Payroll Calculator
True cost of hiring an employee — including super, workers comp and payroll tax — plus their take-home pay.
If your total Australian wages bill is below the state threshold (typically $900k–$2M), no payroll tax applies. Leave blank to assume only this employee.
Single Touch Payroll (STP) is mandatory in Australia — every payday you report wages, tax and super to the ATO in real time. Spreadsheets won't cut it. Both Xero and MYOB have STP-compliant payroll built in.
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The numbers above are a starting point. For decisions involving your full financial picture — tax, debt, super, investments — a qualified Australian financial adviser can give tailored guidance.
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What's the true cost of hiring an employee in Australia?
The "on-cost" of an Australian employee — everything you pay on top of their gross salary — is typically 12 to 17 per cent. The biggest item is the Super Guarantee at 12 per cent (raised from 11.5 per cent on 1 July 2025), and the rest is workers' compensation insurance plus payroll tax if your business is large enough to clear the state threshold.
For a $90,000 employee, the true cost to a small NSW employer is usually around $102,000–$104,000 once super and workers' comp are added. Payroll tax only kicks in once your TOTAL Australian wage bill exceeds the state threshold — which for most small employers means $0 in payroll tax.
- Superannuation Guarantee: 12 per cent of ordinary time earnings from 1 July 2025. Paid quarterly into the employee's super fund. Late super attracts the Super Guarantee Charge — much worse than the tax itself.
- Workers' compensation: mandatory in every state. Premiums vary wildly by industry — under 0.5 per cent for office work, over 5 per cent for high-risk trades. The calculator uses a state-average rate.
- Payroll tax thresholds (2025–26): NSW $1.2M, VIC $900k, QLD $1.3M, WA $1M, SA $1.5M, TAS $1.25M, ACT $2M, NT $1.5M. Many small businesses pay zero payroll tax because they're under threshold.
- Single Touch Payroll (STP) is mandatory — every payday you report wages, PAYG and super to the ATO in real time. All major payroll software handles this automatically.
- Annual leave loading is typically 17.5 per cent on top of the wage paid during annual leave, set by your award or agreement. Not modelled in this calculator.
Frequently asked questions
12 per cent of ordinary time earnings (OTE). The SG rate increased from 11.5 per cent to 12 per cent on 1 July 2025 — the final step in a scheduled increase from 9 per cent that began in 2014. It's stayed at 12 per cent ever since.
Only if total Australian wages exceed the state threshold — typically $900,000 to $2 million depending on the state. Most genuinely small employers (under 10–15 staff) pay no payroll tax at all. If you have wages across multiple states, each state's threshold is apportioned based on the share of wages in that state.
STP is the ATO's mandatory real-time reporting framework. Every time you run payroll, your software sends payment, PAYG withholding and super liability information to the ATO. There are no longer any reporting exemptions — even employers with one or two staff must comply. Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks and all major payroll software are STP-compliant out of the box.
It comes down to whether you control how the work is done (employee) or just what the result is (contractor). Misclassifying an employee as a contractor is a serious compliance issue — you can owe back-super, PAYG, and penalties. The ATO and Fair Work both publish decision tools. When in doubt, treat as an employee.
Premiums are set by your state's workers' comp authority and depend on your industry classification (WIC). Office-based businesses might pay under 0.5 per cent of wages; construction and high-risk trades can pay 5 per cent or more. Your insurer will quote based on your business activity. Average across all industries is around 1.2–1.5 per cent of wages.
Yes — Australian payslips must show the super contribution amount separately, even though it's paid by the employer on top of wages, not deducted from them. Some employees mistakenly think the super is taken out of their pay; it isn't, unless they're salary-sacrificing extra into super themselves.