$1,000 sacrificed into superannuation lands $850 in your account at every income, while the same $1,000 taken as salary leaves you between $530 and $780 depending on where you sit in the 2026-27 tax scale. Super wins at every income in this table, and it wins by more the more you earn: about $185 at $45,000, $170 at $90,000, $240 at $140,000 and $320 at $200,000. Every figure below is computed at page render from the same tax engine that runs the calculators on pay-calculator.au. The arithmetic is the easy part; the limitations section at the end is what decides whether it is the right answer for you.
Key takeaways
- Super is flat: $850 of every $1,000 lands, because concessional contributions are taxed at 15% in the fund.
- Salary is not: you keep $665 at $45,000, $680 at $90,000, $610 at $140,000 and $530 at $200,000 (2026-27).
- The advantage is largest at the top, $320 at $190,000, and smallest in this table at $40,000, where it is $70.
- It is not smooth. The gap steps up at $135,000 and again at $190,000, and it is unusually wide between $45,001 and $66,667 because of the LITO taper.
- The money is preserved until a condition of release, the concessional cap is $32,500 for 2026-27 including your employer's 12%, and Division 293 tax changes the picture above $250,000.
Is $1,000 worth more as salary or as super?
As super, at every income from $30,000 to $200,000. The reason is that the two routes are taxed on completely different scales. Salary is taxed at your effective marginal rate, which is the bracket rate plus the 2% Medicare levy plus any offset taper you happen to be sitting in. A concessional super contribution is taxed at a flat 15% inside the fund, no matter what you earn. So the value of sacrificing is simply the distance between your effective marginal rate and 15%.
| Taxable income | Effective marginal rate | Keep as salary | Lands in super | Super advantage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $45,000 | 33.5% | $665 | $850 | $185 |
| $90,000 | 32% | $680 | $850 | $170 |
| $140,000 | 39% | $610 | $850 | $240 |
| $200,000 | 47% | $530 | $850 | $320 |
Computed at render from lib/tax.ts using the 2026-27 resident scale, the Low Income Tax Offset and the 2% Medicare levy. The super column applies the 15% tax on concessional contributions charged in the fund.
How much of $1,000 do you keep as salary?
Between $530 and $780, and the pattern is not a straight line. The table below runs every $10,000 from $30,000 to $200,000. Read the third column as the answer to what a pay rise is really worth, and the last column as the answer to what sacrificing instead would be worth.
| Taxable income | Effective marginal rate | Keep from $1,000 as salary | Lands in super from $1,000 | Super advantage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $30,000 | 25% | $750 | $850 | $100 |
| $40,000 | 22% | $780 | $850 | $70 |
| $50,000 | 33.5% | $665 | $850 | $185 |
| $60,000 | 33.5% | $665 | $850 | $185 |
| $70,000 | 32% | $680 | $850 | $170 |
| $80,000 | 32% | $680 | $850 | $170 |
| $90,000 | 32% | $680 | $850 | $170 |
| $100,000 | 32% | $680 | $850 | $170 |
| $110,000 | 32% | $680 | $850 | $170 |
| $120,000 | 32% | $680 | $850 | $170 |
| $130,000 | 32% | $680 | $850 | $170 |
| $140,000 | 39% | $610 | $850 | $240 |
| $150,000 | 39% | $610 | $850 | $240 |
| $160,000 | 39% | $610 | $850 | $240 |
| $170,000 | 39% | $610 | $850 | $240 |
| $180,000 | 39% | $610 | $850 | $240 |
| $190,000 | 47% | $530 | $850 | $320 |
| $200,000 | 47% | $530 | $850 | $320 |
2026-27 resident scale, single, no study loan, no Medicare levy surcharge, and no reduction or exemption from the levy. The effective marginal rate is measured over the next $1,000 of taxable income, so it captures the Medicare shade-in and the LITO taper as well as the bracket rate. Note that lib/tax.ts carries forward the 2025-26 single Medicare low-income thresholds ($28,011 and $35,013), because the ATO has not yet published 2026-27 values.
