What does your roster really cost once overtime kicks in?
Enter a week of shifts and we'll model the true labour cost — ordinary hours, daily and weekly overtime, and weekend penalties — then show you where the cost is concentrated.
Takes ~2 minutes · All figures stay in your browser until you choose to share them
Daily Breakdown
Cost by day & rate
Overtime Split
Ordinary vs 150/200%
Penalty Impact
What loadings cost you
Roster Levers
Where to trim cost
About this tool
Overtime Cost Modeller
On paper, a shift costs the base hourly rate. In practice, it rarely does. Once a day runs long, a week runs over the standard ordinary hours, or someone works a weekend, penalty and overtime loadings quietly stack on top — and the number the roster actually costs you can drift a long way from the number in your head. The Overtime Cost Modeller is a free roster-costing tool that takes one employee's week of shifts and shows the true labour cost: ordinary hours, daily and weekly overtime, weekend penalties and superannuation, all in one view, so you can see where the money is really going before you sign off the roster.
How it works
You enter a base hourly rate, the employment type (full-time, part-time, or casual), and the hours worked on each of the seven days. The model then splits every hour into how it's actually paid: ordinary time up to the standard daily and weekly caps, then overtime at escalating multipliers for hours beyond those caps, with separate loadings for Saturday and Sunday and an added casual loading where relevant. It layers superannuation on top of wages, then reports the weekly total, an effective cost-per-hour, an indicative annual figure if the pattern repeats, a day-by-day breakdown, and the share of your bill that is penalty loading rather than base pay. Importantly, the weekend and overtime multipliers it uses are generic, indicative rates for illustration — they are not pulled from any specific Modern Award, so the output is a directional estimate you should confirm against the award that actually covers your staff.
Who it’s for
Owners and managers of Australian small businesses with rostered or shift-based staff — hospitality, retail, care, trades — who want to understand what a roster really costs before overtime and penalties land on the payroll.
- The headline base rate is only part of the story: daily overtime, weekly overtime, weekend penalties, casual loading and super all compound to lift the true cost of a shift well above the base hourly figure.
- The tool pinpoints where cost concentrates — usually weekend shifts and any day that runs past the ordinary-hours cap — so you can see which roster patterns are the expensive ones before you commit to them.
- It uses indicative, generic penalty multipliers for illustration rather than award-specific rates, so treat the figure as a directional planning estimate and verify the real loadings in the Modern Award that applies to your team.
Frequently asked questions
Are the penalty rates in the tool accurate for my award?
No — and it says so plainly. The Saturday, Sunday and overtime multipliers are generic, indicative figures chosen to illustrate how loadings compound; they are not drawn from any specific Modern Award. Your applicable award may set different penalty rates, overtime thresholds and casual loadings. Use the result to understand the shape and scale of your roster cost, then confirm the exact rates against your award or with Fair Work before relying on the numbers for payroll or budgeting.
Why is my effective cost per hour so much higher than the base rate I entered?
Because most rostered hours aren't paid at the plain base rate. Once hours cross the daily or weekly ordinary caps they attract overtime loadings, weekend shifts carry penalty rates, casuals add a loading, and superannuation sits on top of all of it. The effective cost-per-hour spreads that full loaded cost back across every hour worked, which is why it lands above the base rate whenever overtime or weekend work is in the mix — and it's a far more honest number for pricing jobs or planning coverage.
Can I use this to find cheaper ways to roster?
Yes, that's the practical use. Because it breaks cost down by day and by rate band, you can quickly test alternatives — shifting a weekend shift, capping a day before it tips into overtime, or rebalancing hours across the week — and watch the total move. It won't tell you what's compliant with your award, but it's a fast way to spot which patterns are driving cost so you can then design a version that keeps coverage while trimming avoidable loadings. Your rates and hours stay in your browser while you model.