Overtime Pay Calculator (Australia)

What the overtime pay calculator does

This overtime pay calculator prices a single week of Australian work that is made up of more than plain ordinary hours. You enter your base hourly rate, the ordinary hours you worked, and how many hours fell at time and a half, at double time, and on a public holiday. It returns the gross for the week, each penalty block priced separately, the effective hourly rate the week actually earned, the superannuation guarantee payable on the ordinary hours, and an annual figure if you work that pattern regularly.

It is built for the two moments that matter: checking that a payslip is right after a heavy week, and deciding whether an offered shift is worth taking before you accept it.

How Australian penalty rates work

Australian overtime is not a single national rate. The Fair Work Act sets the framework, but the actual multipliers live in the modern award or enterprise agreement covering your classification. What is close to universal is the shape of the system.

Ordinary hours are paid at the ordinary rate. Once you work beyond the ordinary hours your instrument sets, a multiplier applies. The three multipliers that cover most rosters are:

• Time and a half, generally the first two or three hours of overtime on a day, and often Saturday work
• Double time, generally overtime beyond those first hours, and often Sunday work
• Public holiday rates, commonly double time and a half

The calculator ships with these three as its defaults because they are the most common figures across the modern award system, and every one of them can be overridden in the advanced options. That override is not an afterthought. Awards genuinely differ: some pay double time on Saturday after a threshold, some pay a flat 200 per cent on Sunday, some hospitality and retail instruments use quite different numbers again. Enter your own multiplier and the calculation follows it.

The 38-hour week and when overtime starts

The National Employment Standards set the maximum ordinary weekly hours for a full-time employee at 38, plus reasonable additional hours. Most awards build their overtime triggers on that base.

By default the calculator treats any ordinary hours you enter above the standard week as overtime and moves them into the time-and-a-half block. That reflects how most awards actually operate and it stops the common mistake of pricing a 44-hour week entirely at the base rate. If your instrument pays ordinary rates beyond 38 hours, or you are averaging hours over a roster cycle, switch that behaviour off in the advanced options and the extra hours stay at the base rate.

Be aware that many awards trigger overtime on daily hours or on work outside a defined span of ordinary hours, not on a weekly total. A person who works ten hours on Monday and six on each of the next four days has worked 38 hours but may still be owed overtime for the long Monday. This tool prices the blocks you give it; classifying the hours correctly is the part you need the award for.

Casual employees and the loading

A casual has no paid leave, so the National Employment Standards add a loading, normally 25 per cent, to the ordinary rate. When a casual works overtime, most modern awards apply the penalty multiplier to the loaded rate, so the loading and the penalty compound.

Setting the employment type to casual applies the loading to the base rate first and then runs every multiplier on the loaded figure. On a base of $35 an hour that turns the ordinary rate into $43.75 and double time into $87.50. A small number of instruments calculate penalties on the unloaded rate, or absorb the loading into the penalty entirely, so check yours before relying on the casual figure.

Superannuation is not paid on overtime

This is the output that surprises people most often. The superannuation guarantee is calculated on ordinary time earnings, and overtime worked outside ordinary hours at a penalty rate is specifically excluded from that definition. A week with $500 of overtime in it produces no extra super.

The distinction is about the hours, not the rate. Penalty rates paid for ordinary hours worked at an unsociable time, such as a weekend shift that is part of your rostered ordinary hours, do count as ordinary time earnings and do attract super. Genuine overtime does not. The calculator shows super on the ordinary time pay only, which is the conservative and generally correct reading.

For a worker who does a lot of overtime this matters over a career. Two people on the same gross income can end up with very different superannuation balances if one earns their income through ordinary hours and the other through overtime.

Reading the results

The effective hourly rate is the number worth watching. It divides the week's total gross by the total hours paid and tells you what the week really earned per hour on the clock. A week with a few double-time hours in it can lift the effective rate well above the base, which is useful when deciding whether an extra shift is worth the time.

The overtime share shows how much of the week's pay depends on penalty hours. A high share is a warning sign for budgeting, because overtime is the first thing an employer cuts when work slows down and lenders discount it heavily when assessing borrowing capacity.

The annual gross estimate multiplies the week by the number of weeks you set. Use a realistic figure rather than 52, because shutdowns, leave and quiet periods all reduce the weeks in which the pattern actually happens.

What to check before you rely on the numbers

Enter the base ordinary rate for your classification, not a rate that already includes a loading or a penalty, or the result will double count. Check the award or enterprise agreement for the multipliers that apply to you and enter them if they differ from the defaults. Confirm whether your overtime is triggered daily or weekly, and whether meal allowances, shift allowances or a first-aid allowance should be added on top, because allowances sit outside this calculation.

The figures here are an estimate based on the rate, hours and multipliers you enter. They are general information, not employment or financial advice. Check your award or enterprise agreement, or the Fair Work Ombudsman, before relying on them for a pay claim.

About This Overtime Pay Calculator

Use this overtime pay calculator to get an instant, accurate estimate. The figures follow official ATO guidance and every rate and threshold is kept up to date for 2026. Adjust the inputs above to match your situation, or browse all our calculators to plan your next step.