Seeing a job ad that says “$90,000 pro-rata” can be confusing. Does it mean you’ll earn $90,000? Almost certainly not. A pro-rata salary is a full-time annual salary scaled down to match the hours you actually work. If the role is three days a week, your pay is roughly three-fifths of the advertised figure — and your leave, superannuation and other entitlements scale down the same way.
Whether you’re comparing job offers, negotiating a part-time arrangement or checking your payslip, understanding the pro-rata calculation protects you from one of the most common pay misunderstandings in Australia. This guide explains the exact formula, walks through worked examples, and shows how pro-rata rules apply to leave and super.
Quick answer: Pro-rata salary = full-time annual salary × (your contracted hours ÷ 38). For example, a $90,000 full-time salary at 0.6 FTE (22.8 hours per week) becomes $54,000 per year.
What Does Pro-Rata Salary Mean?
“Pro-rata” comes from the Latin for “in proportion”. In Australian employment, it means pay and entitlements are calculated in proportion to the hours you work compared to a full-time employee doing the same job.
The National Employment Standards (NES), set out in the Fair Work Act 2009, define a standard full-time working week as 38 hours. That 38-hour figure is the anchor for every pro-rata calculation in Australia: a part-time employee’s salary is the full-time equivalent salary multiplied by the fraction of 38 hours they work.
Pro-rata is different from hourly or casual pay. A part-time employee on a pro-rata salary is a permanent employee with the same entitlements as a full-time colleague — annual leave, personal leave, notice periods — just scaled down to match their hours. A casual employee, by contrast, gets no paid leave at all and instead receives a casual loading (typically 25%) on top of the base hourly rate.
The Pro-Rata Salary Formula
The calculation is straightforward and works in two steps:
- Find the hourly rate: Full-time annual salary ÷ 52 weeks ÷ 38 hours
- Multiply by your hours: Hourly rate × your contracted hours per week × 52 weeks
Or, in a single step:
Pro-rata salary = full-time annual salary × (your weekly hours ÷ 38)
For example, take a full-time salary of $80,000 and a part-time contract of 20 hours per week:
- Hourly rate = $80,000 ÷ 52 ÷ 38 = $40.49 per hour
- Pro-rata salary = $80,000 × (20 ÷ 38) = $80,000 × 0.5263 = $42,105 per year
Check the arithmetic: $40.49 × 20 hours × 52 weeks = $42,110 (a few dollars of rounding difference — both methods agree). Notice the important takeaway: the hourly rate is identical whether you work full-time or part-time. Part-time employees are not paid a lower hourly rate; they simply work fewer hours.
A note on 37.5-hour weeks
While 38 hours is the NES standard, some awards, enterprise agreements and industries (particularly parts of the public sector) define full-time as 37.5 hours per week. If that applies to your role, substitute 37.5 for 38 in the formula. Always check your award or agreement — using the wrong denominator is one of the most common pro-rata errors.
Pro-Rata Salary Examples: $80k, $90k and $100k Compared
The table below shows pro-rata annual salaries, weekly pay and hourly rates for three common full-time salary levels at 0.5, 0.6 and 0.8 FTE. (FTE means “full-time equivalent”: 0.5 FTE = 19 hours per week, 0.6 FTE = 22.8 hours, 0.8 FTE = 30.4 hours.)
| Full-time salary | FTE | Hours/week | Pro-rata annual salary | Weekly pay | Hourly rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $80,000 | 0.5 | 19 | $40,000 | $769.23 | $40.49 |
| 0.6 | 22.8 | $48,000 | $923.08 | $40.49 | |
| 0.8 | 30.4 | $64,000 | $1,230.77 | $40.49 | |
| $90,000 | 0.5 | 19 | $45,000 | $865.38 | $45.55 |
| 0.6 | 22.8 | $54,000 | $1,038.46 | $45.55 | |
| 0.8 | 30.4 | $72,000 | $1,384.62 | $45.55 | |
| $100,000 | 0.5 | 19 | $50,000 | $961.54 | $50.61 |
| 0.6 | 22.8 | $60,000 | $1,153.85 | $50.61 | |
| 0.8 | 30.4 | $80,000 | $1,538.46 | $50.61 |
Look at the hourly rate column: it never changes with FTE. A $100,000 full-time salary always equals $50.61 per hour, whether you work 19 hours or the full 38. If you want to see what your pro-rata salary means in take-home terms, try our pro-rata salary calculator, or convert any annual figure to an hourly rate with the salary to hourly calculator.
