adds a 15% part-time loading. Casuals get the hourly rate plus the casual loading, which pays them instead of paid leave.

Some awards, including Electrical, Building and Construction, Plumbing and Mining, roll all-purpose allowances into the ordinary hourly rate. Penalty rates and overtime are then worked out on that higher figure. If you are on a salary under an award, your employer must be able to show it covers at least what the award would pay for the hours you actually work, including penalties.

The General Retail Award (MA000004) and the Hospitality Award (MA000009) cover a large share of young and casual workers. Retail level 1 is $27.81 an hour. In hospitality, a food and beverage attendant grade 1 and a kitchen attendant grade 1 are both on level 1, while cooks start higher. The hospitality award maps 13 job titles to its levels.

Junior percentages in an award apply to the award rate, not to the National Minimum Wage. An 18-year-old on retail level 1 gets 70% of the adult weekly rate: $19.47 an hour. With more than 6 months with their employer, that moves to 75% from the first full pay period on or after 1 December 2026, which is $20.86 an hour.

The SCHADS Award (MA000100) covers social and community services, disability support and home care. It has separate streams: social and community services (27 rate steps), home care for people with disability (9 steps) and home care for older people (6 levels). Level 1 pay point 1 in the social and community stream is $27.55 an hour. Equal remuneration order increases apply from level 2. SCHADS has no junior rates, so a junior is paid the adult rate.

The two highest entry rates in the table belong to the Aged Care Award 2010 ($32.61) and the Nurses Award 2020 ($32.09). The Aged Care Award publishes weekly rates only, and the hourly figure is the weekly rate divided by 38. Nurses and SCHADS workers move up pay points with years of service, so check your pay point each year.

An enterprise agreement, often called an EBA, is made between an employer and its staff and approved by the Fair Work Commission. Once approved, it replaces the award for the people it covers. Before approval the Commission applies the better off overall test, which compares the agreement with the award for each employee. The base rate of pay in an agreement can never be lower than the award base rate.

To find yours, search the employer name in the Commission's agreement register; payslips often name the agreement or its code. An agreement keeps applying after its nominal expiry date until it is replaced or terminated, so an old agreement can still set your pay. If the award rate rises above the agreement's base rate, you must be paid at least the award base rate.

A casual employee has no firm commitment to ongoing work. In return for missing out on paid annual leave, paid sick leave, notice and redundancy pay, casuals get a loading on top of the base hourly rate. It is 25% under the National Minimum Wage Order and most awards. On the adult minimum that turns $26.44 into $33.05 an hour.

A permanent employee is paid for 52 weeks a year, including leave and public holidays. At the minimum wage and full-time hours, a casual needs to be paid for 41.6 weeks of the year just to match that. Super is paid on the loading too, because it counts as ordinary time earnings.

Retail and Hospitality pay 125% on a Saturday and 150% on a Sunday, while Clerks, Security and Cleaning pay double time on a Sunday. Evenings differ too: Retail pays 125% for weekday evening hours, but Hospitality adds a flat $2.95 an hour for evening work and $4.42 an hour late at night.

Casual penalty rates are usually the permanent percentage plus the 25% loading, so a 150% Sunday becomes 175%. A few awards, including Manufacturing and Mining, apply the penalty to the casual rate instead. That is why casual public holiday pay reaches 312.5% of the base rate under the Electrical, Manufacturing and Mining awards. Penalties don't usually stack: the Hospitality Award, for example, pays only the highest penalty that applies to each hour.

Overtime is work beyond your ordinary hours. That can mean more than 38 hours a week, more than the daily maximum, or hours outside the award's span. Most awards pay time and a half for the first few hours, then double time, with double time on a Sunday and more on a public holiday. Retail pays 150% then 200%, and its casuals get the loading on top (175%). Hospitality pays 150% then 200%, and its casuals get the same overtime rate as permanent staff because the loading is not added.

Overtime is taxed at your normal marginal rate, though a big overtime pay can lift the tax withheld that week (see PAYG withholding). Overtime hours are not ordinary time earnings, so super guarantee is not owed on them.

Time off in lieu (TOIL) is paid time off instead of overtime pay. The National Employment Standards don't give it; it exists only where your award, agreement or contract allows it, and you must agree. The trap is the ratio. Some awards give one hour off per overtime hour, which is worth less than the overtime pay. Others give the time equal to the overtime payment.

