Penalty rates are the loading added to your ordinary hourly rate for working evenings, weekends or public holidays. They sit on top of your award's base rate and, for casuals, on top of casual loading too. The multiplier depends on your award and the day, and it typically ranges from 125% to 250% of the base rate.
What counts as a penalty rate
A penalty rate applies to ordinary hours worked outside the standard Monday-to-Friday daytime spread — evenings, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. It is separate from overtime, which is extra pay for hours worked beyond your rostered ordinary hours — commonly time-and-a-half for the first few hours and double time after that, though how many hours you get before the step differs by award. You can be entitled to both at once if a weekend shift also runs into overtime.
Penalty rates are set award by award, not by a single national rule, so two people doing similar work in different industries can be paid very differently for the same Sunday shift.
Penalty rates by award (2026-27)
These are the standard multipliers of the ordinary base rate, current from 1 July 2026. Casual multipliers already include the 25% casual loading, matching how the Fair Work pay guides present them.
General Retail Industry Award (MA000004)
- Evening (after 6pm, Mon-Fri): 125% permanent, 150% casual
- Saturday: 125% permanent, 150% casual
- Sunday: 150% permanent, 175% casual
- Public holiday: 225% permanent, 250% casual
Hospitality Industry (General) Award (MA000009)
- Saturday: 125% permanent, 150% casual
- Sunday: 150% permanent, 175% casual
- Public holiday: 225% permanent, 250% casual
Restaurant Industry Award (MA000119)
- Saturday: 125% permanent, 150% casual
- Sunday: 150% permanent, 150% casual (see the quirk below)
- Public holiday: 225% permanent, 250% casual
Fast Food Industry Award (MA000003)
- Saturday: 125% permanent, 150% casual
- Sunday: 125% permanent, 150% casual at Level 1; 150%/175% at Levels 2-3
- Public holiday: 225% permanent, 250% casual
Price your own shift
What is that shift worth?
8 hours at 175% of $28
$389
The same hours at the ordinary rate would pay $278, so the penalty is worth $111 for this shift.
Rates current from 1 July 2026. Registered agreements can vary them. Full week, tax included, in the Award Pay Calculator.
A worked example
A casual Level 1 retail employee earns a base rate of $27.81 an hour. Working 20 ordinary hours plus an 8-hour Sunday shift:
- Ordinary hours: 20 × $27.81 × 1.25 (casual loading) = $695.25
- Sunday hours: 8 × $27.81 × 1.75 (Sunday casual rate) = $389.34
- Total gross for the week: $1,084.59
Without the Sunday penalty, those 8 hours would only add $278.10 at the casual rate — the Sunday loading is worth an extra $111.24 for the shift.
Two quirks worth knowing
Penalty rates are not always a simple "casual loading plus the permanent penalty" sum, and two awards break that pattern:
- Restaurant Industry Award — Sunday. Casual staff are paid 150% on Sundays, the same as Saturday, not the 175% you would expect if the 25% casual loading stacked on top of the 150% permanent Sunday rate. The award does not stack the loading here.
- Fast Food Industry Award — Sunday. The Sunday rate depends on your classification level. Level 1 crew get 125%/150% (permanent/casual); Levels 2 and 3, who are in charge of other staff, get the higher 150%/175%.
These are exactly the kind of details a generic pay calculator misses, because it assumes one flat multiplier applies everywhere.
Why your evening loading is not a clean percentage
The table above lists an evening penalty for retail and nothing for the other three. That is not an omission. It is the single biggest structural difference between these awards, and almost nothing explains it.
Retail sets its evening loading as a multiplier: ordinary hours after 6pm Monday to Friday are paid at 125% of the base rate, and 150% for casuals. It behaves exactly like the Saturday and Sunday penalties.
Hospitality, Restaurant and Fast Food do not. They add a flat dollar amount per hour on top of the base rate for late shifts — in the order of an extra $2.95 an hour for evening work and around $4.42 for the hours after midnight, depending on the award and the span. The amount does not scale with your classification.
That difference matters more than it sounds, in two directions:
- On a low classification the flat amount is worth more. An extra $2.95 on a $25.74 base is an 11.5% uplift. On a $32.13 base it is 9.2%. A percentage loading gives everyone the same proportional lift; a flat amount is worth relatively more the less you earn.
