Pay Calculator NT: Your Take-Home Pay in the Northern Territory
NTThis Northern Territory pay calculator works out your take-home pay on ATO 2026-27 rates. Two things change NT pay more than anywhere else in Australia: the zone tax offset, which eligible NT residents claim in their tax return, and Picnic Day, which nobody outside the Territory gets.
What comes out
To check a payslip, compare the weekly, fortnightly or monthly figure above that matches your pay period with the net pay on your slip; see how to read an Australian payslip.
NT pay at a glance
- Minimum wage: the national minimum wage is $26.44 an hour ($1,004.90 for a 38-hour week) from 1 July 2026; most jobs pay an award rate above it (see the minimum wage guide).
- Public holidays: 15 in 2026, 8 of them NT-only. Working one usually attracts 200%–250% of your base rate under an award (dates in the public holiday table below).
- Long service leave: 13.00 weeks after 10 years under the Long Service Leave Act 1981 (NT): NT long service leave calculator.
- Government jobs: NT public service pay scales, NT teacher pay and NT nurse pay rates.
- Emergency services: NT paramedic pay, NT police pay and NT firefighter pay.
- Workers compensation: if you are injured at work, the NT scheme (NT WorkSafe) covers weekly payments and medical costs. Your employer pays the premium; nothing is deducted from your pay for it.
Minimum wage and state awards in the Northern Territory
The National Minimum Wage is $26.44 an hour ($1,004.90 for a 38-hour week) from 1 July 2026, and it applies to adults in the national system whatever the state. Most people earn an award rate above it: see what the minimum wage in Australia is and the award rates guide.
Generally, all employees and employers in the Northern Territory are covered by the national system, so there is no separate NT minimum wage.
Source: Fair Work Ombudsman, Fair Work system, read 5 October 2026. Check with Fair Work or your state industrial commission if you are unsure which system covers your employer.
How much of a Northern Territory salary do you actually keep?
The Territory levies no income tax. What it does have is the zone tax offset, which the calculator above deliberately does not apply because the amount depends on your locality and it is claimed in your return rather than withheld from your pay. The worked example below runs the base arithmetic on $103,173, the average full-time wage in the NT.
Worked example: $103,173 in the Northern Territory
$103,173 is what a full-time adult in the Northern Territory earns on average before overtime: ABS average weekly ordinary time earnings of $1,984.10 a week, May 2026, over 52 weeks.
| Gross salary | $103,173 |
| Income tax | − $21,472 |
| Medicare levy (2%) | − $2,063 |
| Take-home pay | $79,638 |
That is $1,531.50 a week, $3,063.00 a fortnight or $6,636.50 a month in the bank.
Effective tax rate 22.8%. The next dollar you earn is taxed at 32%, which is your tax bracket rate plus the 2% Medicare levy.
Superannuation of $12,381 at 12% is paid by your employer on top, making the package $115,554.
With a HECS-HELP debt, a further $5,047 is withheld and take-home pay falls to $74,591, or $2,868.88 a fortnight.
Add the zone offset on top of this result at tax time: it reduces the tax you owe, not your taxable income, so it comes back as a refund rather than a bigger fortnightly pay.
The zone tax offset: the NT-only adjustment to your tax
Every NT resident lives in a designated zone. Which one decides how much you get back, and you must have lived there for more than half the income year to claim.
- Zone A – Darwin, Palmerston, Alice Springs, Katherine, Jabiru and most other NT localities. On the ATO's list the whole Territory is Zone A or a Zone A special area.
- Special area (highest offset) – particularly remote locations such as Tennant Creek and Nhulunbuy (Gove), generally more than 250 km from a population centre of 2,500 people
Work out yours with the zone tax offset guide and calculator, then add it to the take-home figure above. Remote-area housing and district allowances paid by your employer are a separate matter again: some are fringe benefits rather than salary, so check how yours is treated on your payslip.