Take 2 hours of overtime at 150% on Retail level 1. As pay that is $83.43. Under the Retail Award's rule you get 3 hours off. Under an hour-for-hour award you get 2 hours off, worth $55.62, so you give up $27.81. Untaken TOIL must be paid out at the overtime rate.

You are entitled to a day off on a public holiday. Your employer can ask you to work, but you can refuse if the request is not reasonable or you have reasonable grounds. If you work, the award's public holiday rate applies, which for Retail is 225% (double time and a quarter). If you are permanent and the day falls on a normal working day, you are paid your base rate for the hours you would have worked. Casuals are not paid for a holiday they don't work. The holidays that count are those where your job is based.

Christmas Day falls on Friday 25 December 2026. Boxing Day is Saturday 26 December 2026, so 7 of 8 states and territories add Monday 28 December 2026 as an extra holiday and TAS moves Boxing Day itself to that Monday. Melbourne Cup Day is Victorian only, on Tuesday 3 November 2026 and Tuesday 2 November 2027, and some regional councils swap it for a local day. QLD, SA and NT also have part-day holidays on Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve evenings.

A casual who has worked for 6 months (12 months with a small business) and believes they no longer fit the casual definition can give written notice to become permanent. This employee choice pathway replaced casual conversion on 26 August 2024. The employer must consult you and reply in writing within 21 days. It can refuse only on limited grounds, such as fair and reasonable operational reasons, and it cannot cut your hours or end your job because you asked. A regular roster on its own does not make you permanent. Once you convert, the loading stops and paid leave starts.

Annual leave starts building from your first day, probation included. Each week you earn 1/13 of your ordinary hours as leave, so a full year gives 4 weeks. A shiftworker whose award defines them that way gets 5 weeks. Leave keeps building while you are on paid leave, but not on unpaid leave. Any balance you do not use rolls over to the next year.

When you take it, you are paid your base rate for the hours you would have worked. Overtime, penalty rates and most allowances are left out. Many awards add a leave loading on top. When the job ends, every unused hour must be paid out, loading included where the award gives one. That payout is covered in leaving a job.

Leave loading is not in the National Employment Standards. It only exists if your award, enterprise agreement or contract says so. The usual figure is 17.5% of base pay for the leave period. Some awards pay the higher of that loading or the weekend and shift penalties you would have earned while rostered. The common mistake is assuming every employee gets it: award-free staff on a salary often do not.

Many workplaces close over Christmas. If your award or agreement allows it, your employer can direct you to take annual leave during the closedown, as long as the direction is reasonable. Public holidays that land on your normal working days are paid as public holidays. They are not taken from your balance.

For example, a shutdown from Thursday 24 December 2026 to Monday 4 January 2027 in New South Wales covers 8 weekdays. Of those, 3 are public holidays, so only 5 days (38 hours) come out of your annual leave. On $65,000 that leave pays $1,250.00, or $1,468.75 with loading.

Paid personal/carer's leave covers your own illness or injury, and caring for a family or household member who is sick, injured or has an emergency. It builds at 1/26 of your ordinary hours, which is 10 days for a full-timer. Unused leave carries over, but it is not paid out when you leave. Every employee, casuals included, can also take 2 days of unpaid carer's leave per occasion.

A part-timer on 20 hours a week earns 40 hours a year. Spread over a four-day week that is 8 days, not 10. Cashing out sick leave is only possible under the Timber Award (MA000071) and Stevedoring Award (MA000053), and you must keep at least 15 days in reserve.

Compassionate leave gives you 2 days each time a close family or household member dies or has a life-threatening illness or injury. Permanent staff are paid for the hours they would have worked; on $65,000, 2 full days pay $500.00. Casuals can take it unpaid. Separately, every employee, casuals too, gets 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave each year.

Jury duty is community service leave. For the first 10 days you miss, your employer must make up the base pay of a permanent employee. If they ask for proof of what the court paid you, they only top up the gap. Missing 5 days on $65,000 with no proof requested means the employer pays $1,250.00, the same as your normal pay.

Long service leave rewards long, unbroken service with one employer. It is set by state and territory law, not the Fair Work Act, so the state you work in decides the rules. Most places give about 8.67 weeks after 10 years. South Australia and the Northern Territory give 13 weeks. Victoria and the ACT let you take leave after 7 years. Leave is paid at your ordinary weekly pay.

