Second Job Income for a Home Loan: Lender Checks

For a second job home loan, a lender counts the second wage once the applicant has held the job for the lender’s minimum period and the payslips show ongoing pay. Among four current lender policies, that minimum is 6 or 12 months for most applicants.

The tenure rule is only half the test. A first payslip from a new weekend job often includes induction or extra shifts, so annualising it can overstate second job income for a mortgage by thousands of dollars. Separate the two jobs, prove the recurring pay, then test the application with and without the second wage.

Separate the Two Employments

Record each job as its own employment, with its employer, commencement date, employment basis and regular hours. Lenders apply their tenure and income rules to each job separately, so one combined income figure hides the details they test. The table records both jobs for Daniel, a fictional applicant used throughout this guide.

Detail	Main job	Second job
Employer	Northline Freight	Hartley’s Hardware
Commencement date	14 March 2022	4 August 2026
Employment basis	Permanent full-time	Casual
Regular hours	38 hours, Monday to Friday	12 hours, Saturday and Sunday
Pay	$90,000 base salary	$32 an hour

The commencement date sets tenure for each job. The employment basis decides whether the lender’s casual income rules apply as well as its second-job rule. Regular hours show the combined workload and expose a payslip that carries more than the usual pattern.

Worked Example: A New Weekend Job

Daniel is a full-time employee who recently started the weekend job in the table. His roster is 12 hours each weekend at $32 an hour, which is $384 a week.

Daniel’s first weekly payslip shows 22 hours and $704 gross. It included 4 hours of induction and a 6-hour stocktake shift. Annualised over 52 weeks, that payslip suggests $36,608 a year.

His next seven payslips each show the rostered 12 hours. Over the first eight weeks he earned $3,392, an average of $424 a week.

Method	Weekly figure	Annual figure
First payslip annualised	$704	$36,608
Eight-week average annualised	$424	$22,048
Regular roster annualised	$384	$19,968

The annualised first payslip overstates Daniel’s recurring income by $16,640 a year. Induction happens once and stocktakes are occasional, so neither repeats every weekend. The eight-week average still carries that first week, which leaves the roster figure of $19,968 as the income his regular pattern supports.

Demonstrate Sustainable Income

Demonstrate sustainable income by comparing each job’s payslips, year-to-date (YTD) earnings and history, then using the figure the regular pattern supports. Daniel’s main job has run since 2022, and its YTD earnings match his $90,000 salary. The open question is the weekend job.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) sets out the same test in Regulatory Guide 209, its responsible lending guidance issued 9 December 2019. It says the income from the last pay period isn’t enough to show what a borrower will keep earning. For casual or seasonal work, it calls for information about the variation in hours and pay, instead of an income taken from an unusually busy period.

Compare these records for both jobs before you settle on a figure:

• The two latest payslips from each employer, checking the hours worked against the roster and any one-off lines.
• The YTD earnings on each latest payslip, divided by the weeks since that job started instead of the weeks since 1 July.
• The previous financial year’s income statement, which shows whether the client held a second job before this one.

Daniel’s YTD on his eighth weekend payslip is $3,392, which understates his pay at $261 a week when divided by the 13 weeks since 1 July. Divided by the 8 weeks since 4 August, it gives the $424 average. The first week’s 10 extra hours explain the $40 a week above the $384 roster.

Questions for the Client

Ask each of these as a separate question, because each answer changes a different part of the file.

Question	Why it matters	What changes in the evidence
Do the two jobs’ hours overlap, and how many hours do they add up to?	Hours that clash can’t both continue. MyState’s 1 July 2026 procedure counts no more than 60 combined hours a week.	Send both rosters. If shifts rotate, add an employer letter showing the weekend work fits around the main job.
Is either job in a probation period?	Probation often runs 3 to 6 months, according to the Fair Work Ombudsman. A probation review is a foreseeable event that can end the income.	Send the contract showing the probation end date. Add the client’s earlier employment history if the main job is the one on probation.
Do any of the second job’s shifts depend on a season or event?	Christmas trading, harvest work and stocktakes raise pay for a few weeks, then stop.	Remove those hours from the recurring figure and explain them in your notes. Send the roster that shows the regular pattern.
Was there a gap between this second job and an earlier one?	An earlier second job shows the client has sustained two jobs before.	Send the earlier employer’s income statement. Note the gap’s dates and reason. BankVic’s July 2026 guidelines and Pepper Money’s 21 August 2026 guide measure tenure in the current job.

Daniel’s answers shape a short file. His jobs don’t overlap, and together they total 50 hours a week. Neither job has a probation period, the stocktake was a one-off and he had no weekend job before August.

