Pay Rise Calculator (Australia)

What the pay rise calculator does

This pay rise calculator answers the only question that matters when an increase is offered: how much of it will you actually see. Enter your current salary and the rise, as a percentage or a dollar figure, and it returns the extra take-home pay per year, per month, per fortnight and per week, the tax the increase attracts, the rate you really pay on it, the extra employer superannuation, and what the rise is worth once inflation is stripped out.

The headline number on the offer letter is gross. Between that number and your bank account sit the marginal tax brackets, the Medicare levy and, at lower incomes, the taper of the Low Income Tax Offset. On a typical Australian salary roughly a third of a rise never arrives.

How the after-tax value is worked out

There is a wrong way to do this and a right way. The wrong way is to assume a marginal rate and multiply. That breaks whenever a rise crosses a bracket, and it breaks again at lower incomes where the Low Income Tax Offset is tapering away and adds a hidden few cents to every extra dollar.

The right way, and the one used here, is to calculate the whole tax bill twice: once on your current income and once on the new one, using the ATO resident brackets, the offset and the Medicare levy. The difference between the two is the tax the rise actually causes. The rate output is then derived from that difference rather than assumed, so it is correct even when the increase straddles a threshold.

For the 2026-27 year the resident scale taxes nothing below $18,200, then 15 per cent to $45,000, 30 per cent to $135,000, 37 per cent to $190,000 and 45 per cent above that, with the 2 per cent Medicare levy on top for most residents. Those figures are parameters in this site, not numbers written into the code, so they update when the ATO changes them.

The bracket you are in matters more than the size of the rise

A $5,000 rise is not one thing. For someone on $60,000 it is worth about $3,325 in the hand, because 30 per cent tax, the 2 per cent levy and the 1.5 per cent taper of the offset all bite. For someone on $145,000 it is worth about $3,050. For someone whose income moves from $132,000 to $137,000 it lands in between, because part of it is taxed at 30 per cent and part at 37.

This is why comparing rises between colleagues is misleading, and why a rise expressed as a percentage of a bigger salary can deliver a smaller proportional improvement in lifestyle than it looks like it should. Use the per-pay outputs rather than the annual one when you are deciding whether an offer changes anything. An extra $88 a fortnight reads very differently from an extra $2,312 a year, and the fortnightly figure is the one your budget will feel.

Superannuation moves too

If your salary is quoted exclusive of super, a rise lifts the employer contribution as well, because the superannuation guarantee is a percentage of ordinary time earnings. That extra contribution never touches your bank account, but it is real compensation and belongs in any comparison of two offers.

The total package output adds the salary increase and the super increase together. Be careful when an employer quotes a package inclusive of super: in that case the rise is split between the two, so a 5 per cent package increase is a smaller increase in salary and therefore a smaller increase in take-home pay than the headline suggests. Ask which basis the offer is on before you accept it.

Contributing extra to super rather than taking salary is worth considering if you are above the 15 per cent contributions tax rate, which is almost everyone. The money is taxed at 15 per cent going in instead of at 32 per cent or more, but it is locked away until preservation age and is subject to the concessional contributions cap.

Real terms: does the rise beat inflation

A rise only makes you better off if it outpaces prices. Set the expected inflation rate in the advanced options and the calculator discounts your new salary back into today's dollars, showing the increase in real terms and the real gain in take-home pay.

The result is often sobering. A 3 per cent rise against 3 per cent inflation leaves your gross purchasing power flat, and your after-tax position slightly behind, because the extra dollars are taxed while your grocery bill is not. This is bracket creep in action: when thresholds are fixed in nominal terms, inflation quietly moves people into higher brackets without any improvement in what they can afford.

If the real gain output is close to zero, the rise has kept you level rather than moved you forward. That is a legitimate thing to raise in a negotiation.

Using the numbers in a negotiation

Work out what you need in the hand first, then work backwards to the gross figure that delivers it. If your budget needs another $500 a month after tax and you sit in the 30 per cent bracket, you need roughly $8,800 of gross salary, not $6,000. Going into a conversation with the gross number already grossed up saves a second round.

It is also worth checking what else moves with your income. Family Tax Benefit, the Child Care Subsidy, the Medicare levy surcharge and the compulsory HELP repayment all have their own income tests, and a rise can reduce a payment or trigger a repayment obligation in a way that is invisible in a simple tax calculation. The other tools on this site cover each of those tests separately.

The figures here are an estimate based on the salary, rise and inflation rate you enter and on the resident tax rates in force. They exclude HELP or HECS repayments, the Medicare levy surcharge, salary packaging and any private health or family payment effects. They are general information, not financial advice.

About This Pay Rise Calculator

Use this pay rise 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.