Three rows deserve a second look. The $30,000 row shows an effective rate of 25%, higher than the 22% at $40,000, because $30,000 sits inside the Medicare levy shade-in band where each extra dollar costs 10c of levy on top of the 15% bracket. The $50,000 and $60,000 rows show 33.5%, higher than the whole stretch from $70,000 to $130,000, because the LITO taper withdraws 1.5c per dollar between $45,001 and $66,667. And the jump from 32% to 39% is simply the 37% bracket starting at $135,000.
Why does super always land $850?
Because concessional contributions are taxed in the super fund at a flat 15%, and that rate takes no notice of your income. $1,000 of salary sacrifice arrives at the fund, the fund remits $150 as contributions tax, and $850is credited to your account. The same is true of your employer's 12% super guarantee and of personal contributions you claim a deduction for. All of them are concessional contributions, all of them are taxed at 15% on the way in.
The super side of this comparison is a constant. The salary side is a variable. That is the entire mechanism, and it is why the advantage grows with income rather than shrinking.
The flip side, which the table cannot show, is that the salary column is money you can spend this week and the super column is money you cannot touch for years. The arithmetic answers a narrower question than most people are actually asking.
Where is the gap biggest, and why?
At the top of the scale, $320 per $1,000 once taxable income passes $190,000, where the effective marginal rate is 47%: the 45% bracket plus the 2% levy. The gap tracks the tax brackets exactly, because it is just the marginal rate minus 15%.
| Income band | What drives the rate | Effective marginal rate | Super advantage per $1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| About $28,000 to $35,000 | 15% bracket plus the 10c Medicare shade-in | 25% | $100 |
| $37,501 to $45,000 | 15% bracket, 5c LITO taper, 2% levy | 22% | $70 |
| $45,001 to $66,667 | 30% bracket, 1.5c LITO taper, 2% levy | 33.5% | $185 |
| $66,668 to $135,000 | 30% bracket plus 2% levy | 32% | $170 |
| $135,001 to $190,000 | 37% bracket plus 2% levy | 39% | $240 |
| $190,001 and over | 45% bracket plus 2% levy | 47% | $320 |
Rates computed at render from lib/tax.ts over the next $1,000 of income at a representative point in each band. Bracket boundaries per the 2026-27 resident scale; see the 2026-27 tax brackets.
The band worth noticing is $45,001 to $66,667. Someone on $50,000 gets a bigger benefit per dollar sacrificed than someone on $90,000, $185 against $170, purely because the LITO taper pushes their effective marginal rate to 33.5%. That is the opposite of the usual assumption that salary sacrifice is a high-income strategy.
Does salary ever beat super?
Yes, at the bottom of the scale, which is why this table starts at $30,000. Below about $23,000 of taxable income the tax-free threshold and the Low Income Tax Offset can leave the next $1,000untaxed entirely, so all $1,000 stays with you against $850 in super. Between roughly $23,000 and $27,000 the two land in exactly the same place, because the 15% bracket rate and the 15% contributions tax cancel out. Once the Medicare levy starts shading in above $28,011, super pulls ahead and stays ahead.
Those crossover points are computed from the same 2026-27 scale as the main table. They are approximate because the Medicare low-income thresholds in lib/tax.ts are the 2025-26 single values carried forward pending 2026-27 publication by the ATO.
What this comparison leaves out
The table answers one narrow question: what happens to $1,000 at the moment it is paid. Five things it does not answer matter at least as much.
Super is locked up. Salary is spendable now; a super contribution is preserved until you satisfy a condition of release. For anyone born from 1 July 1964 the preservation age is 60, and you generally access super when you reach that age and retire, when you leave a job at 60 or over, or at 65 regardless. A $320 advantage is not a good trade if you need the cash for a mortgage payment next month.
Concessional contributions are capped. The cap for 2026-27 is $32,500, and it counts everything concessional, including the 12% super guarantee your employer already pays. The headroom for salary sacrifice is therefore much smaller than the cap looks.
| Salary | Employer super at 12% | Concessional cap (2026-27) | Headroom for salary sacrifice |
|---|---|---|---|
| $90,000 | $10,800 | $32,500 | $21,700 |
| $140,000 | $16,800 | $32,500 | $15,700 |
| $200,000 | $24,000 | $32,500 | $8,500 |
| $270,830 | $32,500 | $32,500 | Nil |
Headroom computed at render as the 2026-27 concessional cap of $32,500 less 12% super guarantee on salary. The $270,830 row is the 2026-27 maximum contribution base, the salary at which employer super guarantee alone consumes the whole cap. Carry-forward of unused cap from earlier years can raise your personal cap; this table shows the general cap only.
