What a support worker really costs per hour.

A fully loaded cost is everything you pay, divided by the hours of support the worker actually delivers. For a permanent disability support worker it has six parts:

• Wage — the SCHADS base rate times the penalty for when the work happens.
• Leave — annual leave, leave loading, personal leave and public holidays. You pay for these weeks but get no support hours in them.
• Superannuation — 12% of ordinary time earnings from 1 July 2025.
• Workers compensation — your premium, set by your state scheme or insurer.
• Payroll tax — only if your total Australian wages are over your state or territory's threshold.
• Overheads — rostering, supervision, training, quality and compliance, insurance, systems, rent and admin.

A part-time worker at SACS Level 2 pay point 3 ($38.50an hour) works an 8-hour weekday day shift. Using the calculator's default assumptions — 4 weeks' annual leave with 17.5% loading, 10 personal leave days, 10 public holidays, 3% workers comp, no payroll tax and 12% overheads:

That's $59.57 an hour, $476.56 for the shift and $2,382.80 for five shifts a week. Against the 2026–27 national price limit for Assistance with Self-Care Activities on a weekday daytime ($73.58), the margin is $14.01 an hour, or 19% of the price.

Superannuation

The super guarantee rose to 12% on 1 July 2025, the last scheduled increase. It's paid on ordinary time earnings, which include penalty rates for ordinary hours, shift loadings, casual loading and leave pay. Overtime is generally excluded.

Annual leave and leave loading

The National Employment Standards give permanent employees 4 weeks of paid annual leave a year (pro rata for part-timers). Some shiftworkers get 5 weeks — under the NES that depends on the award's definition of a shiftworker, so check the SCHADS Award if your staff work regularly on Sundays and public holidays. SCHADS adds a 17.5% annual leave loading. The calculator costs leave at the base rate; workers who would have earned more in penalties while on leave can cost more.

Personal leave and public holidays

Full-time employees get 10 days of paid personal/carer's leave a year (pro rata for part-time). Not everyone uses all of it, so lower the figure if your records show less. Public holidays a worker would have been rostered on are paid without work; the number varies by state, usually around 10 to 13 a year.

Workers compensation

Premiums vary by state scheme, insurer, industry classification, wages and claims history, and disability services rates are often above the all-industry average. The 3% default is only a placeholder — use the rate from your policy. Some schemes count super as wages for premium purposes; the calculator applies the rate to wages plus super.

Payroll tax

Payroll tax is a state and territory tax, with its own threshold and rate in each jurisdiction. Many smaller providers are under the threshold, so the default is 0%. If you're over it, enter your effective rate. Most states include super in taxable wages, so the calculator applies it to wages plus super.

Overheads

Everything that isn't a worker's pay: coordinators and rostering, supervision, training and induction, worker screening, quality and safeguards, insurance, software, rent and finance. The 12% default is a planning assumption, not an industry benchmark — work out your own from your accounts by dividing non-frontline costs by frontline wage costs.

NDIS price limits for support work are set per hour of support delivered, by time band: weekday daytime, evening and night, Saturday, Sunday and public holiday, with higher limits in remote and very remote areas. The calculator maps SCHADS shift types to those bands:

The definitions don't line up exactly. A SCHADS afternoon shift is defined by when the shift finishes and the loading applies to the whole shift, while the NDIS evening band covers only support between 8pm and midnight. A 2pm to 10pm shift is paid at 112.5% for all 8 hours but claimed as 6 daytime and 2 evening hours. Use the SCHADS pay calculator for exact shift pay, and the SIL price guide to see margins across every band side by side.

• Overtime, broken shifts and sleepovers — see the broken shift calculator and the SCHADS pay calculator.
• Allowances such as vehicle, first aid, uniform and laundry.
• Unbillable time: travel between participants, handover, training, team meetings and supervision.
• Long service leave, which varies by state and in some states is a portable scheme for community services.
• Enterprise agreements and above-award pay — enter your own base rate instead.

Loaded cost

Wages plus every on-cost and overhead, per hour of support delivered.

On-costs

Employment costs on top of wages: leave, super, workers comp and payroll tax.

Productive weeks

52 weeks minus annual leave, personal leave and public holidays — the weeks a permanent worker delivers support.

Ordinary time earnings

The earnings super guarantee is calculated on. Includes ordinary-hours penalties and loadings; generally excludes overtime.

Price limit

The maximum a registered provider can charge per unit of a support item under the NDIS Pricing Arrangements.