Superannuation calculator: work out the super on any salary

How This Superannuation Calculator Works

This wealth projection tool computes your mandatory superannuation guarantee (SG) contributions and shows how your selection affects your core take-home pay structures. Under Australian law, employers must pay superannuation contributions directly into your nominated complying fund. The calculation is driven by two main contract choices: "Base + Super" or "Package Inclusive".

When you input a gross salary and choose "Base + Super", the calculator applies the statutory SG percentage (12.0% for the 2026-27 financial year) on top of your input salary to determine the exact cash contribution. When choosing "Package Inclusive", the calculator recognizes that your entered amount is the complete package value. It then solves the mathematical division to separate the base taxable salary from the super portion, ensuring the sum of both values equals the package total.

Worked Step-By-Step Superannuation Example (2026-27)

Let's step through a worked numerical example comparing both remuneration styles using a contract amount of $120,000 at the 2026-27 Super Guarantee rate of 12.0%.

Uniquely, our step-by-step math demonstrates that with "Base + Super", your super payment is $14,400, whereas with a "Package Inclusive" contract, the super is restricted to $12,857, which reduces the base taxable salary to $107,142.86.

Who Should Use This Superannuation Tool?

This utility is suitable for Australian contract negotiators mapping salary packages, full-time employees wishing to ensure their quarterly payslip contributions align with current ATO regulations, human resource managers preparing internal compliance updates, and contractors wishing to calculate the exact super component inside there total business invoice structures.

Important Superannuation Parameters for 2026-27

• Statutory SG Rate12.0% of Qualifying Earnings (QE replaced OTE on 1 July 2026)
• Annual Concessional Cap$32,500 (pre-tax cap including all employer payments)
• Annual Non-Concessional Cap$130,000 (post-tax personal limits)
• Super Co-Contribution ThresholdGovernment matches up to $500 for low-middle income earners

How To Work Out Super On A Salary

Superannuation is 12% of your qualifying earnings. The arithmetic is genuinely simple; what trips people up is which number you apply it to, and whether super sits on top of your salary or comes out of it.

If super is paid on top of your salary (a "base plus super" contract, which is the common arrangement), multiply your salary by 0.12. On $100,000 that is $12,000 of super, and your total package is $112,000. Your salary is untouched.

If your package is inclusive of super, the calculation runs the other way. Divide the package by 1.12 to find the salary underneath it. A $100,000 package inclusive of super is $89,285.71 salary plus $10,714.29 super. This is why an SG rate rise can quietly cut your take-home pay on an inclusive contract and not on a base-plus one.

The figure super is calculated on changed on 1 July 2026. It used to be your ordinary time earnings (OTE); under Payday Super it is now your qualifying earnings (QE). QE builds on OTE rather than replacing it wholesale: everything that counted for super up to 30 June 2026 still counts. The one addition is commissions for work done entirely outside ordinary hours.

Either way, it is not everything you get paid. It includes your ordinary hours, shift loadings, commissions, most bonuses and paid leave, and it generally excludes overtime. That overtime exclusion remains the most common source of an underpaid super calculation.

Set the calculator above to weekly, fortnightly or monthly and enter what you actually get paid, and it works the annual figure out for you rather than making you do it first.

Working Out Super As A Small Employer

If you pay staff, the super guarantee is 12% of each employee's qualifying earnings, and it is not optional. The $450 monthly minimum earnings threshold was removed on 1 July 2022, so super is payable regardless of how little someone earns in a month. Employees under 18 are the remaining exception: they must work more than 30 hours in a week before SG applies.

The quarterly system is gone. Payday super started on 1 July 2026. Super now has to be paid with every pay run, not four times a year. If you are still working to the old 28 October, 28 January, 28 April and 28 July dates, you are already behind.

The obligation is that contributions must be received by the employee's fund within seven business days of payday. Received, not sent. Clearing houses take time to pass money on, so submitting on day six is not the same as being compliant, and that gap is where most employers will get caught in the first year.

Paying late triggers the super guarantee charge. From 1 July 2026 the ATO assesses it (employers no longer lodge a statement), it is calculated on qualifying earnings, and it carries interest that compounds daily at the general interest charge rate plus an administrative uplift. The uplift can be reduced where you make a voluntary disclosure and the ATO has taken no prior action. A separate late payment penalty of 25% can also apply to any amount still unpaid 28 days after a Notice to Pay, rising to 50% for a repeat within 24 months (reducible to 0% under an ATO exceptional-circumstances determination). Paying on time is materially cheaper than paying late.

If you moved from quarterly to per-pay-run in July, the cash-flow shape of your business changed: money that used to sit with you for up to three months now leaves within days. Set the calculator above to your pay cycle to see the per-run figure rather than the annual one.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)