Scott Pape's super to 15% calculator
Barefoot Step 5 asks for 15% of your earnings in super. See what compulsory contributions cover, what you must add, and where the concessional cap bites.
Scott Pape Reviewed Aug 16, 2026 Rule located in Scott Pape, The Barefoot Investor, 2026 Put your numbers through the rule
The source establishes the rule. The values below belong to you, and the output is JMM's deterministic calculation.
Every field recalculates immediately. Changed values can be copied into a shareable URL.
- Where your contributions sit as a share of earnings
- 13.3%employer, salary sacrifice and deductible personal contributions together, against the 15% Step 5 asks for
- The gap per pay, after the cap is applied
- $63.46across 26 pays, and the cap has room for all of it
- Room left inside your concessional cap
- $19,900$32,500 of cap against $12,600 already counted toward it
- Earnings the employer contribution is not required on
- $0the maximum contributions base is $270,830 a year and your earnings are below it
- Earnings above which 15% no longer fits inside the cap
- $216,667your cap of $32,500 divided by 15%: above this income the target cannot be met concessionally at all, whatever you arrange
Amounts are Australian dollars. Ordinary-time earnings are not the same figure as salary: they include shift loadings, most allowances and commissions, and they exclude overtime, so a payslip total entered here will usually overstate the base. The maximum contributions base used is the $270,830 annual figure that applies from 1 July 2026, when contributions moved to payday; earlier years used a quarterly base and this model does not compute those. Defined-benefit notional contributions, Division 293 tax, the total-super-balance test on carry-forward eligibility, government co-contributions and any after-tax contribution are all outside the calculation, and the cap and carry-forward figures are the ones you entered rather than ones this page looked up for you.
Employer contribution
- A year
- $11,400
- Share of earnings
- 12.0%
- Per pay
- $438
Salary sacrifice
- A year
- $1,200
- Share of earnings
- 1.3%
- Per pay
- $46.15
Deductible personal
- A year
- $0
- Share of earnings
- 0.0%
- Per pay
- $0
Still to find
- A year
- $1,650
- Share of earnings
- 1.7%
- Per pay
- $63.46
What the source says, and what the calculator adds
Source-supported ruleStep 5 of the Barefoot Steps is headed “Increase Your Super to 15 Per Cent” and argues the case in four short sentences: boost your super to 15 per cent and you will never have to worry about money again, because it is time-tested, totally tax-efficient, and it works. That is the entire specification. Pape names one percentage and does not say what it is a percentage of, does not mention the compulsory employer contribution the number is built on top of, and does not mention the annual cap every dollar counted toward it has to fit inside. 
JMM calculationJMM supplies the three things the step leaves out. It computes the compulsory employer contribution properly, applying the maximum contributions base, so a high earner sees the employer share stop growing while the 15% target keeps rising. It measures the voluntary gap per pay rather than per year, which is the number a payroll form actually asks for. And it checks the answer against the concessional cap before recommending it, including the income above which 15% of earnings cannot be contributed concessionally at all — on the current cap that is $216,667, and no arrangement of salary sacrifice gets past it. What changes the answer
Most of the 15% is already being paid for you
On the loaded numbers the compulsory employer contribution is $11,400 of a $14,250 target, so the entire ask of Step 5 is the remaining $1,650, which is $63 a pay. That is the single most useful thing this page can tell an Australian reader, and the step itself never says it: at the current general rate, the voluntary part of a 15% target is around three points of earnings, not fifteen.
The employer share stops growing and the target does not
The maximum contributions base caps the earnings an employer must contribute on at $270,830 a year. Above that income the employer line is flat at $32,499.60 while 15% of earnings keeps climbing, so the voluntary gap widens with every extra dollar earned. The chart on this page is that divergence drawn, and it is invisible in any model that treats the rule as fifteen minus twelve.
Above $216,667 the target cannot be reached concessionally at all
Every dollar counted here — employer, salary sacrifice, deductible personal — lands inside one concessional cap, $32,500 for 2026–27. Divide that cap by 15% and the answer is $216,667 of earnings. Above it, 15% of earnings simply does not fit, and a reader who follows the step past that point is arranging excess concessional contributions taxed at their marginal rate. The step mentions no cap of any kind.
A good contribution rate stated as if the compulsory system underneath it did not exist
JMM’s position is that 15% is a defensible number and the sentence carrying it is doing a reader real damage by omission. Four short clauses set a target without naming a base, without naming the compulsory contribution that already delivers four fifths of it, and without naming the cap that decides whether the rest can legally be contributed. The consequence is that the step reads as far more demanding than it is for a median earner, where the actual ask is about three points of earnings, and far less demanding than it is for a high earner, where the maximum contributions base and the concessional cap both bind and the step becomes impossible to follow as written. “Totally tax-efficient” is the phrase JMM would strike hardest: concessional contributions are taxed at 15% inside the fund, they are not tax-free, and above the cap they are taxed at the marginal rate with an interest charge attached. The direction is right — most Australians will retire on more if they add a few points to their super, and doing it by payroll deduction is the least painful way anyone has found. The number is fine. The sentence around it needs the three facts this page adds.