Worked example: three days a week
Sarah is offered a role advertised at “$95,000 pro-rata” for three days per week (22.8 hours). What will she actually earn?
- Hourly rate = $95,000 ÷ 52 ÷ 38 = $48.08 per hour
- Pro-rata salary = $95,000 × (22.8 ÷ 38) = $95,000 × 0.6 = $57,000 per year
- Weekly pay = $57,000 ÷ 52 = $1,096.15
Sarah’s take-home figure depends on tax, but a useful reference point: an $80,000 salary breaks down very differently once tax and the Medicare levy are applied, so always run the after-tax numbers before accepting an offer.
How Pro-Rata Affects Leave Entitlements
Salary is not the only thing that scales down. Under the NES, part-time employees receive the same leave entitlements as full-time employees, calculated pro-rata based on their ordinary hours of work.
Annual leave
Full-time employees get 4 weeks of paid annual leave per year — 152 hours based on a 38-hour week. A part-time employee accrues the same four weeks, but measured in their own hours. Someone working 20 hours a week accrues 80 hours of annual leave per year, not 152. Leave accrues progressively from the first day of employment (roughly 2.9 hours per week for a full-time employee) and is paid at your base rate of pay.
Personal (sick and carer’s) leave
The NES provides 10 days of paid personal/carer’s leave per year for full-time employees — 76 hours at 7.6 hours per day. Part-time employees accrue this pro-rata too. It accumulates year to year if unused, unlike annual leave it is not paid out when employment ends.
| Hours per week | FTE | Annual leave (hours/year) | Personal leave (hours/year) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 0.26 | 40 | 20 |
| 15 | 0.39 | 60 | 30 |
| 20 | 0.53 | 80 | 40 |
| 25 | 0.66 | 100 | 50 |
| 30 | 0.79 | 120 | 60 |
| 38 | 1.0 | 152 | 76 |
The rule of thumb is simple: annual leave equals 4 × your weekly hours, and personal leave equals 2 × your weekly hours, per year. If your payslip shows leave accruing at a materially different rate, that’s worth querying with your employer.
Superannuation on Pro-Rata Pay
The superannuation guarantee (SG) applies to ordinary time earnings regardless of whether you work full-time or part-time. There is no reduced SG rate for part-time employees.
The SG rate is 12% from 1 July 2025. So a part-time employee earning a $48,000 pro-rata salary receives $5,760 per year in compulsory super contributions ($48,000 × 0.12), paid on top of their salary. Use our super calculator to check what your employer should be contributing at your hours and pay rate.
Two things worth knowing: the old $450-per-month earnings threshold for super was abolished on 1 July 2022, so even very low part-time earnings attract super. And from 1 July 2026, payday super requires employers to pay SG contributions at the same time as wages, rather than quarterly — a change that particularly benefits part-time and casual workers, who will see their super land in their fund sooner.
Pro-Rata vs Hourly Pay vs Casual Loading: Don’t Mix Them Up
Three pay structures are often confused:
- Pro-rata salary: a permanent part-time employee paid an annual salary scaled to their hours, with full pro-rata leave entitlements. Hourly rate = full-time hourly rate.
- Hourly pay (permanent part-time): functionally the same deal expressed differently — an hourly rate × hours worked, with pro-rata leave. If the hourly rate matches the full-time equivalent, the outcome is identical.
