What penalty rates do you owe under your award?
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
About this tool
Penalty Rate Calculator
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.
How it works
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.
Who it’s for
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.
- Penalty rates differ sharply between Modern Awards — the same Saturday or Sunday shift can attract quite different loadings depending on which award covers the role, so you can't assume one industry's rates apply to another.
- Casual loading is treated inconsistently across awards: for some, the loading is already included in the weekend or public-holiday penalty rate; for others it is added on top — misreading this is a common source of underpayment.
- Award base rates change every year when the Fair Work Commission Annual Wage Review takes effect (from the first full pay period on or after 1 July), so the dollar figures must always be confirmed against the current official rate even though the multipliers stay stable.
Frequently asked questions
What are penalty rates and which of my staff do they apply to?
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.
Why does the tool ask me to double-check the base rate with Fair Work?
Penalty rates have two parts: a multiplier (for example, a Sunday loading) and the base hourly rate it's applied to. The multipliers are structural and rarely change, but the minimum base rates are reviewed every year in the Fair Work Commission Annual Wage Review and take effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July. The tool date-stamps the built-in minimums it uses, but to get an accurate dollar figure you should confirm the current base rate for the right classification on the Fair Work Pay Calculator and enter it — that keeps the calculation aligned with today's figures rather than last year's.
How does casual loading interact with weekend and public-holiday penalty rates?
This is one of the most common areas businesses get wrong. In some awards the casual loading is already built into the weekend or public-holiday penalty rate, so you do not add it again; in others the casual loading sits on top of the base and the penalty applies as well. Applying the loading twice overpays casuals, while missing it underpays them — both create risk. The tool shows the total rate payable per the award schedule for the employment type you select, but you should still confirm the treatment in the award itself for the days that matter to your roster.
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