Plus super, or including super
Australian jobs are advertised both ways and almost nothing tells you which one you are looking at."$90,000 plus super" means $90,000 in your hand and $10,800 into your fund."$100,800 package" is the same job described from the other end.
Twelve per cent is a big enough gap that comparing one against the other makes an offer look better or worse by a margin that is not there. The result above prints both figures for whatever you enter, so you can tell which number you were given.
The surcharge is the only place a pay rise can cost you money
Income tax in Australia is marginal, so an extra dollar is only ever taxed at the rate for that dollar. Moving into the 37% bracket does not tax your whole salary at 37%, whatever the pub says.
The Medicare levy surcharge does not work like that. If you have no private patient hospital cover and your income for surcharge purposes goes over the threshold, the surcharge is charged on the whole amount. Cross $105,000 as a single person by one dollar and you owe about $1,050. Cross $123,000 and the rate goes from 1% to 1.25% on everything, another $307.
So a rise of $500 that carries you over a threshold leaves you down on the deal. It is the one genuine cliff in the system, nothing on a payslip warns you that you are standing next to one, and the tool above says how far away the next one is.
Which makes hospital cover an arithmetic question, not a lifestyle one
The surcharge exists to push people into private cover, and the mechanism is blunt on purpose: if a hospital policy costs less per year than the surcharge you would otherwise pay, you are better off with the policy and you also have the policy.
The tool prints your surcharge so you have one side of that comparison. It does not quote insurance prices, because those depend on your age, your state and what you buy, and a number invented here would be worse than no number. Take the figure to a comparison site and you have both halves.
Sacrificing to super closes one door and not the other two
Salary sacrifice genuinely reduces your income tax and your Medicare levy, because it reduces taxable income. Almost everybody then assumes it reduces the study loan repayment and the surcharge too, and it reduces neither.
Both of those are assessed on a figure that takes your taxable income and adds reportable super contributions back. Sacrifice $10,000 and your taxable income drops by $10,000 while your reportable contributions rise by exactly $10,000, so the number they look at has not moved. Somebody on $110,000 who sacrifices $10,000 sees a taxable income of $100,000, believes they are clear of the $105,000 surcharge line, and is not.
That is not an oversight in the rules, it is the point of them. Adding the contributions back is precisely what stops sacrifice being used to duck either charge.
Study loans are marginal now, apart from the top band
Before 2025-26, crossing a repayment threshold meant repaying a percentage of your entire income, so one extra dollar could add hundreds to the bill. Since then the repayment is worked out only on income above the threshold, which is a straightforward improvement.
The top band kept the old shape. Above $186,050 the repayment is 10% of your total repayment income rather than of the excess. Any calculator that applies "marginal" evenly across all four bands will tell somebody on a high income that they owe thousands less than they do.
What is not here
Offsets beyond the low-income Medicare reduction, the seniors and pensioners offset, private health rebates, fringe benefits, investment income and anything to do with a second job or a partial year. This is a salaried person's annual position, which is what somebody typing "pay calculator" is asking about.
One timing note worth knowing: Payday Super started on 1 July 2026, so employers now pay super on payday rather than quarterly. It does not change any figure above, and it does mean any guidance you read describing a quarterly obligation is describing a world that has ended.
Common questions
Is the salary I was quoted including super or not?
It depends how it was written, and both are normal in Australia, which is the problem. "$90,000 plus super" means you are paid $90,000 and your employer pays $10,800 of super on top. "$100,800 package" is the same job. The two figures are 12% apart and describe an identical offer, so comparing one against the other makes one look better by a margin that does not exist. The result above shows both.
What is the Medicare levy surcharge and why is it so much?
It is an extra levy for people over an income threshold who do not hold private patient hospital cover, and it is charged on your WHOLE income rather than on the part above the threshold. So at $105,001 as a single person you pay 1% of $105,001, which is about $1,050, not 1% of one dollar. That is why it lands as a lump rather than creeping in, and it is the reason hospital cover costing less than the surcharge leaves you better off.
Can a pay rise leave me worse off?
Through the surcharge, yes, and it is the only place in the Australian system where that happens. Crossing $105,000 by a dollar with no hospital cover costs about $1,050. Crossing $123,000 moves the rate from 1% to 1.25% on everything, which is another $307. A rise smaller than the step leaves you down on the deal. Income tax itself never does this, because it is marginal: an extra dollar is only ever taxed at the rate for that dollar.
Does salary sacrificing to super reduce my study loan repayment?
No, and this catches almost everybody. Your repayment is assessed on repayment income, which is taxable income with reportable super contributions added straight back. Sacrifice $10,000 and your taxable income falls by $10,000 while your reportable super contributions rise by $10,000, so the figure the loan is assessed on does not move at all. That is deliberate: adding the contributions back is what stops sacrifice being used to avoid the repayment. The income tax saving is real; the loan saving does not exist.
Does sacrificing get me under the surcharge threshold?
No, for the same reason. Income for surcharge purposes also adds reportable super contributions back. Somebody on $110,000 who sacrifices $10,000 has a taxable income of $100,000, which looks clear of the $105,000 line and is not: the surcharge still sees $110,000. Two different levies, one mechanism, and both of them close the same door.
How do study loan repayments work now?
Since 2025-26 they are marginal, so you repay only on the income above the minimum threshold rather than a percentage of everything. That was a real improvement: the old system meant one extra dollar could add hundreds to the repayment. The exception is the top band, which still charges 10% of your total repayment income rather than of the excess. A calculator applying "marginal" to all four bands will understate a high income by thousands.
Why is there a separate Australian page rather than a country switch?
Because none of the things above exist anywhere else. Super quoted inside or outside a salary, a surcharge that is a cliff, a study loan that adds your super back, and a levy with a low-income phase-in are all specific to Australia. A single page covering four countries would carry three sets of fields nobody needs and would have to leave out the detail that makes any one of them useful. The UK and US versions are separate pages for the same reason.
Does anything I enter get sent anywhere?
No. It runs in your browser. No account, nothing uploaded, nothing stored. Turn your network off and it still works, which beats taking the claim on trust.