His evidence is therefore the two latest payslips from each employer, his weekend roster and a note explaining the first payslip’s 10 extra hours. The figure in the file is $90,000 plus $19,968, not the $36,608 the first payslip suggests. If Daniel had worked weekends at another store until June, his earlier income statement would join the file to show the pattern.

Apply Lender Conditions

Apply each lender’s minimum tenure, probation and sustainability conditions to the second job before you count its income. The four policies below set different minimums, so the same weekend job counts at one lender months before another.

Lender and policy	Minimum time in the second job	Other conditions
Macquarie, 10 September 2026 credit guidelines	12 months, with no minimum where both roles are in healthcare, teaching or aged or disability care	Counts 100% of second-job income
MyState and Auswide, lending procedure effective 1 July 2026	6 continuous months in both positions	Counts no more than 60 combined hours a week in servicing
BankVic, July 2026 underwriting guidelines	12 months in the current position	All regular second-job income can be used
Pepper Money, 21 August 2026 product guide	12 months with the current employer for Prime home loans	Near Prime loans need 6 months with the current employer and 18 months in the same industry

Probation appears in two of these policies, and both rules concern permanent employment rather than the second job. BankVic’s guidelines require a full-time applicant who hasn’t finished probation to have 12 months of earlier employment in the same industry. Where lenders mortgage insurance (LMI) applies, BankVic requires probation to be complete.

Pepper Money’s guide says it can consider a Prime applicant on probation based on the strength of the overall application. Daniel’s weekend job is casual, so the next question is how each lender converts casual pay into a yearly figure.

When One Job Is Casual

When the second job is casual, the lender’s casual income calculation applies on top of its second-job tenure rule. Each calculation turns the same $384 week into a different yearly figure.

Lender	Casual income calculation	Daniel’s regular $384 week
Macquarie, 10 September 2026	Annualises YTD earnings once they cover 6 months. Below that, it uses the lower of annualised YTD or the latest financial year’s income.	$19,968 once YTD covers 6 months
MyState, 1 July 2026	Projects casual YTD earnings over 48 weeks of the year.	$18,432
BankVic, July 2026	Counts 11/12 of annualised casual YTD earnings to allow for unpaid leave and irregular shifts.	$18,304

Macquarie’s guidelines also advise caution when annualising pay from seasonal employment. A permanent part-time second job avoids these casual adjustments. Its contracted hours and pay rate support the figure instead.

If the main job is the casual one, its own casual tenure rule applies too, which the casual employment guide explains. Extra hours worked for the main employer are overtime rather than a second job. The overtime income guide covers how lenders count them.

Accepted and Excluded Scenarios

Test the application twice, once with the second-job income and once without it, keeping the household commitments the same. Daniel is buying a $540,000 home with a $486,000 loan, a loan-to-value ratio (LVR) of 90%. He also owes $20,000 on a car loan, so his total debt is $506,000.

The debt-to-income ratio (DTI) divides total debt by gross annual income. Macquarie’s 10 September 2026 guidelines cap DTI at 8 and limit the LVR to 80% when DTI is above 6. MyState’s 1 July 2026 procedure limits an owner-occupied loan to an 80% LVR when DTI is 5 or more but below 6.

Scenario	Second-job income	Gross income	DTI	Effect on a 90% LVR
Macquarie, October 2026	Excluded, under 12 months	$90,000	5.6	Not limited by DTI, so servicing on $90,000 decides it
MyState, October 2026	Excluded, under 6 months	$90,000	5.6	Limited to 80%, so the loan doesn’t fit
MyState, February 2027	Counted at $18,432	$108,432	4.7	No DTI limit
Macquarie, August 2027	Counted at about $18,400	About $108,400	4.7	No DTI limit

At Macquarie in August 2027, Daniel’s new YTD covers about a month. Macquarie then uses the lower of annualised YTD or his 2026-27 income, and his 2026-27 income covers only 47 weeks of pay from 4 August.

A capitalised LMI premium adds to the debt. Daniel’s DTI stays in the same bands with a premium of up to $15,000: 4.8 with the second job counted and 5.8 without it.

These rows test each lender’s DTI rule only. Run each lender’s servicing calculator as well, because a DTI that fits can still fail servicing on $90,000.

Bulma’s Scenario Planner runs both versions across 52+ lenders. Removing the second-job income updates the lender list and the borrowing power at each lender, using that lender’s own servicing inputs.

The comparison tells Daniel whether he needs an exception at all. If Macquarie’s servicing passes on his salary alone, he can apply on $90,000 without asking any lender to count a two-month-old job. If it doesn’t, the options are a smaller loan or waiting until February 2027, when MyState can count the weekend job.