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People reading this page usually work these out too.
Canberra has the highest earnings in the country and the shortest wait for long service leave. This salary calculator applies ATO 2026-27 rates to your gross pay, and the sections below deal with the ACT-only parts: Canberra Day, Reconciliation Day, 7-year long service leave, and the public service super rate that makes package figures here misleading.
Checking a payslip? Compare the fortnightly figure above with the net pay on your slip — see how to read an Australian payslip.
The ACT does not levy income tax; nobody in Australia does except the Commonwealth. A Canberra public servant and a Queanbeyan retail worker are taxed on exactly the same scale. What is different is the level: ACT earnings are the highest in the country, so a larger share of Canberra salaries reach the 37% bracket. Here is the arithmetic on $119,090, the average full-time wage in the ACT.
$119,090 is what a full-time adult in the ACT earns on average before overtime — ABS average weekly ordinary time earnings of $2,290.20 a week, May 2026, over 52 weeks.
| Gross salary | $119,090 |
| Income tax | − $26,247 |
| Medicare levy (2%) | − $2,382 |
| Take-home pay | $90,461 |
That is $1,739.63 a week, $3,479.27 a fortnight or $7,538.42 a month in the bank.
Effective tax rate 24.0%. The next dollar you earn is taxed at 32% — that is the marginal bracket plus the 2% Medicare levy.
Superannuation of $14,291 at 12% is paid by your employer on top, making the package $133,381.
With a HECS-HELP debt, a further $7,434 is withheld and take-home pay falls to $83,027 — $3,193.35 a fortnight.
Cross-border commuters from Queanbeyan, Yass or Bungendore are taxed identically — income tax follows the taxpayer, not the border. Public holidays do not: you get the holidays of the place you are based for work.
The ACT posts the highest full-time ordinary time earnings in Australia at $2,290.20 a week, and by some distance the smallest gender gap of any jurisdiction — a consequence of a workforce dominated by classified public service pay scales rather than negotiated private rates.
| ACT average weekly earnings | Per week | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time adults, ordinary hoursBase pay only — the figure this page's worked example uses | $2,290.20 | $119,090 |
| Full-time adults, including overtimeAdds overtime, so it runs ahead of the ordinary-time figure | $2,332.20 | $121,274 |
| Full-time adult menOrdinary time earnings | $2,331.90 | $121,259 |
| Full-time adult womenOrdinary time earnings | $2,244.20 | $116,698 |
| All employees, including part-timePulled down by part-time hours, not by lower rates | $1,862.10 | $96,829 |
Full-time adults in the ACT earn 9.9% more than the national average of $2,083.70 a week. Source: ABS Average Weekly Earnings, May 2026, released 13 August 2026 (Table 13, original series). Read on 28 August 2026.
Note how close the full-time and total-earnings rows are: there is very little overtime in the ACT compared with the resource states, so base salary tells you nearly the whole story.
This is the single most common source of confusion in a Canberra pay comparison, and the calculator above handles it if you tick the package box.
The calculator above uses the statutory guarantee of 12%, which is what a private-sector Canberra employer pays. If you are on a higher scheme rate, the take-home figure is unaffected — super is paid on top of salary, not out of it — but the total package line will understate you. Compare offers with the salary package calculator.
The ACT has 15 gazetted public holidays — more than NSW, which surrounds it. Two are unique to the Territory: Canberra Day in March and Reconciliation Day, held on the first Monday on or after 27 May. A retail or hospitality worker in Civic therefore gets two penalty-rate days a year that a colleague fifteen minutes away in Queanbeyan does not.
Australian Capital Territory publishes 15 public holidays for 2026, and 8 of them are not observed Australia-wide. Those are the days a worker one state over does not get paid a penalty rate for. The days marked ACT only below are the difference.
| 2026 date | Public holiday | Observed |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 1 January | New Year's Day | Nationwide |
| Monday 26 January | Australia Day | Nationwide |
| Monday 9 March | Canberra Day | ACT only |
| Friday 3 April | Good Friday | Nationwide |
| Saturday 4 April | Easter Saturday – the day after Good Friday | ACT only |
| Sunday 5 April | Easter Sunday | ACT only |
| Monday 6 April | Easter Monday | Nationwide |
| Saturday 25 April | Anzac Day | Nationwide |
| Monday 27 April | Additional public holiday for Anzac Day | ACT only |
| Monday 1 June | Reconciliation Day | ACT only |
| Monday 8 June | King's Birthday | ACT only |
| Monday 5 October | Labour Day | ACT only |
| Friday 25 December | Christmas Day | Nationwide |
| Saturday 26 December | Boxing Day | Nationwide |
| Monday 28 December | Additional public holiday for Boxing Day | ACT only |
Source: Fair Work Ombudsman, 2026 public holidays, read 28 August 2026. Regional and part-day variations apply — check with Australian Capital Territory for the list that covers your town.