- Casual: no guaranteed hours, no paid leave, but a 25% casual loading on the base rate as compensation. At the current National Minimum Wage of $26.44 per hour (from 1 July 2026), a casual must receive at least $33.05 per hour.
The National Minimum Wage itself is pro-rata in effect: $1,004.90 per week is the 38-hour figure, so a part-time employee on the minimum wage working 20 hours receives $528.84 per week (20 × $26.44). The rate never drops below the minimum — only the total scales with hours.
Common Pro-Rata Mistakes to Avoid
- Reading the advertised figure as your pay. “$90,000 pro-rata” for a 0.6 role means $54,000. Always multiply by your FTE fraction before comparing offers.
- Assuming a lower hourly rate. Part-time hourly rates equal the full-time rate for the same role. If your contract shows a lower hourly figure than the full-time equivalent, question it.
- Using the wrong denominator. Most roles use 38 hours, but some awards and agreements use 37.5. Check which one your role is based on before calculating.
- Treating casual loading as pro-rata. Casuals are not pro-rata employees — they trade leave entitlements for a 25% loading. Don’t accept casual rates on a permanent part-time contract.
- Forgetting leave and super scale too. Your 4 weeks of annual leave and 12% super are calculated on your pro-rata figures. Verify both appear correctly on your payslip.
- Ignoring the minimum wage floor. Pro-rata scaling can never take your hourly rate below the National Minimum Wage ($26.44/hour) or your award rate, whichever is higher.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is pro-rata salary the same as hourly pay?
Not exactly, but they’re closely related. A pro-rata salary is an annual figure scaled to your contracted hours, paid in regular instalments. Hourly pay multiplies an hourly rate by hours actually worked. For a permanent part-time employee with fixed hours, both produce the same result if the hourly rate matches the full-time equivalent.
Do part-time employees get the same hourly rate as full-time employees?
Yes. Under Australian workplace law, a part-time employee doing the same role must receive the same base hourly rate as a full-time colleague. Pro-rata reduces the total pay because fewer hours are worked — never the rate itself.
How is annual leave calculated for part-time workers in Australia?
Part-time employees accrue 4 weeks of annual leave per year, pro-rata to their ordinary hours. The simple formula is 4 × your weekly hours = annual leave hours per year. A 22.8-hour-per-week employee accrues 91.2 hours annually. Leave accrues progressively from day one and is paid at your base rate.
Does working part-time reduce my superannuation?
Your super contributions will be lower in dollar terms because they’re 12% of lower earnings — but the rate is the same 12% that applies to full-time employees. A $60,000 pro-rata salary attracts $7,200 per year in SG contributions, exactly as a $100,000 full-time salary attracts $12,000.
What does 0.6 FTE mean in hours per week?
FTE stands for full-time equivalent, where 1.0 FTE = 38 hours per week. So 0.6 FTE = 22.8 hours per week (roughly three days), 0.5 FTE = 19 hours, and 0.8 FTE = 30.4 hours. Multiply any FTE figure by 38 to get the weekly hours.
Can my employer pay me less than the pro-rata amount?
No — not below the legal minimum. Your pro-rata pay must reflect the correct fraction of the full-time rate, and your hourly rate cannot fall below the National Minimum Wage ($26.44 per hour from 1 July 2026) or the minimum rate in your modern award or enterprise agreement, whichever is higher.
Conclusion
Pro-rata pay is simple once you know the formula: take the full-time annual salary, divide by 52 and 38 to find the hourly rate, then multiply by your actual hours — or just multiply the full-time salary by your FTE fraction. The hourly rate never changes; only the totals scale. The same proportional logic flows through to your annual leave, personal leave and superannuation.
Before you sign a part-time contract, run the numbers yourself. Plug the advertised full-time salary and your weekly hours into our free pro-rata salary calculator to see your exact annual, weekly and hourly figures — then check the after-tax result so you know precisely what will land in your bank account.