Which Modern Award applies to your team?
Search by industry, role or award name to find the Modern Award that likely covers your employees — then see the key conditions: ordinary hours, casual minimums, penalty rates, classifications and allowances.
27 major awards · Covers most small-business industries
Search any role
Industry, role or award name
Match the award
Find the likely coverage
Key conditions
Hours, penalties, loadings
Confirm on Fair Work
Detail changes — verify it
About this tool
Award Finder
Most Australian small businesses are covered by a Modern Award — the legally binding instrument that sets minimum pay and conditions for a role — but working out which award applies to which employee is one of the fiddliest jobs in the back office. There are more than a hundred awards, coverage turns on the work an employee actually performs rather than the business's headline industry, and it's common for one small business to span several awards at once. The Award Finder helps you get to the right starting point: search by industry, role or award name and see the Modern Award that most likely covers your people, along with a plain-English snapshot of its key conditions.
How it works
The tool lets you search a curated set of the major Modern Awards that cover most small-business industries — hospitality, retail, construction and the trades, healthcare, community services, professional services, transport, agriculture and more. Type a role, industry or award name (or filter by industry) and it matches against each award's common roles and classifications to surface the likely coverage. Select a match and you'll see a structured summary of that award's key features: ordinary weekly hours, the minimum casual engagement period, the pattern of weekend and public-holiday penalty rates, the casual loading, the classification structure, the main allowances, and a "watch for" note flagging the quirks that trip owners up. It does not calculate a specific dollar figure or bake in current rates — award pay and penalty detail change with each annual wage review and with variations — so every match points you to the official Fair Work Ombudsman source to confirm the current figures. It's a coverage-orientation tool, not a coverage determination.
Who it’s for
Australian small-business owners, managers and payroll staff who need to work out which Modern Award applies to a role before setting pay, rostering, or writing a contract.
- Modern Award coverage follows the work an employee actually does, not the business's headline industry — which is why one small business commonly has staff across several awards at once (admin roles, for instance, often sit under the Clerks Private Sector Award even in a business whose main activity is covered by another award).
- Awards differ in ways that quietly reshape your wage bill: ordinary weekly hours, minimum casual engagement periods, weekend and public-holiday penalty loadings, and industry-specific allowances all vary from one award to the next.
- This tool identifies the likely primary award and summarises its key conditions; it is a starting point, not a legal determination — always confirm the current pay rates, classifications and allowances on the Fair Work Ombudsman website, as they change with annual wage reviews and variations.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know which Modern Award covers my employee?
Coverage is driven by the nature of the work the person does and the industry the business operates in — not by job title alone or the ABN's headline classification. Start by searching this tool for the role or industry to find the likely award, then confirm on the Fair Work Ombudsman website, which lets you check coverage and the specific classification. If an employee's duties span two possible awards, the more specific industry or occupation award usually applies. When it's genuinely unclear, it's worth having it checked rather than guessing, because the classification also determines the correct minimum pay rate.
Can a single business have employees on more than one award?
Yes, and it's very common. A café might have food and beverage staff under the hospitality award and its bookkeeper or office administrator under the Clerks Private Sector Award; a construction firm might have on-site trades under the building award and office staff under the clerks award. Each employee is assessed on the work they do, so you may need to apply several awards across one payroll. This is one of the main reasons award compliance gets complicated as a business grows and takes on more varied roles.
Why doesn't the tool just tell me the pay rate?
Because award pay rates, penalty loadings and allowances change — most notably through the Fair Work Commission's annual wage review each year, and through variations to individual awards in between. Publishing a fixed figure would risk showing you a stale number that could lead to underpayment or overpayment. The tool instead describes the shape of each award's conditions and directs you to the Fair Work Ombudsman's official source for the current rates that apply to your employee's classification and circumstances.
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