Business Equipment Award

It covers the business equipment industry — broadly the sale or lease, and the associated installation and servicing, of equipment such as computers, photocopiers, fax machines and related peripherals. It applies to employers and employees in that industry across the technical, clerical/administration and commercial travellers streams. Managerial staff, formal trainees, electrical contractors, manufacturers and those under an enterprise or public-sector award are excluded. Confirm coverage against the Fair Work source if your business sits at the edges.

There are three: technical (technicians and technical employees), clerical/administration, and commercial travellers (sales representatives). Each stream has its own classification levels and its own minimum rates, and the rules that apply can differ between them. The right approach is to identify which stream a role belongs to, then grade it to the correct level. The Fair Work source sets out the classification definitions for each stream.

Identify the employee's stream, match their duties to the right classification level within that stream, then read the current minimum weekly and hourly rate for that classification. Add the casual loading if they are casual, plus any applicable allowances and penalties. Because rates change every July, always use the Fair Work Pay Calculator for the figure that applies on the relevant date rather than relying on a remembered number.

Casual employees are paid a loading on top of the ordinary hourly rate, commonly 25%, to compensate for not receiving paid leave and other permanent entitlements. It applies to the casual's ordinary hours and is the starting point before overtime or weekend penalties are added. Treat the exact percentage as something to verify on the Fair Work source, since loadings can be adjusted through award reviews.

The award applies higher rates for weekend and Sunday work, and work on a public holiday can attract a penalty of up to 150%. As a guide across awards, Saturday is often around 25% and Sunday around 50% above the ordinary rate, but the exact figures for this award and how they vary by stream must be confirmed on the Fair Work source. Always check the current penalty for the specific day and classification before paying.

Hours worked beyond the ordinary span or the agreed daily and weekly hours are paid at overtime rates, which step up the longer the overtime runs, with casual overtime calculated differently again. Ordinary hours are typically an average of 38 per week within a defined daytime span, Monday to Friday, with flexibility by agreement. Confirm the exact overtime multipliers, the ordinary-hours span and any time-off-in-lieu options on the Fair Work source.

It includes a defined set of allowances such as leading hand, first aid, meal, motor vehicle (with a cents-per-kilometre component for employee-provided vehicles), living-away-from-home and area allowances, among others. Some are 'for all purposes' and must be built into the base rate before overtime and leave calculations. Every amount is reviewed annually, so confirm the current figure for each allowance on the Fair Work source before paying it.

They can. Allowances paid 'for all purposes' are added to the base rate before you calculate overtime, penalties and annual leave pay, which means they increase those amounts. Expense-related allowances, by contrast, generally reimburse a cost and are not built into the rate. Check which allowances under this award are all-purpose versus expense-related on the Fair Work source, because mixing the two up causes underpayments.

In some streams, yes — once an employee's salary exceeds a defined threshold and the conditions are met, they can be exempt from certain provisions such as ordinary-hours and rostering rules. But this is not an automatic exemption from everything, and it only applies above the current threshold. Verify the threshold and exactly which provisions it removes on the Fair Work source before relying on it, as the figure is updated over time.

Modern award minimum rates and dollar allowances increase from the first full pay period on or after 1 July each year, following the Annual Wage Review. The 2026 review added 4.75% to modern award minimums. Practically, that means you re-check every classification and allowance each July and apply the new figures from the correct pay period. Use the Fair Work Pay Calculator to get the exact updated rate for each classification.

Where annual leave loading applies, it is commonly 17.5% on top of the base rate for the period of leave, recognising that employees would otherwise miss out on penalties and allowances while away. Whether and how it applies can depend on the employee's pattern of work and stream. Confirm the current treatment of leave loading for this award on the Fair Work source rather than assuming it applies uniformly.

The frequent ones are: placing an employee in the wrong stream or classification level; assuming an above-award salary covers all obligations when the exemption only applies above a set threshold; failing to build all-purpose allowances into the base rate before overtime and leave; and not updating rates each July. Each can create a rolling underpayment. Checking classifications and figures against the Fair Work source regularly is the simplest safeguard. Valont's award-compliant payroll service can run these checks for you.

Keep an accurate classification for every employee, re-baseline rates and allowances each July, build all-purpose allowances into the base rate, and apply the correct penalties for weekends, public holidays and overtime — always verifying current figures against the Fair Work source. Many SMEs outsource this so it is handled consistently and on time; Valont provides award-compliant payroll and back-office support built around exactly these checks, with current rates confirmed from the Fair Work source.