Why the ACT list matters to your pay
Under most modern awards, working a public holiday attracts a penalty of 200% to 250% of your base rate, and if you do not work you are still entitled to be absent without losing pay. You are entitled to the public holidays where you are based for work, not where you happen to be standing on the day.
Work out what a holiday shift is actually worth with the overtime and penalty rate calculator, or read the penalty rates guide.
The ACT reaches the entitlement faster than anywhere else in Australia — 7 years, and a pro-rata payment can be owed from as little as 5. There is also a quirk worth knowing: if a public holiday falls during your long service leave, the leave is extended by a day.
The ACT reaches the entitlement fastest of any jurisdiction: 6.0667 weeks of paid leave after just 7 years of continuous service, then a further fifth of a month each year. If a public holiday falls during your long service leave, the leave is extended by a day. A pro-rata payment can be owed from as little as 5 years where the job ends through illness, incapacity, pressing necessity, retirement, death, or dismissal for anything short of serious and wilful misconduct.
| Governing law | Long Service Leave Act 1976 (ACT) |
| Service before you can take leave | 7 years |
| Leave at that point | 6.0667 weeks |
| After that | a further 1/5 of a month for each subsequent year of continuous service |
| Pro-rata payment when the job ends | From 5 years |
| Who to ask | WorkSafe ACT |
Long service leave is paid at your ordinary rate, so the calculator at the top of this page tells you what a week of it is worth after tax. A lump sum paid out when you leave is taxed differently — see the final pay calculator. Source: WorkSafe ACT, read 28 August 2026.
Coming soon: ACT long service leave calculator
We are building a calculator for each state's long service leave rules. The Australian Capital Territory long service leave calculator will work out your accrued weeks and what they are worth after tax. Until it lands, use the leave calculator or go straight to WorkSafe ACT.
The Long Service Leave Act 1976 (ACT) covers ACT private sector employees who are not covered by an award or agreement containing long service leave terms. Public sector staff are not covered by it, and the building, cleaning, community and security industries accrue through ACT Leave's portable schemes instead.
Does ACT payroll tax come out of your pay? No.
It is a cost of hiring you, not a deduction from you. Once an employer's Australian wage bill passes $1,750,000 a year it starts paying 6.75% to the Australian Capital Territory revenue office on the excess. That never appears on your payslip and never reduces your gross salary. If you see a deduction you cannot account for, the full employer-side detail is further down this page.
The ACT charges the highest headline payroll tax rate in the country against the highest threshold, so very few Canberra employers pay it at all. Either way it is not your deduction — see the payslip guide for the items that genuinely are.
Income tax is identical everywhere in Australia. What changes is the public holiday calendar, the long service leave Act and the payroll tax your employer pays.
None of this reduces an employee's take-home pay.
ACT payroll tax is 6.75% on taxable wages above a $1,750,000 annual threshold, paid exclusively by employers and administered by the ACT Revenue Office.
The ACT threshold is among the highest in Australia, exempting the majority of small and medium businesses. Payroll tax does not reduce your take-home pay — it is an employer-only obligation. However, larger employers factor payroll tax into total employment costs, which indirectly influences salary budgets and hiring capacity.
6.75% up to $20m Australia-wide wages, tiered to 8.75% above $150m (threshold cut from $2m on 1 July 2026)
| State / Territory | Rate | Annual Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| ACT | 6.75% | $1,750,000 |
| NSW | 5.45% | $1,200,000 |
| VIC | 4.85% | $1,000,000 |
| QLD | 4.75% | $1,300,000 |
| WA | 5.50% | $1,000,000 |
| SA | 4.95% | $1,500,000 |
| TAS | 4.00% | $1,250,000 |
| NT | 5.50% | $2,500,000 |
The ACT's $1,750,000 threshold means a business with a total annual wage bill under that amount pays zero payroll tax. In contrast, a Victorian employer exceeding $1,000,000 in wages already triggers liability at 4.85%.
Work injury insurance in the ACT is provided by private licensed insurers and funded by employer premiums. Model payroll tax, super and premiums together with the Employer Cost Calculator.
Income tax, the Medicare levy, HECS-HELP and superannuation are calculated with the site's federal engine for 2026-27; there are no territory-specific individual income taxes. ACT earnings come from the ABS Average Weekly Earnings release for May 2026 (Table 13h, original series). Public holidays come from the Fair Work Ombudsman's 2026 list, and long service leave from the Long Service Leave Act 1976 as explained by WorkSafe ACT. ACT payroll tax data is sourced from the ACT Revenue Office and describes employer obligations only.
Last verified: 28 August 2026. Our content is based on the latest information from official Australian government sources.