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People reading this page usually work these out too.
A wage calculator for South Australia, running ATO 2026-27 rates. Below the result are the three things SA does differently: four part-day and Proclamation Day holidays that other states do not have, the most generous long service leave entitlement in the country, and a payroll tax threshold that is none of your business as an employee.
Checking a payslip? Compare the fortnightly figure above with the net pay on your slip — see how to read an Australian payslip.
South Australia levies no personal income tax, so every deduction on an Adelaide payslip is federal. Here is the arithmetic on $102,450 — the average full-time wage in SA, and the lowest of any mainland state.
$102,450 is what a full-time adult in South Australia earns on average before overtime — ABS average weekly ordinary time earnings of $1,970.20 a week, May 2026, over 52 weeks.
| Gross salary | $102,450 |
| Income tax | − $21,255 |
| Medicare levy (2%) | − $2,049 |
| Take-home pay | $79,146 |
That is $1,522.04 a week, $3,044.08 a fortnight or $6,595.50 a month in the bank.
Effective tax rate 22.7%. The next dollar you earn is taxed at 32% — that is the marginal bracket plus the 2% Medicare levy.
Superannuation of $12,294 at 12% is paid by your employer on top, making the package $114,744.
With a HECS-HELP debt, a further $4,938 is withheld and take-home pay falls to $74,208 — $2,854.15 a fortnight.
Because SA salaries cluster lower, more South Australians sit inside the low income tax offset range than in NSW or WA. The calculator above applies LITO automatically and shows it as a separate line when it applies to you.
SA full-time adults earn $1,970.20 a week in ordinary time earnings. That is behind every other mainland jurisdiction but comfortably ahead of Tasmania, and the gap between men and women here is narrower than the national pattern.
| SA average weekly earnings | Per week | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time adults, ordinary hoursBase pay only — the figure this page's worked example uses | $1,970.20 | $102,450 |
| Full-time adults, including overtimeAdds overtime, so it runs ahead of the ordinary-time figure | $2,033.90 | $105,763 |
| Full-time adult menOrdinary time earnings | $2,043.20 | $106,246 |
| Full-time adult womenOrdinary time earnings | $1,858.00 | $96,616 |
| All employees, including part-timePulled down by part-time hours, not by lower rates | $1,490.90 | $77,527 |
Full-time adults in South Australia earn −5.4% 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.
Health care and social assistance is the largest employing industry in SA, and most of it runs on federal awards — check yours in the award rates guide or the SCHADS award rates, and remember that many SA health and charity employers offer salary packaging that changes the tax maths considerably.
SA has the most complicated holiday calendar in the country for anyone working retail or hospitality. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are both part-day public holidays from 7 pm — so a shift that starts at 4 pm changes rate partway through — and 26 December is Proclamation Day rather than Boxing Day, with its own substitute day on the 28th. Adelaide Cup Day in March is unique to SA.
South Australia publishes 15 public holidays for 2026, and 9 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 SA 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 | Adelaide Cup Day | SA only |
| Friday 3 April | Good Friday | Nationwide |
| Saturday 4 April | Easter Saturday | SA only |
| Sunday 5 April | Easter Sunday | SA only |
| Monday 6 April | Easter Monday | Nationwide |
| Saturday 25 April | Anzac Day | Nationwide |
| Monday 8 June | King's Birthday | SA only |
| Monday 5 October | Labour Day | SA only |
| Thursday 24 December | Christmas EvePart-day holiday, from 7 pm to midnight. | SA only |
| Friday 25 December | Christmas Day | Nationwide |
| Saturday 26 December | Proclamation Day holiday | SA only |
| Monday 28 December | Additional public holiday for Proclamation Day holiday | SA only |
| Thursday 31 December | New Year's EvePart-day holiday, from 7 pm to midnight. | SA only |
Source: Fair Work Ombudsman, 2026 public holidays, read 28 August 2026. Regional and part-day variations apply — check with South Australia for the list that covers your town.
Why the SA 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.
This is the single best employee entitlement in any Australian state. The Long Service Leave Act 1987 (SA) gives 13 weeks after 10 years — half again what NSW, WA, Queensland and Tasmania pay at the same milestone — and it accrues at the same 1.3 weeks a year whether you are full-time, part-time or casual.
South Australia pays the largest entitlement in the country: 13 weeks after 10 years of continuous service, then 1.3 weeks for every year after that. Accrual is 1.3 weeks per completed year regardless of whether you are full-time, part-time or casual. A pro-rata payment becomes available once you complete 7 years, worth 1.3 weeks for each completed year.
| Governing law | Long Service Leave Act 1987 (SA) |
| Service before you can take leave | 10 years |
| Leave at that point | 13 weeks |
| After that | 1.3 weeks (9.1 days) for each subsequent year of service |
| Pro-rata payment when the job ends | From 7 years |
| Who to ask | SafeWork SA |
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: SafeWork SA, read 28 August 2026.
Coming soon: SA long service leave calculator
We are building a calculator for each state's long service leave rules. The South Australia 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 SafeWork SA.
Does SA 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 $1,500,000 a year it starts paying 4.95% to the South Australia 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.
SA also runs a variable payroll tax rate between $1.5m and $1.7m of wages, which occasionally gets mistaken for a sliding deduction on employees. It is not. The full detail sits in the employer section below.
One federal offset genuinely varies by where you live in South Australia, and the calculator above cannot apply it for you because it depends on your exact locality.
It reduces the tax you owe rather than your taxable income, and you claim it in your return. See the zone tax offset guide for the qualifying localities and the residency test.
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.
Nothing here is deducted from an employee. It is the cost of employing someone in SA.
SA payroll tax is a state levy charged to employers at a rate of 4.95% on total Australian wages exceeding $1,500,000 per year. Employees do not pay payroll tax. It does not appear on your payslip and has zero impact on your take-home pay. RevenueSA administers the tax and offers a monthly threshold deduction so only wages above the $1.5 million annual threshold attract the 4.95% rate.
SA's $1.5 million threshold is the second-highest in Australia after Queensland's $1.3 million (which uses a lower rate). This high threshold means fewer SA businesses pay payroll tax compared to NSW or Victoria, where lower thresholds capture more employers. For a full breakdown of employer on-costs including superannuation and workers compensation, see the Employer Cost Calculator.
| State / Territory | Rate | Annual Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| South Australia | 4.95% | $1,500,000 |
| New South Wales | 5.45% | $1,200,000 |
| Victoria | 4.85% | $1,000,000 |
| Queensland | 4.75% | $1,300,000 |
| Western Australia | 5.50% | $1,000,000 |
| Tasmania | 4.00% | $1,250,000 |
| Australian Capital Territory | 6.75% | $1,750,000 |
| Northern Territory | 5.50% | $2,500,000 |
Rates shown are the standard rate for each jurisdiction for FY2025-26. Some states apply tiered or additional mental-health surcharge rates above certain wage levels.
Work injury insurance in South Australia is provided through ReturnToWorkSA and funded by an employer levy set by industry classification. Like payroll tax, it is never deducted from an employee's wages and never appears on a payslip.
Income tax, LITO, the Medicare levy, HECS-HELP and superannuation are calculated with the site's federal engine for 2026-27; there are no state-specific individual income taxes in Australia. SA earnings come from the ABS Average Weekly Earnings release for May 2026 (Table 13d, original series). Public holidays come from the Fair Work Ombudsman's 2026 list, and long service leave from the Long Service Leave Act 1987 as explained by SafeWork SA. SA payroll tax figures are sourced from RevenueSA and describe employer obligations only.
Last verified: 28 August 2026. Our content is based on the latest information from official Australian government sources.