Pay Calculator SA: Your Take-Home Pay in South Australia

SA 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, 9 of them SA-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 1987 (SA): SA long service leave calculator.
• Government jobs: SA public service pay scales, SA teacher pay and SA nurse pay rates.
• Emergency services: SA paramedic pay and SA firefighter pay.
• Workers compensation: if you are injured at work, the SA scheme (ReturnToWorkSA) 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 South Australia

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.

South Australian state public sector and local government employees are not covered by the national system and remain under the South Australian state system. Most private-sector employees in South Australia are in the national system.

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 South Australian salary do you actually keep?

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.

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.

Is your South Australian salary normal? What the ABS says

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.

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 check whether your SA health or charity employer offers salary packaging, which lowers your taxable income and the income tax on it.

South Australian public holidays and what they do to your pay

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 to midnight, so a shift that starts at 4 pm changes rate partway through. Proclamation Day takes the place of Boxing Day on 26 December, 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. A worker one state over is not paid a public holiday penalty rate on those days, which are marked SA only in the table below.

Source: Fair Work Ombudsman, 2026 public holidays, read 28 August 2026. Regional and part-day variations apply, so check the South Australia government list that covers your town.

SA public holidays 2026 & 2027: every date, regional days and public holiday pay rates →

Long service leave in South Australia

South Australia gives the most generous long service leave of 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. SA long service leave 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.

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.

Work out your own balance and payout with the SA long service leave calculator.

Does SA payroll tax come out of your pay?

SA payroll tax also has a variable rate between $1.5 million and $1.7 million of wages. That sliding rate applies to the employer's wage bill and is not a deduction from employee pay. Employers can see how it works on the SA payroll tax page.

Working in a remote part of SA?

One federal offset, the Zone Tax Offset, varies by where you live in South Australia. The calculator above cannot apply it for you because it depends on your exact locality.

• Zone Tax Offset: Federal tax offset for SA residents in designated remote zones. Coober Pedy, Roxby Downs, Leigh Creek and most APY Lands communities are special areas ($1,173 fixed amount plus 50% of any dependant base amount), while Woomera and most of the state are ordinary Zone B ($57 plus 20%). Amounts are for the 2025-26 income year.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions