The $95k Job That Beats a $100k Offer — Compare Properly

You have two job offers on the table. One pays $100,000. The other pays $95,000. The higher salary wins, right?

Not always. If the $95,000 job is at a charity that can offer salary packaging (a public benevolent institution), up to $18,550 of your pay can be received tax-free. On 2026–27 tax rates, that leaves you about $2,536 a year more take-home pay than the $100,000 job without packaging. The $100,000 job still pays $600 a year more super, so the gap narrows once super counts.

Salary is one of six things that decide what an offer is worth. The others are super, bonus, salary packaging, leave and commute cost. Three worked scenarios below show when the higher offer comes out ahead and when it doesn't.

All take-home figures use 2026–27 tax rates from the Velofy tax engine and include the 2% Medicare levy. They assume private hospital cover, so no Medicare levy surcharge applies. Most packaged benefits count towards the surcharge income test and HECS repayment income, so check both if they apply to you.

The six variables that move the needle

Every job comparison should cover these six inputs. Miss any one of them and you can be off by thousands per year:

Scenario 1: Higher super or higher salary?

Job A: $100,000 base + 13% super + no bonus. Job B: $105,000 base + 12% super + no bonus.

• Job A super contribution: $13,000/yr. Job B: $12,600/yr. Difference: $400/yr in Job A's favour.
• Job B's extra $5,000 is taxed at 30% plus the 2% Medicare levy, leaving $3,400 more take-home ($80,880 vs $77,480).
• Job A's extra $400/yr of super, after 15% contributions tax, grows to about $30,700 over 30 years (about $10,300 in today's dollars) at 7% a year less 0.25% fees.

Job B still comes out ahead. It could salary-sacrifice $400 a year to match Job A's super and still take home $3,128 more ($80,608 vs $77,480). Higher super wins only when the salary gap is small next to the super gap.

Scenario 2: The bonus mirage

Job A: $130,000 flat salary. Job B: $115,000 + $30,000 target bonus at 50% likelihood.

Job B's expected bonus = $30,000 × 50% = $15,000. Total expected gross = $130,000. Looks equal.

After tax it is still equal on expected values. $115,000 plus a $15,000 bonus stays inside the 30% bracket, which runs to $135,000, so the expected bonus leaves $10,200 after tax — the same as Job A's extra $15,000 of salary. Both come to $97,880 take-home.

The difference is risk. If Job B pays the full bonus, take-home is $107,380. If it pays nothing, it is $87,680. Job A leaves $97,880 every year, with no performance review attached.

At equal expected value, certainty wins. Job B needs to offer a higher expected total to make up for the risk — what economists call a risk premium.

Scenario 3: The healthcare packaging edge

Job A: $120,000 at a private company + 12% super. Job B: $108,000 at a public hospital + 12% super + $9,010 general packaging + $2,650 meal entertainment.

Job A looks $12,000 ahead. But Job B's $11,660 of FBT-exempt salary packaging is received tax-free. In the 30% bracket, that saves:

• $11,660 × 30% = $3,498 in income tax
• Plus the 2% Medicare levy on the packaged amount: $233
• Total packaging value: $3,731/yr

After tax, Job A leaves $91,080. Job B leaves $82,920 without packaging, or $86,651 with it. The gap shrinks from $12,000 before tax to about $4,429 after tax. Job A also pays $1,440 a year more super, because 12% of a higher salary is more. If Job B offers 25 days of leave against Job A's 20, the 5 extra days are worth about $2,077 (5 days of a $108,000 salary), bringing the take-home gap to about $2,350.

For nurses, allied health workers and charity staff, packaging is often the single biggest variable in a job comparison. The job comparison calculator models this automatically — select "Healthcare / hospital" or "Charity / PBI" from the packaging dropdown.

The 30-year super gap most comparisons ignore

A yearly difference in super keeps growing for the rest of your career. Take $1,000 a year more employer super. After the 15% contributions tax, $850 goes in each year. At 7% a year before inflation, less 0.25% a year in admin fees, that grows to about $76,769 after 30 years. In today's dollars that is about $25,812, using 3.7% a year, ASIC's default for super calculators.

The median growth super fund returned 7.6% a year over the 10 years to May 2026, after investment fees and tax (Chant West). 0.25% is about the median MySuper admin fee on a $50,000 balance (APRA, year to 30 June 2025).

The gap grows with the size of the contribution difference. Figures are after the 15% contributions tax, in future dollars, with today's dollars in brackets:

The calculator shows both figures under every comparison.

If the gap goes the wrong way — your preferred offer pays less super than the alternative — you can close it by salary sacrificing extra into super from the higher salary. In the 30% bracket you save 17 cents in tax on every dollar redirected; in the 37% bracket, 24 cents. Model the dollar saving and the 30-year effect with the Velofy salary sacrifice calculator.

When the numbers matter less

When the yearly gap between two offers is under about $5,000, things like the manager, the team, flexibility and what you will learn often matter more. Over a two- or three-year stint, a $5,000 gap adds up to $10,000–$15,000: meaningful, but not life-changing.

Above about $15,000 a year, the money is harder to ignore. A job that pays $20,000 a year more is $60,000 more before tax over three years — enough to make a real difference to a mortgage, a super balance or savings.