You may receive a monthly or daily salary. Daily wages are calculated using either the gross rate (for paid public holidays, paid leave, salary in lieu and salary deductions) or the basic rate (for work on rest days or public holidays).
Monthly wages
For calculating salary, a “month” or “complete month” refers to any one of the months in the calendar year.
Calculate your pay for an incomplete month of work
How an incomplete month pay is calculated
Salary for an incomplete month of work is calculated as follows:
| Monthly gross rate of pay ------------------------------------ Total number of working days in that month | × | Total number of days the employee actually worked in that month |
If you take no-pay leave
If you are a monthly-rated full-time employee and took unpaid leave for the month, you should count it as an incomplete month of work to calculate your salary.
Definitions
| When the number of hours worked in the day is 5 or less. |
| When the number of hours worked in the day is more than 5. |
Where an employee:
|
Total amount of money including allowances, payable for one month's work. This excludes:
|
Excludes rest days and non-working days, but includes public holidays. For employees with fixed rest days on Sundays or non-working days on Saturdays, the total number of working days per month for year 2021/2022 is shown in this table. |
| Includes public holidays, paid hospitalisation leave and annual leave, if entitled. |
Basic rate of pay
For calculating pay for work on a rest day or public holiday. |
| Basic rate of pay includes wage adjustments and increments that an employee is entitled to under a contract of service. |
Basic rate of pay excludes:
|
How it is calculated
For a monthly-rated employee, the basic rate of pay for 1 day is calculated as follows:
12 × monthly basic rate of pay
------------------------------------
52 × average number of days an employee is required to work in a week
Gross rate of pay
For calculating:
|
| Gross rate of pay includes allowances that an employee is entitled to under a contract of service |
Gross rate of pay excludes:
|
Calculate your gross rate of pay
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How it is calculated
For a monthly-rated employee, the gross rate of pay for 1 day is calculated as follows:
12 × monthly gross rate of pay
------------------------------------
52 × average number of days an employee is
required to work in a week
Photo: Flickr user Steven Dipolo
Your gross pay consists of the total amount of money your employer pays you -- typically expressed as either an annual salary or hourly wage. However, take-home pay is a much more useful number, as it tells you how much money you'll actually receive on your paycheck. Here's how to calculate your take-home pay as a percentage of your gross pay, to see how much of your hard-earned money is actually going into your pocket.
Calculating take-home pay as a percentage of gross pay
Take-home pay is fairly easy to determine – it's simply the amount of money you receive on your paycheck.
Gross pay per pay period can be calculated in one of two ways, depending on whether you're a salaried or hourly employee. If you earn an annual salary, divide that amount by the number of pay periods each year.
Weekly | 52 |
Biweekly | 26 |
Semi-monthly | 24 |
Monthly | 12 |
If you are paid hourly, multiply your hourly wage by the number of hours you work per pay period. For example, if you earn $15 per hour and work 80 hours per pay period, multiplying the two numbers shows a gross pay of $1,200 per pay period.
After you have both numbers, divide your take home pay by your gross pay, and then multiply the result by 100. This gives you your take home pay as a percentage of gross pay per pay period.
It's also worth mentioning that this percentage can vary throughout the year if you receive any bonuses or work any overtime. Generally, the more you earn, the more taxes are taken out of your paycheck as a percentage of your salary. In other words, if you take home 70% of your typical paycheck as a percentage of your gross pay, don't expect to receive 70% of your next one if there's a lot of overtime on it.
Example
Let's say that you earn a salary of
$50,000 and that your biweekly paychecks are for $1,300 each. Since you are paid biweekly, dividing the salary by 26 shows a gross pay of $1,923 per pay period. Inserting the gross and take-home pay numbers into the formula gives the percentage.
In other words, for every $100 you earn, you actually receive $67.60. The other $32.40 is taken out of your paycheck for taxes and other deductions such as health insurance and retirement savings.
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