Rules: 2026-27 estimate
Is going back more days worth it after childcare?
Compare today, fewer days and full time, then see what is left in the family budget after Australian tax, HELP/HECS, Medicare and childcare subsidy.
Built for the kitchen-table chat after parental leave: more money coming in, more childcare going out, and less time at home.
Compare your days in the calculator
No account needed.
Your family facts
Start with rough numbers. You can fine-tune the estimate after the result appears.
Your family facts
Start with rough numbers. You can fine-tune the estimate after the result appears.
Why trust this calculator?
Showing 2026-27 estimate Australian rules for this estimate.
- Uses Australian rules, not a generic take-home-pay estimate.
- Childcare subsidy is calculated from family income, care type, hours and fees.
- Every major number can be opened and traced.
- No account needed.
Why this is hard to work out
A payslip only tells part of the story. Each extra workday can change several parts of the family budget at once.
- Income tax rises with the extra pay.
- A HELP or HECS repayment can start or grow.
- The childcare subsidy can taper as family income rises.
- Childcare fees depend on care type, hours and your centre's fee.
- Travel, parking and other work costs still come out of the extra pay.
How Back to Work Calculator works it out
Back to Work Calculator does the messy bits together: tax, HELP/HECS, Medicare, childcare subsidy, care type and centre fees.
Open the receipt when you want to see how the number was worked out.
It is an estimate for planning the conversation, not Centrelink advice or a tax return.
Rules and source pages used
A worked example
Renae and Sam live in Newcastle with their two girls, who are 18 months and four. Sam earns $140,000 across a full week. Renae's job pays $90,000 full-time equivalent, she's still paying off a HELP debt from her degree, and she's weighing up how many days to go back. Both girls would be in centre-based care at the NSW average of $158 a day.
At 3 days, the month reads like a bank statement: Renae's pay lands ($3,866), Sam's pay lands ($8,694), and $871 of childcare for the two girls comes out; the household keeps $11,689. Add two more days and Renae's pay lands $2,024 more, but a HELP repayment appears, childcare takes $926 more, and the subsidy rate she gets on all five days (not just the new ones) slides from 69% to 62%. At 5 days, the household keeps just $842 more of it: about $12.78 an hour for those two extra days, against $38.17 on her very first day back. Same pay rate; the last two days just aren't doing much of the work. Day 4 sits in between: it adds $136 a week on its own, still a rate many families would call worthwhile. That's why the badge below calls it the sweet spot.
- Day 1$38.17$15,083 / yr
- Day 2$29.92$11,824 / yr
- Day 3$22.84$9,026 / yr
- Day 4$17.85$7,056 / yr
- Day 5$7.71$3,047 / yr
Your sweet spot: 4 days a week.
Questions parents actually ask
What is the “sweet spot”?
It’s the last day of the week that still adds at least $10 for every extra hour worked, after tax, HELP and the childcare you pay after subsidy. For a lot of families it lands around 3 days, sometimes 4, but it moves with your own income, kids and state, so it's worth checking rather than assuming. Days in between can dip under that line even when a later day clears it again; the calculator shows each day honestly rather than assuming a smooth curve. Past the sweet spot, an extra day can add almost nothing (or cost you money) because income tax, HELP repayments and the Child Care Subsidy taper all rise together, on every day you already work, not just the new one.
Why does day 5 pay so little?
Each extra day is taxed at your top marginal rate, not your average rate, and the same gross pay also raises HELP repayments and lowers your Child Care Subsidy while adding another day of care fees. Day 5 stacks every one of those effects on top of the other four days, so it keeps the smallest slice of its gross pay. That's also why the jump from 3 days to 5 is often smaller than it looks on paper: two extra days of gross pay, but a shrinking share of each one actually lands in the household's pocket.
Source: ATO: individual income tax rates
Does a HELP or HECS debt change my sweet spot?
Often, yes. Once your repayment income passes $69,528, each extra dollar carries a 15% compulsory repayment on top of income tax in 2026-27. That alone can move a day from “clearly worth it” to borderline: turn the HELP switch on in the calculator and watch the statement change.
How does it work for single parents?
Turn on “I’m a single parent” and the partner fields disappear. The Child Care Subsidy is assessed on family income, which is then just your income, so many single parents keep a higher subsidy rate and a later sweet spot than a couple on the same personal wage.
Why does earning more shrink our subsidy?
The subsidy starts at 90% of the fee (up to an hourly cap) and tapers down by 1 percentage point for every $5,000 of family income above $88,520, hitting zero at $538,520. Every extra workday raises family income, so it trims the subsidy on every day of care your kids already use, not just the new one. Services Australia also withholds 5% of payments against year-end adjustments.
What is not included?
Family Tax Benefit, Parenting Payment and paid parental leave; salary packaging and novated leases; state free-kinder programs (they can cut your fee: edit the daily fee if one applies to you); and career effects like promotions or skill fade. Extra super is shown as a footnote, not folded into the hourly rate. Treat results as estimates to compare scenarios, not financial advice.
Where do the rates come from?
Every threshold, rate and cap is loaded from a reviewed 2026-27 rules file: tax brackets, Medicare levy and HELP thresholds from the ATO; Child Care Subsidy rates and hourly caps from Services Australia; and average daily fees from the Department of Education’s childcare reports. Each figure in the rules file records its source page and the date it was checked.
Source: ATO: individual income tax rates
What about super?
Every extra day also earns 12% in employer super. It’s real money, but it’s locked away for decades, so the calculator shows it as a separate footnote in the results table instead of quietly inflating today’s hourly rate.