If the job ends before you qualify, some states pay a pro-rata amount for part of the period. In several states that early payment depends on why the job ended. A plain resignation often gets nothing until you reach the full period. See pay rules by state for the other state differences.

Parental Leave Pay is government money. Services Australia pays it to you directly, or your employer passes it on in your normal pay cycle. For a child born or adopted from 1 July 2026, a family can share up to 130 days (26 weeks). Of those, 20 days are kept for a partner, so one parent can take at most 110. The rate is $200.94 a day in 2026-27 and it is reset at the start of each financial year.

To qualify you must pass a work test: 10 of the 13 months before the birth, with at least 330 hours worked. You must also pass an income test. For the 2025-26 year that is $186,487 of your own adjusted taxable income, or $386,525 for the family. Tax is withheld at 15% unless you choose otherwise. The government now adds super at 12%, the same rate as the super guarantee.

Your last pay has up to five parts. Ordinary wages for the days you worked come first. Unused annual leave is paid at the rate you would have received had you taken it, which includes leave loading when your award has one. Long service leave is paid when your state's law says it is due; the rules are in leave. Notice pay and redundancy pay apply only when the employer ends the job.

Sick and carer's leave is the part people expect and do not get. It is never paid out. Super is owed on ordinary wages and on notice paid out, at 12%, but not on unused annual leave paid out or on redundancy pay. Your employer still reports the final pay through Single Touch Payroll like any other pay.

The National Employment Standards set the shortest notice an employer can give. It depends on how long you have worked there without a break. If you are over 45 and have at least 2 years of service, add one week. Your employer can pay you for the notice instead of having you work it. That payment must match what you would have earned, including regular overtime and allowances you would have received.

Pay in lieu of notice is an employment termination payment. Below preservation age it is taxed at 32% including Medicare, up to the smaller of the ETP cap and the whole-of-income cap. The common mistake is thinking the notice rules apply when you resign. They set what your employer owes you; what you owe them comes from your award or contract.

Redundancy pay is owed when your employer no longer needs your job done by anyone, or goes broke, and ends your employment. It is based on completed years of continuous service, at your base rate for ordinary hours. Employers with fewer than 15 employees are exempt from the NES scale. Casuals miss out unless their award says otherwise.

The scale drops after 9 years. That is not a typo: by then most people also qualify for long service leave, which the law treats as part of the protection. An award, agreement or contract can pay more than the scale, never less.

A genuine redundancy splits into two parts. The tax-free part is a base amount plus a sum for each completed year, both indexed every income year. Anything above it is an employment termination payment, taxed at 32% below preservation age (60) or 17% from it, up to the ETP cap, then 47%. If you are dismissed at or after age 67, the payment cannot be a genuine redundancy and has no tax-free part.

Unused annual leave paid on a genuine redundancy is taxed at a flat 32%. On a resignation or ordinary dismissal it is added to your income and taxed at your marginal rate. Long service leave follows the same split: 32% on a redundancy, and usually marginal rates otherwise.

Back pay is money you should have been paid earlier: a missed award increase, the wrong classification, unpaid penalty rates or a pay rise backdated by agreement. Work it out per pay period as the correct rate minus what you got, times the hours, then add the periods up. Super is owed on back pay for ordinary hours too. If your employer will not fix it, the Fair Work Ombudsman can help you recover it.

Tax on a lump of back pay uses the ATO's Schedule 5 method. Paid fortnightly, $3,000 on top of $2,500 regular pay is split into $115 per period. That slice adds $36 of tax per period, multiplied back up to $936 withheld, or 31.2%. Withholding is capped at 47% of the back pay.

The federal public service has no one pay table. Every agency bargains its own enterprise agreement, so an APS 6 at one department can earn more than an APS 6 at another. Two sets of figures help. The first is what agencies actually pay, from the APS Commission's yearly survey. The second is the service-wide floor: each agency's range for a level must meet a minimum and maximum threshold, in force from 12 March 2026.

Inside a level you usually move up one pay point a year if your performance is rated satisfactory. A move to a higher level is a promotion, and it usually puts you on the bottom pay point of the new band. Employer super in the APS has a median of 15.4% of base salary, well above the 12% Super Guarantee.