Is your NT salary normal? What the ABS says
The Territory has an unusual earnings shape. Full-time ordinary time earnings of $1,984.10 a week sit below the national average, but the all-employees figure of $1,675.30 is the third highest in the country, after the ACT and Western Australia.
| NT average weekly earnings | Per week | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time adults, ordinary hoursBase pay only: the figure this page's worked example uses | $1,984.10 | $103,173 |
| Full-time adults, including overtimeAdds overtime, so it runs ahead of the ordinary-time figure | $2,092.10 | $108,789 |
| Full-time adult menOrdinary time earnings | $2,095.30 | $108,956 |
| Full-time adult womenOrdinary time earnings | $1,853.50 | $96,382 |
| All employees, including part-timePulled down by part-time hours, not by lower rates | $1,675.30 | $87,116 |
Full-time adults in the Northern Territory earn 4.8% less 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.
Overtime adds $108.00 a week to the full-time figure, the largest overtime gap of any state or territory. If you work a roster, the overtime calculator and the mining and FIFO pay guide will get you closer than base salary alone.
Northern Territory public holidays and what they do to your pay
The NT has 15 public holidays in 2026, level with South Australia and the ACT for the most in Australia. Picnic Day on the first Monday in August is Territory-only. May Day in early May falls on the same Monday as Queensland's Labour Day. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are both part-day holidays from 7 pm, so an evening shift changes rate partway through. Regional show days in Darwin, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs are declared separately and are not in the Territory-wide list.
Northern Territory publishes 15 public holidays for 2026, and 8 of them are not observed Australia-wide. A worker one state over is not paid a public holiday penalty rate on those days, which are marked NT only in the table below.
| 2026 date | Public holiday | Observed |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday 1 January | New Year's Day | Nationwide |
| Monday 26 January | Australia Day | Nationwide |
| Friday 3 April | Good Friday | Nationwide |
| Saturday 4 April | Easter Saturday | NT only |
| Sunday 5 April | Easter Sunday | NT only |
| Monday 6 April | Easter Monday | Nationwide |
| Saturday 25 April | Anzac Day | Nationwide |
| Monday 4 May | May Day | NT only |
| Monday 8 June | King's Birthday | NT only |
| Monday 3 August | Picnic Day | NT only |
| Thursday 24 December | Christmas EvePart-day holiday, from 7 pm to midnight. | NT only |
| Friday 25 December | Christmas Day | Nationwide |
| Saturday 26 December | Boxing Day | Nationwide |
| Monday 28 December | Additional public holiday for Boxing Day | NT only |
| Thursday 31 December | New Year's EvePart-day holiday, from 7 pm to midnight. | NT only |
Source: Fair Work Ombudsman, 2026 public holidays, read 28 August 2026. Regional and part-day variations apply, so check the Northern Territory government list that covers your town.
NT public holidays 2026 & 2027: every date, regional days and public holiday pay rates →
Why the NT list matters to your pay
Under most modern awards, working a public holiday attracts a penalty of 200% to 250% of your base rate. You have a right to be absent on a public holiday. If you are full-time or part-time and the holiday falls on a day you normally work, you are paid your base rate for the ordinary hours you would have worked; casual employees are not paid for a public holiday they do not work. 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.
Long service leave in the Northern Territory
The NT matches South Australia on quantity (13 weeks at 10 years), but is stricter about how you get there. Part years do not count at all, workers compensation absences do not accrue, and you cannot cash the leave out instead of taking it.
NT employees earn thirteen weeks of paid long service leave after 10 years of continuous service, calculated at 1.3 weeks for each year of employment. Part years do not count, and you cannot cash the leave out instead of taking it. Between 7 and 10 years a pro-rata payment is owed only if you reach retirement age, the employer ends the job for something other than serious misconduct, or you resign because of illness, incapacity or pressing necessity.
| Governing law | Long Service Leave Act 1981 (NT) |
| Service before you can take leave | 10 years |
| Leave at that point | 13 weeks |
| After that | 1.3 weeks of leave for each further year of employment |
| Pro-rata payment when the job ends | From 7 years |
| Who to ask | NT Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment |
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: NT Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment, read 28 August 2026.
Work out your own balance and payout with the NT long service leave calculator.
While on long service leave you are paid at your usual rate, which does not include overtime, penalties, or district and site allowances, a meaningful difference in the Territory, where those can be a large share of take-home pay. NT Government and Australian Government employees, and construction workers under NT Build, are covered by separate arrangements.
Does NT payroll tax come out of your pay?
Does NT payroll tax come out of your pay? No.
