In shortA permanent salary that looks lower than your contract rate often isn’t, once you add paid leave, sick leave, public holidays, notice-period security, training, and not carrying your own downtime. Permanent also tends to open more career progression. Contracting wins on raw flexibility and short-term cash.

If you have been contracting or on labour hire and you are looking at a permanent offer, the first reaction is usually the same: the salary is less than I’m on now. Sometimes that is true. Often it is not, once you compare properly.

What a contract rate has to cover that a salary doesn’t

  • Paid annual leave — four weeks a year you are not billing. On a $75/hr rate that is roughly $12,000.
  • Public holidays — another ~10 days you are not billing.
  • Sick and carer’s leave — every day off is unpaid on a contract.
  • Downtime between assignments — the two or three weeks a year with no contract at all.
  • Superannuation — make sure you know whether your rate is inclusive or on top; permanent super is on top of base by law.
  • Your own admin, insurances and accountant if you contract through your own entity.

Add those up and a permanent package can match or beat a contract rate that looked $10–$20k higher on paper.

What else changes

Security

A permanent role comes with a notice period and a redundancy entitlement. A contract can end with a phone call. If you have a mortgage and a family, that difference is worth real money even if it never shows up on a payslip.

Career progression

Employers invest in permanent staff — tickets, training, stepping up to run bigger jobs, a path to the next title. Contractors usually stay in the same lane, because nobody is developing them. If you want to move from Site Manager to Project Manager, or from PM toward Construction Manager, permanent is generally the faster route.

Being on the team

Some people like being the outsider who comes in, does the job and leaves. Others are tired of it — of never being in the room for the decisions, of being first off when work slows. That is a personal call, and worth being honest with yourself about.

When contracting is the right choice

  • You genuinely value the flexibility — long breaks, choosing projects, moving between states.
  • You are in a scarce specialty where rates are high and demand is constant.
  • You are near the end of your career and optimising for cash over progression.
  • You want to try several businesses before committing to one.

How to weigh a specific offer

Build the real comparison: contract rate × realistic billable weeks (say 46, not 52), versus the permanent package including super, and then add a value for leave, security and any training or progression on offer. If the permanent number is within ~10% and you want stability or a career step, it is usually the better move.

Related: permanent vs labour hire (the employer’s side of the same question), and our guide for candidates.