Each state runs its own system with its own names: VPS grades in Victoria, AO levels in Queensland, Clerk grades in New South Wales, ASO levels in South Australia and the ACT. There is no official way to map one onto another, so compare the dollars, not the labels. Rates rise on the dates each agreement sets. Between those dates your pay only moves when you reach a new pay point.

A qualified graduate starts on the first qualified step of the state scale and moves up a step each year, usually after a satisfactory review. The top of the classroom scale is the most a teacher earns without a leadership role. A common mistake is to compare a state's new rates with another state's old ones. Each scale below shows the date it took effect.

Public hospital nurses are paid from a state award or agreement. A registered nurse starts on the first year of the scale and moves up one step for each year of experience until the top step. Enrolled nurses, clinical nurse specialists and nurse unit managers have their own scales. Shift penalties are paid on top of these base rates.

Emergency and justice workers are paid from their own agreements, often with recruit or trainee rates before you qualify. Shift allowances and overtime add a lot on top, so a base salary understates what many people take home. The highest police starting rate in the table is $94,651 in WA.

Teacher aides and school support officers have a different title in every state, and many work part-time. Allied health staff in public hospitals start on the first step for a registered practitioner in their profession. Train drivers are paid from the operator's agreement, with trainee rates while they learn.

ADF salaries are set by rank, pay grade and increment. Your pay grade depends on your trade or employment category, so two people of the same rank can earn very different amounts. Recruits are paid a training rate until they finish initial training. Members entitled to free Defence medical care may be exempt from the Medicare levy.

Two ABS releases answer two different questions. Average Weekly Earnings gives the mean, which a small group of very high earners pulls up. Employee Earnings gives the median, the middle person. The full-time average sits 19.7% above the full-time median, so most people earn less than "average".

Full-time ordinary earnings rose 3.7% over the year. The next update covers November 2026 and is due on 25 February 2027. Women working full-time earn 11.3% less than men on ordinary time earnings. Public sector staff average $117,681 against $105,773 in the private sector. The common mistake is to compare your part-time pay with the full-time average. Convert to a full-time figure first.

Use the median to judge what a typical worker earns, and the average to track wage growth over time. For scale, the full-time average is 2.07 times a full-time year on the national minimum wage of $52,255 (see minimum wage).

Mining pays the highest average at $167,658. Accommodation & food services pays the lowest at $78,515. Full-time pay climbs with age, peaks at 45 to 54 and then eases.

Graduate pay depends more on the field than the degree level. Teachers and nurses in public systems start on the first step of a state scale (see public sector pay). Engineers and law graduates have award minimums, and the survey medians sit well above them. Accountants are award-free, so the contract sets the pay. An intern doctor at a private employer has an award floor of $66,432.

These rankings use the official median for full-time, non-managerial adults from Jobs and Skills Australia (May 2025 survey). The median across all occupations is $96,304 a year. Trades such as crane operators and fitters rank beside engineers and software developers. The lowest median we track is Pharmacy Assistant at $57,824.

In tech, the median runs from $127,972 to $140,244 for Business Analyst, Software Engineer and Cyber Security Professional. Data analysts are left out because we hold no official median for that job alone.

Pilot minimums come from the Air Pilots Award and depend on aircraft size and role, from $51,001 to $236,988. Air traffic controllers are paid under the Airservices agreement, starting at $64,398 as an ab initio trainee and reaching $286,463 at the top level.

The common mistake with any job ranking is to read an award minimum as the going rate. The award is the least an employer can legally pay. Overtime, shift penalties and above-award contracts sit on top, which is why the market medians above run so far ahead of the award rates.

The rate below is the adult base rate at the lowest classification, the level most new starters begin on. It comes from the agreement or award that legally covers the staff. Higher levels pay more for supervisors, trained staff and longer service. A common mistake is to read a job ad's casual rate as the base rate. The casual rate already includes the loading.

An enterprise agreement is a deal between one employer and its staff. The Fair Work Commission only approves it if staff are better off overall than under the award. Agreements often trade a higher base rate for different penalty rates, so a higher hourly figure does not always mean more pay for weekend workers. When an agreement's base rate falls behind the award after a minimum wage rise, the employer must pay at least the award rate.

Agreements keep applying after their nominal expiry date until they are replaced. Of the employers we track, KFC still pays from an agreement past that date. Award-paid employers get the Annual Wage Review rise each year (see minimum wage and award rates).

