$38.00 an hour casual: $75,088 a year
- Income tax$13,04617.4%
- Medicare levy$1,5022.0%
- Take-home pay$60,54080.6%
38 hours a week for 52 weeks at $38.00 comes to $75,088. Tax and the Medicare levy take $14,548, so $60,540 reaches your account — $5,045 a month. Of that hourly rate, $7.60 is the 25% loading, worth $15,018 over the year.
Casual $38.00 versus the permanent job behind it
Strip the loading out and the same job on a permanent contract pays $30.40 an hour, $60,070 a year — less gross than casual, but you are paid for weeks you do not work. That is why comparing the two by weekly pay is misleading and comparing them by dollars per hour actually worked is not.
| Measure | Casual | Permanent at the same base rate |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly rate | $38.00 | $30.40 |
| Annual gross | $75,088 | $60,070 |
| Annual take-home | $60,540 | $50,427 |
| Hours paid a year | 1,976 | 1,976 |
| Hours actually worked | 1,976 | 1,748 |
| Take-home per hour worked | $30.64 | $28.85 |
Read the last row: casual still wins by $1.79 per hour actually worked at this rate. The loading is worth 25%, the leave you give up is worth about 11.5% of the year, but the permanent employee also gets paid for public holidays and is not exposed to hours being cut to zero in a quiet week — none of which is in either number.
What the tax actually takes at this rate
| Line | Amount | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Income tax | $13,046 | Resident scale from $18,200, with the low income tax offset already applied |
| Medicare levy | $1,502 | 2% of taxable income, shaded in above $28,011 |
| Medicare levy surcharge | Nil | Only without private hospital cover — the first tier starts at $246,000 for singles |
| HELP repayment | $834 | Marginal repayment above $69,528 of repayment income |
| Superannuation | $9,011 | Paid by the employer on top, 12.0% of ordinary time earnings |
Casual employees are paid the same tax as everyone else — the loading is ordinary income. What differs is that no leave accrues, so a week off is a week without pay, which is why the annual figure assumes 52 worked weeks and no unpaid leave.
What the $7.60 loading adds up to
The loading is the difference between $38.00 casual and $30.40 base. Over 1,976 hours that is $15,018 of extra gross pay a year, of which you keep $12,108 after tax and levy. Put another way: the loading buys you roughly $494 base-rate hours of unpaid leave before the casual arrangement stops being better than a permanent one.
Nearby casual rates
Is $38.00 an hour casual a good rate in Australia?
At 38 hours a week it is $75,088 a year gross and $5,045 a month net. Whether that is good depends on the award, your state and your hours — but note that the permanent equivalent is $30.40 plus leave, so a permanent offer at that base rate is not a pay cut in real terms.
Do I get paid for public holidays as a casual?
Usually not, unless your award or roster says otherwise. Public holidays are one of the things the 25% loading is meant to compensate for. If you work the public holiday itself, most awards add a separate public-holiday penalty rate on top of the casual rate.
How is tax withheld from casual pay?
Through PAYE on the same scale as everyone else, using the tax-free threshold if you claim it. Because casual earnings fluctuate, the withholding in a big week can look high; it evens out in your assessment, and the annual figures on this page are the correct year-level view.