2026-27 estimate
Is 4 days a week worth it with childcare?
Going from 3 days to 4 is a part-time step many parents wrestle with. It's enough money to matter, but it doesn't feel like a full return to work either. The honest answer depends on your own numbers, so here's what day 4 does to one real family's pay, side by side with day 3, and what to check in yours.
For Maya and Josh, yes: day 4 adds $172 a week after tax, childcare and the Medicare Levy Surcharge. That is not a promise for every family; use your salary, care costs and cover in the calculator to see whether that day works for you.
Maya and Josh, Melbourne: day 3 against day 4
Maya and Josh live in Melbourne's north with their two boys, who are one and three. Maya's job pays $120,000 full-time equivalent, and she's working out whether the fourth day is worth it. Josh earns $150,000 over five days. The boys go to centre-based care at Victoria's average fee of $148 a day each, and the family doesn't have private hospital cover, so the Medicare Levy Surcharge is in play once their combined income clears its threshold.
What does day 4 actually buy Maya and Josh? Start at 3 days: Maya's pay lands ($4,870), Josh's pay lands ($9,203), the surcharge and $835 of childcare for both boys come out, and the household keeps $12,845. Now add the fourth day: Maya's pay lands $1,360 more, but childcare takes $525 more and the surcharge grows by another $20, even so, the household keeps $746 more of it. That's the last day adding $172 a week; yours to judge whether it's worth the extra day of care and commute.
Here's the same story for every day of Maya's week:
Maya's family, day by day
| Days | Gross pay | CCS rate | Childcare you pay (after subsidy) | That day adds | $/hr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 (baseline) | $0 | 77.7% | $0 | n/a | n/a |
| 1 | $24,000 | 72.9% | $2,470 | +$20,528 | $51.94 |
| 2 | $48,000 | 68.1% | $5,679 | +$14,529 | $36.76 |
| 3 | $72,000 | 63.3% | $10,018 | +$8,649 | $21.88 |
| 4 | $96,000 | 58.5% | $16,313 | +$8,953 | $22.66 |
| 5 | $120,000 | 53.7% | $24,085 | +$6,801 | $17.21 |
Open this exact scenario in the calculator to change Maya and Josh's numbers to your own and see your own day 3 vs day 4.
Why day 4 is different from days 1 to 3
Your payslip rate doesn't change when you add a day. What changes is everything stacked on top of it. Each extra day of pay pushes more of your income into your top tax bracket. It also lifts your family income for Child Care Subsidy purposes, which shrinks the subsidy on every day of care your kids already use, not just the new one. And if your family doesn't have private hospital cover, it can tip you into the Medicare Levy Surcharge. None of that shows up on a payslip. You only see it when you compare the whole family's net position with day 4 against without it: exactly what the two statements above just did.
The verdict on day 4 for this family
Each extra day of Maya's income gets taxed at a higher rate, pushes the family further along the Child Care Subsidy taper, and adds another day of fees for both boys: that's the whole reason day 4 keeps less of its own pay than day 1 did. Day 5 keeps falling again, to $17.21 an hour for this family: still positive, just smaller. That's not true for everyone: whether the fifth day pays at all depends heavily on income and family size, which is what our is 5 days worth it guide walks through with a family where it doesn't. For Maya and Josh, the family's net position keeps climbing all the way to day 5, but the hourly rate on that last day is the number worth sitting with before committing to it.
The mechanics behind every number above (the tax brackets, the surcharge threshold, the subsidy taper) are laid out in full on our methodology page, with a link to the published source behind each one.
Questions about day 4
Does the answer change if we don't have private health cover?
It can, sharply. Without private hospital cover, once your family income passes the Medicare Levy Surcharge threshold, the surcharge applies to your whole family income, not just the amount above the line: it's a cliff, not a taper. Toggle "we have private hospital cover" off in the calculator to see whether your family crosses that threshold on day 4.
Source: ATO: Medicare Levy Surcharge
Why does the childcare you pay grow faster than the days worked?
Two things compound. Each extra day is another day's fee at the same subsidy rate, but the subsidy rate itself is also falling, because it's assessed on your rising family income and applies to every day of care already booked, not just the newest one. More days at a lower rate is why the amount in the table above grows faster than a simple "fee times days" estimate would suggest.
What if one of us has a HELP or HECS debt?
A HELP debt adds a compulsory repayment on top of income tax once repayment income passes the relevant threshold, and it can move the point where an extra day stops paying its way. See our HECS and CCS guide for a family where that interaction is the whole story, or toggle the HELP switch on in the calculator above for Maya or Josh directly.
Sources
- Australian Taxation OfficeIncome tax brackets
- Australian Taxation OfficeMedicare Levy Surcharge
- Services AustraliaChild Care Subsidy rate and taper
- Department of EducationVictoria average daily fee