Most of these employers pay casuals a 25% loading, but not all: loadings in our list run from 22.5% to 26%. ALDI employs no adult casuals at all. Workers under 21 get a share of the adult rate set by age. At Woolworths, workers aged 16 and under get 50% of the adult rate, and the full rate applies from age 20 and over.

Many chains above pay straight from one of two awards. The General Retail Industry Award 2020 starts adults at $27.81 an hour. The Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 starts at $26.44 for Level 1, the same as the minimum wage. Weekend and public holiday multiples are the same in both awards, but evenings differ: retail adds a percentage to evening hours, while hospitality adds a flat $2.95 an hour.

For overtime, shift and public holiday rules across all awards, see casual loading, overtime and penalty rates.

Start from 260 weekdays. Take off what an employee is paid for but a contractor cannot bill: 20 days of annual leave, 10 days of personal leave and 10 public holidays. Add 10 days between contracts. That leaves 210 billable days. Then subtract business costs an employer would carry, set here at $1,500 for insurance and $1,500 for accounting and software. What is left must cover both the salary and the 12% super on it.

The common mistake is to multiply the hourly rate by a full year of hours. That counts every holiday as paid and leaves super out. Contract rates in job ads are usually quoted without GST, so check before you compare.

The label in your contract does not decide it. The ATO and Fair Work look at the whole relationship: who controls how the work is done, whether you can send someone else, who supplies the tools and whether you are paid for time or for a result. Employees get 4 weeks of annual leave, 10 days of personal leave and super. Casuals get a 25% loading instead of paid leave (see casual loading). Contractors get none of these, but set their own rates and claim business costs. A contractor paid mainly for their labour can still be owed super as if they were an employee.

A sole trader is the simplest setup. You get an ABN online, often on the spot, and pay tax on profit at the same personal rates as wages, with no tax taken out for you. A company pays 25% if it is a base rate entity (turnover under $50,000,000 and no more than 80% passive income) and 30% otherwise. The trap is personal services income. If most of the income comes from your own effort and the PSI rules apply, it is taxed as yours anyway, so a company saves nothing.

You must register for GST within 21 days of reaching $75,000 of GST turnover ($150,000 for a non-profit). Then you add 10% to your invoices and pass it to the ATO.

Platforms do not take tax out of your payments, so you must set money aside. Rideshare drivers need an ABN and GST registration from the first trip, whatever they earn, and must give a tax invoice for a fare over $82.50 when asked. Food and parcel riders only need GST once turnover reaches $75,000. Claim only the work share of car, phone and other costs.

Since 17 August 2026, app-based food and grocery delivery workers have a minimum rate under the Interim On-Demand Delivery Employee-like Worker Minimum Standards Order. It is paid per hour of engaged time, not time logged in, and checked over an earnings period of up to 21 days. If you were paid less, the platform must top you up within 7 days after the period. The rate is before your own vehicle and running costs. Example: 30 engaged hours by car sets a floor of $960.00. A payout of $850 means a top-up of $110.00. Rates rise again from 1 January 2027 and are indexed from 1 January 2028.

FIFO pay depends on the roster. On a 14 on, 7 off roster of 12-hour shifts at $55 an hour, each cycle has 114 ordinary hours and 54 overtime hours at 1.5 times the rate. That is $185,900 a year before tax and $132,329 after, or $7,634.37 a cycle. Super is about $13,042, because it is worked out on ordinary pay, not overtime.

A living-away-from-home allowance is a fringe benefit, so it is not added to your taxable income. A travel allowance is. The statutory food amount used for LAFHA is $42 a week per adult. Flights between home and site are private travel, so you cannot claim them. The zone tax offset follows where you live, so most FIFO workers miss out.

A salary is only part of the cost of hiring. For an $80,000 employee in Victoria, the employer also pays $9,600 super, sets aside $6,154 for annual leave, and pays payroll tax and a workers compensation premium. Those last two are estimates: payroll tax applies only above the state threshold, and workers compensation premiums differ by industry (1.5% is assumed here). The total is $101,299, about 1.27 times the salary.

Payroll tax is charged on wages above a yearly threshold, and an interstate employer gets only its share of each state's threshold. Some states also shrink the threshold as wages grow, which is why the Northern Territory's high threshold still leaves tax to pay on $3,000,000.