- It does not compound with anything. A multiplier applies to whatever your base rate becomes after the next annual wage review. A flat dollar amount only moves when the Fair Work Commission moves it, so its real value erodes between reviews unless it is adjusted.
It also means most pay calculators cannot quote you an evening rate in these three industries at all, because they model penalties as percentages and there is no percentage to model. Ours is honest about it: pick an evening shift under one of those awards above and it will tell you there is no multiplier rather than invent one. Check your award's pay guide for the current flat amounts and the exact hours they apply to.
Overtime is a separate schedule, and it varies more than you would expect
Penalty rates cover ordinary hours at unsociable times. Overtime covers hours beyond your rostered ordinary hours, and it runs on its own numbers:
- The step from 150% to 200% happens after the first three hours under the General Retail Industry Award, and after the first two under Hospitality, Restaurant and Fast Food. Most summaries state two as a universal rule. It is not.
- On a Sunday or a public holiday, several awards do not step at all. Retail overtime on a Sunday is a flat 200%, and on a public holiday a flat 250% — no first-hours band.
- Casual overtime often carries the loading. A retail casual is on 175% for the first three hours and 225% after, not the 150%/200% a permanent employee gets.
If a shift runs into both territories, work out which hours are ordinary and which are overtime first, because the two schedules do not add together.
Junior rates change the whole picture
Every award here sets junior percentages of the adult rate, and the industries they cover employ a great many people under 21. Under retail, fast food and the hospitality awards the pattern is broadly a rising scale from around 45% of the adult rate at 16 and under, through roughly 50%, 60%, 70% and 80%, reaching the full adult rate at 21.
Two consequences worth having straight:
- Penalty multipliers apply to the junior rate, not the adult one. A 17-year-old on a Sunday gets the same 175% casual multiplier as everyone else, but applied to a much smaller base. The percentage is not a discount that gets clawed back at the weekend, and it is not a bonus either.
- Apprentices are on a different scale again, keyed to the year of the apprenticeship rather than age, and with separate rates for those who did not complete year 12.
Check the exact percentage for your age and award in the pay guide — junior scales are one of the more common places pay goes wrong, precisely because two variables are multiplied together.
Frequently Asked Questions
150% of the base rate for permanent employees and 175% for casuals under the General Retail Industry Award, current from 1 July 2026.
Usually yes — casual penalty multipliers already have the 25% casual loading built in, so a casual Sunday rate of 175% means you get the 150% permanent Sunday penalty plus the loading. The Restaurant Industry Award is the exception: its casual Sunday rate stays at 150%, matching Saturday.
No. Penalty rates apply to your normal rostered hours worked at an unsociable time (evenings, weekends, public holidays). Overtime applies to hours worked beyond your ordinary hours for the day or week, regardless of when they fall, and steps up from 150% to 200% after a set number of hours. How many hours differs by award, which is the detail most summaries get wrong: it is the first three hours under the General Retail Industry Award, and the first two under the Hospitality, Restaurant and Fast Food awards. Several awards also pay a flat rate for overtime on a Sunday or public holiday rather than stepping at all — retail is 200% and 250% respectively.
Public holiday rates are the highest across the board, typically 225% for permanent staff and 250% for casuals in retail, hospitality, restaurant and fast food awards. Sunday rates are the next highest, generally 150% permanent and up to 175% casual.
It probably does, but not as a percentage. Retail sets its evening loading as a multiplier of the base rate; Hospitality, Restaurant and Fast Food add a flat dollar amount per hour instead. Because it is not a percentage, most calculators cannot show it, and because it does not scale with your classification it is worth proportionally more on a lower base rate.
Yes, at the same multipliers as adults — but applied to the junior rate rather than the adult rate. A junior percentage and a penalty multiply together, which is why junior pay is one of the more common places errors turn up.
Yes, where a modern award applies, because modern awards are national. What varies is which public holidays fall in your state, since the public holiday rate attaches to gazetted holidays and those differ — so the same award can pay a public holiday penalty in one state on a day that is an ordinary working day in another.