Salary Including Super Explained

Australian job ads quote pay in two different ways, and the wording changes what lands in your bank account. "Plus super" (or "excluding super") means the number is your gross wage, and your employer adds the 12% superannuation guarantee on top. "Including super" — often written as "total remuneration package" or "TRP" — means the number already contains the employer's super contribution, and your gross wage is what remains after it comes out.

Neither format is wrong, and packaging is common in government, banking and large corporates. The problem is comparing one against the other as if they were the same kind of number. Two ads both saying "$90,000" can differ by nearly $10,000 a year in wages.

You will usually meet the inclusive format wherever employers think in total cost of employment: public-service pay scales, banking and consulting remuneration statements, and executive contracts. Recruiters in those sectors often say "package" or "TRP" and assume you know it is inclusive; candidates coming from award-based roles, where pay is always quoted as a base rate, frequently do not. If the ad says only "$90,000", with no qualifier either way, treat the number as unresolved until someone confirms it in writing.

Because super is 12% of the cash salary (not 12% of the package), you cannot simply lop 12% off the package figure. The package equals cash × 1.12, so:

• Cash salary = package ÷ 1.12
• Super = package − cash salary

Take a $90,000 package: $90,000 ÷ 1.12 = $80,357 cash, leaving $9,643 as super. A common mistake is computing $90,000 × 12% = $10,800 and subtracting it, which gives $79,200 — understating your wage by $1,157. The 12% applies to the smaller cash figure, not the larger package figure, which is why the divisor is 1.12. Our salary package calculator does this split automatically in either direction.

Here are four package sizes split into cash and super, with estimated annual take-home pay for an Australian resident using the 2026-27 resident tax rates plus the 2% Medicare levy (no HELP debt or offsets other than base rates assumed; figures rounded to the dollar).

Notice the pattern: roughly 10.7% of any package disappears into super before income tax even starts. On the $100,000 package you take home about $70,194 — whereas a "$100,000 plus super" offer would leave take-home of roughly $77,480 on the same headline number. To see the per-payslip version of any of these figures, run them through our payslip calculator.

Put the two formats side by side at the same headline number and the gap is stark. At "$90,000":

• $90,000 plus super: $90,000 wages + $10,800 super = $100,800 total value
• $90,000 including super: $80,357 wages + $9,643 super = $90,000 total value

The "plus super" offer is worth $10,800 more per year — $9,643 more in wages and $1,157 more in super. Over a three-year stint that is more than $32,000 of value riding on two words in the ad. When you are weighing competing offers, convert both to the same basis first: either total package (cash × 1.12) or cash salary (package ÷ 1.12), then compare.

The distinction also flows through to part-time arithmetic. Pro-rata pay is calculated from the base salary, so a 0.6 FTE role on a "$90,000 package" pays 0.6 × $80,357 = $48,214 in wages plus $5,786 of super — not 0.6 × $90,000 in wages, a difference of $5,786 a year that catches people negotiating reduced hours.

The SG rate has been stable at 12% since July 2025, but the contract mechanics are still worth understanding, because they determined who absorbed each past increase. On a total-package contract, a rate rise historically came out of the employee's cash: the package stayed fixed and the super slice grew. On a base-plus-super contract, the employer wore the increase.

The same logic applies in reverse to anything that changes the employer's super obligation. If your earnings exceed the annual maximum contribution base, or your employer contributes above the minimum, a package contract should spell out exactly how the cash/super split is set. Before signing, ask for the split in writing — a one-line schedule stating base salary and employer super separately removes all ambiguity. If the employer will not commit the split to writing, treat that reluctance as information in itself — payroll disputes over packaging are far harder to win once you have started.

Five questions settle almost every packaging dispute before it starts:

1. Is the figure inclusive or exclusive of super? Get it in an email if the ad or offer letter is silent.
2. What is the exact base salary in dollars? This is the number your leave, overtime and any redundancy pay are calculated from — not the package.
3. Is employer super paid at 12% or above? Some agencies and universities pay 15.4% or 17%, which changes the ÷1.12 arithmetic.
4. Does the package include anything besides super? Some TRP figures also fold in car allowances or bonuses, shrinking the cash further.
5. How is the split adjusted if the law changes? The contract should say, not leave it to payroll's discretion.

For a refresher on what the employer contribution itself covers, see the broader rates and thresholds on our Australian tax facts page.