Choose a Modern Award and employment type, and we'll show every applicable rate, weekends, public holidays and evening loadings, plus a weekly cost scenario for a sample roster.
Takes ~1 minute · Base rates as at 1 July 2025 · Your figures stay in your browser until you choose to share them
15 Awards
Major Modern Awards
Every Day
Weekends, holidays, nights
By Employment
Full-time, part-time, casual
Weekly Cost
Sample roster modelled
Penalty rates are the higher hourly rates you must pay staff for hours worked outside ordinary times — weekends, public holidays, evenings, late nights and overtime — set by the Modern Award that covers each role. For an Australian small business, getting them wrong is one of the easiest ways to underpay (or overpay) staff, and Fair Work underpayment claims can reach back years. The tricky part is that every award treats these hours differently: Saturday might attract one loading in retail and another in hospitality, casual loadings are sometimes baked into the weekend rate and sometimes added on top, and minimum engagement periods and ordinary-hours weeks vary from award to award. This tool lets you pick your Modern Award and employment type and see every applicable penalty rate laid out clearly, so you can sanity-check what your payroll is actually paying.
You choose from a set of major Modern Awards and select the employment type — full-time, part-time or casual — and the tool displays the penalty multipliers that apply across the week: ordinary Monday–Friday hours, Saturday, Sunday, public holidays, and where relevant evening and late-night loadings. It applies those award multipliers to a base hourly rate to show the effective dollar figure per hour for each period, and it models a sample weekly roster to illustrate how the loadings compound into a weekly and annualised wage cost. You can enter your own base rate for the specific classification, or leave it blank to use the award minimum. Because the base rates change each year, the tool date-stamps its built-in minimums and prompts you to confirm the current figure with the official Fair Work Pay Calculator before relying on any dollar amount — the multipliers are structural and stable, but the underlying rate is not.
Owners and managers of Australian small businesses who roster staff across weekends, public holidays or night shifts and want to check they are paying the correct award penalty rates.
The short answers are here. For anything else, ask below or get in touch.
Penalty rates are higher hourly rates payable for hours worked outside ordinary times — typically weekends, public holidays, early mornings, evenings, nights and overtime. They apply to employees covered by a Modern Award (most award-covered roles across retail, hospitality, construction, health, care and many other sectors). The exact loadings, the ordinary-hours span and the minimum engagement period are set by the specific award that covers each role, which is why identifying the correct award first is essential. Employees on a registered enterprise agreement may have different rates that override the award.
These tools work together to give you a clearer picture of your business.
Use these results to make better decisions. If you'd like a second pair of eyes on them, an advisor can walk through what they mean for the business.
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