Police take-home pay calculator
every force, every rank

Most take-home pay calculators ask for a single salary figure. That doesn't work for police: two officers on the same rank can take home very different amounts depending on their roster, their force's loading or composite, and how much overtime they do. So this calculator starts from your force's actual pay table and builds up from there.

1. 1

   Your pay point

   From the agreement

   Every rank and increment from the current pay table for your force, read from the registered award or enterprise agreement. In NSW the figure includes the 11.5% loading paid as salary. In Victoria the 13% penalty component is already inside the salary.

2. 2

   Roster and shift allowances

   Force-specific

   Each force pays shift work differently: a percentage of salary (Queensland's 21% Operational Shift Allowance, Tasmania's 28% for 24-hour rosters, the AFP's 22% composite), a percentage per shift (NSW's 10%, 15% and 17.5%, worked out from the Sergeant Level 5 salary), or a flat amount per shift (WA's night shift payment). Choose the one that matches your roster.

3. 3

   Overtime

   Your hours

   Hours per fortnight multiplied by your force's overtime rate and the correct hourly base. For example, NSW overtime excludes the loading, and Victorian overtime is worked out on salary ÷ 1.13.

4. 4

   Tax, Medicare and HELP

   ATO 2026-27

   2026-27 resident tax brackets, the Low Income Tax Offset, the 2% Medicare levy and, if you tick it, HELP repayments at the new marginal rates.

5. 5

   Super shown separately

   Not take-home

   Employer super goes to your fund, not your account, so we show it alongside your take-home pay rather than inside it.

The spread looks wide, but read the last column before you decide anything. Some forces quote base salary, others quote a package that includes a loading or composite, and some packages include allowances that only apply once you're posted to an operational role. To compare like with like at your own rank and service, use the pay comparison calculator.

Two forces can advertise the same salary and pay very different amounts once you're on the roster.

Here's how the pieces add up for a probationary constable in NSW working four 10-hour B shifts (nights) a fortnight and eight hours of overtime at time and a half.

The NSW shift allowance is calculated from the Sergeant Level 5 salary for every officer, not your own, using the award's formula (salary ÷ 52.18 weeks ÷ 7 days ÷ 8 hours). That works out at about $8.44 an hour on a B shift. Because the base is the same for everyone, it's worth relatively more to junior officers, a detail most salary sites miss. See NSW police salary for the full table.

Police are taxed like any other employee. Your salary, loadings, shift allowances, composites and overtime are all ordinary taxable income, and your employer withholds tax every pay under the ATO's PAYG withholding schedules. At tax time your actual tax is worked out on your total income for the year.

Most constables, senior constables and sergeants sit in the 30% bracket, so each extra dollar of shift pay or overtime is taxed at 32% once you add the Medicare levy. Senior sergeants and commissioned officers, and constables with a lot of overtime, can cross the $135,000 threshold, where the marginal rate jumps to 39% including Medicare.

The biggest source of confusion in police pay is what a quoted salary includes. Each force handles shift work and weekend work differently, and that changes both your pay and how your overtime is calculated.

Because overtime sits on top of your salary, it's taxed at your marginal rate. For most officers that means keeping about 68 cents in every dollar of overtime. Higher withholding on a heavy overtime fortnight isn't a penalty: it reflects the fact that the ATO's withholding tables assume every fortnight is like that one. Any over-withholding comes back at tax time.

Overtime rates differ a lot between forces. Queensland pays operational non-commissioned officers double time for all overtime, Tasmania and the AFP pay double time, and NSW, Victoria and WA start at time and a half. Model your own numbers with the overtime calculator, and compare the forces in police overtime and penalty rates.

Every force pays at least the 12% Superannuation Guarantee, and some pay considerably more. Queensland officers receive 18% employer super with no compulsory member contribution, and the AFP pays 15.4%. Victoria Police and PSOs are in the ESSS Police Superannuation Scheme, a defined benefit scheme where your benefit depends on years of service and salary.

Super doesn't show up in take-home pay, but over a 30-year career the difference between 12% and 18% is very large. Project yours with the police super calculator, and read police superannuation explained.

Many recruits join with a HELP debt, especially in forces that require or fund a university qualification, such as the NSW Associate Degree in Policing Practice. Since 2025-26, compulsory repayments use a marginal system: nothing below the threshold, then a percentage of income above it.

Your loading, shift allowances and overtime all count towards repayment income, so a busy roster increases your repayments. That isn't money lost: it reduces your debt faster.

• Withholding vs actual tax. PAYG withholding is a schedule, not your final tax. Small differences each pay are normal.
• Timing. Shift allowances and overtime are often paid a pay period after they're worked.
• Deductions such as association fees, salary packaging, extra super and, in NSW, the 1.8% death and disability contribution.
• Back pay after a pay rise, which is taxed using a special method and can make one payslip look odd.
• 27 pay years. Occasionally a year has 27 fortnightly pays, which slightly changes per-pay withholding.

The calculator is free and always will be. If you want more, the Personal Pay Report (A$14.99, one-off, lifetime access) gives you a printable full-year breakdown of your pay, penalties, tax and super, scenario comparisons (for example, staying on nights vs moving to a day role), and the AI pay assistant with 80 questions a day instead of 2.