Division 293 changes the picture above $250,000. Where your Division 293 income plus concessional contributions exceed $250,000, an extra 15% applies to your taxable contributions. On the affected dollars the super side becomes $700 rather than $850, which cuts the advantage at $200,000 from $320 to roughly $170. It does not eliminate it, but it halves it. Above a $3 million total super balance, the new Division 296 tax reduces the concession further, on the earnings side rather than the contributions side.
It does not cut your HELP repayment. Reportable employer superannuation contributions are added back when your study and training loan repayment income is calculated, so sacrificing lowers your taxable income without lowering the base your HELP repayment is worked out on. That is covered in full at salary sacrifice vs HECS. A related trap sits with the Medicare levy surcharge: the ATO defines Division 293 income as the income calculation used for the surcharge, disregarding any reportable superannuation contributions, which indicates those contributions sit inside the surcharge income test. If the surcharge is in play for you, check the MLS rules before assuming sacrificing helps.
It ignores time, returns and tax on the way out. The comparison is a snapshot at the moment of payment. It says nothing about investment returns, the 15% tax on fund earnings, or how the money is taxed when you eventually withdraw it. Those effects are usually favourable, but they are a different calculation and this page does not make it.
To put your own salary and sacrifice amount through the full engine, including HELP and the Medicare levy surcharge, use the salary sacrifice calculator.
How this was computed
Every number on this page is derived at page render from lib/tax.ts, the module that also drives the take-home pay calculator, so the page cannot disagree with the rest of the site. The method is four lines:
- Liability at an income is income tax on the 2026-27 resident scale, less the Low Income Tax Offset and floored at zero, plus the Medicare levy.
- The effective marginal rate is the increase in that liability caused by the next $1,000, divided by $1,000.
- What you keep from $1,000 of salary is $1,000 times one minus that rate.
- What lands in super is $1,000 less the 15% contributions tax, which is $850 at every income.
Measuring the rate over a $1,000 step rather than a single dollar is deliberate: it is the size of a realistic sacrifice decision, and it smooths the point where a step crosses a bracket boundary. A sacrifice large enough to move you into a lower bracket will do better than this table suggests, not worse.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
Computed figures come from lib/tax.ts. Every rate, threshold and rule behind it is listed below. Last verified 4 August 2026.
- Australian tax scale, LITO and Medicare levy for 2026-27, as implemented in lib/tax.ts and documented in the guide to the 2026-27 tax brackets. The tax-free threshold is $18,200, the first taxed rate is 15%, and the Medicare levy is 2% with a single low-income shade-in between $28,011 and $35,013 (2025-26 thresholds carried forward pending ATO publication for 2026-27).
- ATO, Salary sacrificing super. Source for concessional contributions being taxed in the super fund at a rate of 15%, which is what makes $850 of every $1,000 land.
- ATO, Concessional contributions cap. Source for the 2026-27 concessional contributions cap of $32,500, which applies from 1 July 2026 and increases in $2,500 increments in line with average weekly ordinary time earnings.
- ATO, Maximum contribution base. Source for the 2026-27 maximum contribution base of $270,830, derived by the ATO as $32,500 times 100 divided by 12.
- ATO, Division 293 tax on concessional contributions by high-income earners, last updated 8 December 2025. Source for the $250,000 threshold, the additional 15%, the lesser-of rule for taxable contributions, and the statement that Division 293 income uses the Medicare levy surcharge income calculation disregarding reportable superannuation contributions.
- ATO, When you can withdraw your super. Source for conditions of release and for a preservation age of 60 for anyone born from 1 July 1964.
- Superannuation guarantee rate of 12% from 1 July 2025, as implemented in lib/tax.ts and covered in the guide to the superannuation guarantee.
This page compares two tax outcomes at the moment of payment. It is not advice about whether to salary sacrifice, which depends on your cash needs, your age, your cap headroom and your fund. pay-calculator.au is not a registered tax agent and nothing here is personal advice.