Payroll tax is a cost of hiring you, not a deduction from your pay. Once an employer's Australian wage bill passes $2,500,000 a year it pays 5.5% to the Territory Revenue Office on top of wages. Payroll tax never appears on your payslip and never reduces your gross salary. Employers can find the rates, thresholds and due dates on the NT payroll tax page.
The Territory has the highest payroll tax threshold in the country, $2,500,000 of Australian wages, and an employer at or below it pays none. Either way, it is not a payslip line: see the payslip guide.
Pay calculators for other states
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.
Employer? NT payroll tax is on its own page
Northern Territory payroll tax for 2026-27: 5.5% above a $2,500,000 threshold, administered by the Territory Revenue Office. The rates, phase-outs, registration rules, due dates and a calculator set to NT are on the payroll tax page.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Income tax brackets, the Medicare levy (2% of taxable income) and HECS-HELP thresholds are federal and apply uniformly across Australia. NT residents pay the same rates as everyone else. The zone tax offset is the only NT-linked adjustment, and you claim it in your tax return, so it does not change the tax withheld from your pay.
Take-home pay on the average full-time NT salary is $79,638 a year ($3,063.00 a fortnight) after income tax and the Medicare levy. Full-time adults in the NT earn $1,984.10 a week in ordinary time earnings, about $103,173 a year (ABS, May 2026). The worked example above shows the net figure before any zone tax offset.
The calculator leaves out the zone tax offset because it depends on your exact locality and on a residency test: more than half the income year in the zone. The offset is a rebate against tax payable, claimed in your return, so it does not change your fortnightly withholding. See the zone tax offset guide for the amounts by zone.
Picnic Day is a Northern Territory public holiday held on the first Monday in August (3 August in 2026). It is observed nowhere else in Australia and attracts full public holiday entitlements, including any public holiday penalty rate your award or agreement sets if you work it.
If the Long Service Leave Act 1981 (NT) covers you, you are entitled to 13 weeks of long service leave after 10 years of continuous service, calculated at 1.3 weeks for each year of employment. Part years do not count. Between 7 and 10 years a pro-rata payment is owed only if you reach retirement age, the employer ends the job for something other than serious misconduct, or you resign for illness, incapacity or pressing necessity. NT Government and Australian Government employees, and construction workers under NT Build, are not covered by the Act: their award, agreement or the NT Build scheme sets their leave.
No. NT long service leave is paid at your usual rate of pay, which excludes overtime, penalties, and district and site allowances. If a large part of your income comes from allowances, your leave pay will be noticeably lower than your normal fortnightly pay.
No. NT payroll tax is charged to employers whose Australian wages exceed $2,500,000 (the highest threshold in Australia), and it never appears on an employee's payslip.
How this calculator works▼
Income tax, LITO, the Medicare levy, HECS-HELP and superannuation are calculated with the site's federal engine for 2026-27. The zone tax offset is not included in the automated calculation because zone classification is location-dependent and the offset is claimed in a tax return. NT earnings come from the ABS Average Weekly Earnings release for May 2026 (Table 13g, original series). Public holidays come from the Fair Work Ombudsman's 2026 list, and long service leave from the Long Service Leave Act 1981 as published by the NT Government. NT payroll tax data is sourced from NT Treasury and describes employer obligations only.
Sources & References
- 1Individual income tax rates, Australian Taxation Office
- 2Average Weekly Earnings, Australia (May 2026, Table 13g, Northern Territory, Australian Bureau of Statistics
- 32026 public holidays, Northern Territory, Fair Work Ombudsman
- 4Long service leave (Long Service Leave Act 1981), NT Government
- 5NT payroll tax rates and thresholds (employers), Territory Revenue Office
Last verified: 28 August 2026. Our content is based on the latest information from official Australian government sources.
What to check next
People reading this page usually work these out too.
- Take-Home Pay CalculatorSee your actual pay after tax, super and Medicare.
- NT Minimum WageThe rate, state rules and take-home at minimum wage.
- NT Long Service LeaveAccrual and payout under NT long service leave law.
- NT Payroll TaxFor employers: the threshold and rate in this state.
- Award Pay RatesMinimum rates for the awards that cover most workers.
- Fortnightly Pay CalculatorThe fortnightly tax calculator: tax and take-home every pay.