Pay Rise Calculator
See what a pay rise is really worth after tax and inflation.
A 5% rise on $80,000 takes you to $84,000, a $4,000 raise before tax. After income tax and Medicare in 2026-27 you keep $2,720 of it (68.0%), about $52 a week. With 3% inflation, your pay is really $804 a year better off in today's money.
New salary = current x (1 + rise%). Net at each level uses ATO brackets + 2% Medicare. "% kept" = net gain / gross raise. "Real gain" subtracts the CPI-adjusted value of your existing income.
Rates checked September 2026 against the ATO.
How much of a pay rise do you keep?
A raise is taxed at your marginal rate, the rate on your top dollars, not your average rate. So the share you keep depends on which bracket the extra money falls in. In 2026-27, including the 2% Medicare levy:
- $45,001 to $135,000: you keep about 68c of each extra dollar (30% tax plus 2% Medicare)
- $135,001 to $190,000: about 61c (37% plus 2%)
- Over $190,000: about 53c (45% plus 2%)
Pay rise examples for 2026-27
5% on $80,000: your salary goes to $84,000, a $4,000 raise. After tax and Medicare you keep $2,720, 68% of it, about $52 a week.
5% on $130,000: $136,500, a $6,500 raise. Most of it is taxed at 32%, but the last $1,500 crosses $135,000 into the 39% bracket. You keep $4,315, 66.4%, about $83 a week.
5% on $185,000: $194,250, a $9,250 raise, and $4,250 of it is above $190,000, taxed at 47%. You keep $5,303, 57.3%, about $102 a week.
Does your raise beat inflation?
Prices rising means your current pay buys less each year. To stay level, your take-home pay has to grow by the inflation rate. The calculator's real gain is what's left of your after-tax raise once that's covered.
On $80,000, take-home pay is $63,880, and 3% inflation takes about $1,916 of its value in a year. A 5% raise adds $2,720 after tax, so you're $804 a year better off in today's money. A 3% raise adds only $1,632 after tax, which doesn't keep up: you'd be about $284 a year worse off.
That's because tax takes a bigger share of the raise (32%) than of your pay overall (20%). A raise usually needs to be a bit above inflation just to keep your spending power.
Crossing into a higher bracket
A raise that takes you over a threshold never leaves you worse off: only the dollars above the threshold are taxed at the higher rate. The calculator warns you when part of your raise is taxed at the higher rate, so you can see why you keep a smaller share.
If you'd rather not take all of a raise as pay, you can salary sacrifice part of it into super, where it's taxed at 15% instead of your marginal rate.
What the calculator leaves out
It uses resident tax rates, the low income tax offset and the Medicare levy. It doesn't include HECS/HELP repayments, which also rise with your income, or the Medicare levy surcharge. For those, and for super and pay frequency, use the take-home pay calculator. The employer's 12% super guarantee on the raise is extra, on top of the salary figures here.
Frequently asked questions
On a salary between $45,000 and $135,000, about $3,400 (68%) after income tax and Medicare in 2026-27. Above $135,000 it's about $3,050, and above $190,000 about $2,650.
Not through income tax: only the income above each threshold is taxed at the higher rate. HECS repayments and some government payments can take a bigger share, but you'll still generally take home more.
It isn't taxed at a special rate. The extra income is taxed at your marginal rate, which is higher than your average tax rate across all your income.
A little more than the inflation rate. On $80,000 with 3% inflation, a 3% raise leaves you about $284 a year behind after tax; around 3.5% keeps you level.
No. The salary figures exclude super. Your employer pays the 12% super guarantee on top of the new salary.