Not the calculator’s limits. The rule’s.
A percentage with no stated base is not a specification
Fifteen per cent of gross salary, of ordinary-time earnings and of take-home pay are three materially different instructions, and for an Australian on the average wage the gap between the widest and the narrowest reading is thousands of dollars a year. The step names none of them, and the buckets article on the same site measures its own percentages against take-home pay, which is a fourth base again.
It ignores the cap, and the cap is where the advice becomes dangerous
Contributions above the concessional cap are taxed at the marginal rate and carry an interest charge. A high earner acting on this step without checking the cap is not slightly over-optimised, they are paying tax and interest on money they were trying to save. A rule stated as “boost your super to 15 per cent” with no ceiling attached is the exact shape of advice that produces that outcome.
Locking money away until preservation age is a cost the step never prices
Superannuation cannot generally be accessed until preservation age, which is now 60. For a household with credit card debt, no emergency savings or a deposit to save, salary sacrificing to a percentage target means committing money for decades that is needed within years. Pape’s own step ordering puts the emergency fund after this one, which is an ordering JMM would argue with directly.
“You’ll never have to worry about money again” is not a claim a contribution rate can support
Whether 15% is enough depends on the starting balance, the years remaining, the fees, the investment option and the retirement the household wants. Two people contributing 15% from 25 and from 50 arrive at completely different places. The step promises an outcome and specifies only an input, and there is no balance target anywhere in it.
What this model does not know
- Ordinary-time earnings are not the same figure as salary. They include shift loadings, most allowances and commissions and exclude overtime, so a payslip total entered here will usually overstate the base.
- Amounts are Australian dollars, and the cap and carry-forward figures are the ones you entered rather than ones this page looked up for you.
- Awards and enterprise agreements can require more than the general rate, and some employers pay more voluntarily, which is why the employer rate is an editable input rather than a fixed 12%.
- Defined-benefit notional contributions, Division 293 tax on high incomes, the total-super-balance test that governs carry-forward eligibility, government co-contributions and any after-tax contribution are all outside the model.
- The maximum contributions base used is the annual figure that applies from 1 July 2026. Earlier financial years used a quarterly base and this model does not compute those.
- Nothing here is a projection. There is no return assumption and no balance at retirement, because Step 5 sets a contribution rate and states no target balance.
Before you use the result
Does the employer contribution count toward the 15%?
This page counts it, because the step says to get your super to 15 per cent rather than to add 15 per cent yourself. That reading makes the voluntary ask about three points of earnings at the current general rate rather than fifteen, and the page shows both figures so you can see the difference.
What are ordinary-time earnings?
Broadly, what you earn for your ordinary hours: it includes shift loadings, most allowances and commissions, and it excludes overtime. It is the base the compulsory contribution is calculated on, and it is usually less than a payslip total.
What is the maximum contributions base?
A ceiling on the earnings an employer is required to contribute on. From 1 July 2026 it is $270,830 a year, so the largest compulsory contribution anyone is owed is $32,499.60. Above that income the employer line stops rising while a 15% target does not.
Why does the page warn about a cap?
Because employer contributions, salary sacrifice and deductible personal contributions all count toward one concessional cap. Going over it means tax at your marginal rate plus an interest charge, so the page recommends the smaller of the rule’s gap and the room left in your cap.
Can I contribute 15% on any income?
No. Divide your concessional cap by 15% and you get the earnings above which the target no longer fits — $216,667 on a $32,500 cap. Above that, no arrangement of salary sacrifice reaches 15% concessionally.
Does this page look up the current caps for me?
No. The cap and any carried-forward amount are inputs you enter, and the defaults are the general 2026–27 figures. Your own cap depends on your contribution history and total super balance, which this page cannot see.
The next question this page cannot answer
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Dave Ramsey, sourced rule 15% retirement calculator The same percentage in a system with no compulsory contribution underneath it, which is the cleanest way to see how much of an Australian 15% target is already being paid for you.
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Calculator Compound interest calculator What the step promises and never computes. It sets a contribution rate and states no target balance, so the horizon and the return have to come from somewhere visible.
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Scott Pape, sourced rule Three-month Mojo calculator The step JMM would run before this one. Superannuation contributed here cannot be touched until 60, and the emergency it cannot cover is what Step 6 is for.
Open → - Guide Tax is charged on the inflation as well, and the order of operations decides the answer
Why “totally tax-efficient” needs checking. Concessional contributions are taxed inside the fund rather than untaxed, and this is where a headline return becomes a spendable one.
Open →