How do I know if I'm being underpaid?

Compare the gross pay on your payslip against the award minimum for the exact hours you worked, including any evenings, weekends or public holidays. A flat hourly rate that never changes regardless of when you work is the most common sign of an underpayment, because most awards require higher rates for those hours.

What do I do if my employer is underpaying me?

Raise it with your employer first, in writing, with your payslips and hours attached — many underpayments are payroll errors and get fixed straight away. If that doesn't resolve it, the Fair Work Ombudsman investigates underpayment claims for free, and you can make an anonymous report if you'd rather not be identified.

How far back can I claim underpaid wages?

Underpayment claims can generally go back six years from when the underpayment occurred. That's why keeping payslips and your own record of hours matters — the further back a claim goes, the more it depends on evidence you kept at the time.

Does this check cover allowances and superannuation?

No. It compares your gross pay for a period against the award minimum for those hours. Allowances (uniform, laundry, travel, tool and meal allowances among others), leave entitlements and superannuation are separate obligations, and this check doesn't test any of them. Being paid correctly for your hours doesn't mean everything else is right.

Is this legal advice?

No. This is an information tool built on the published Fair Work award rates. It can't account for your registered agreement, your exact classification, annualised salary arrangements or the facts of your particular employment. For advice about your situation, contact the Fair Work Ombudsman or a union or employment lawyer.

Am I Being Underpaid?

Check your actual pay against the award minimum for the exact hours you worked — including weekend and public holiday penalty rates

Dividing your pay by your hours and comparing it to the minimum wage is the check most people run, and it misses the most common kind of underpayment. If you worked a Sunday or a public holiday you were owed more than the ordinary rate, so an average that looks fine can still be short. This underpayment check builds the award minimum from your actual mix of hours, on the 1 July 2026 rates.

Your job and hours

Your award

Your classification

Employment type

How often are you paid?

Hours in one pay period

Ordinary hours

Evening hours

Saturday hours

Sunday hours

Public holiday hours

Overtime hours

Gross pay for that period ($ before tax)

Use the gross figure on your payslip, before tax and before any deductions.

This looks like an underpayment

You were paid

$1,000

Award minimum

$1,432

Difference for 38 hours

−$432

You averaged $26.32/hr against an award minimum of $37.69/hr across this mix of hours.

If every pay period looks like this one, that's about $22,475 a year. The Fair Work Ombudsman can help you recover underpaid wages, and it's free.

Fair Work Ombudsman — unpaid or underpaid work

How the minimum is built

Ordinary hours	30h × $34.76	$1,043
Sunday	8h × $48.67	$389

What this check doesn't cover

As a casual you're owed the 25% casual loading on top of the base rate, which is included here. Casual overtime is treated using the common schedule and varies between awards.
Allowances, penalties specific to your classification, annualised salary arrangements and registered agreements are not included. A registered agreement can lawfully pay differently to the award as long as you're better off overall.

Official sources

Award rates are the adult minimums effective 1 July 2026, following the 2026 Fair Work Commission annual wage review. Penalty multipliers are structural features of each award. Always confirm your own classification against the official pay guide.

How to Use This Calculator

1Pick your award and classification — they're on your payslip or your employment contract
2Choose whether you're full-time, part-time or casual
3Enter the hours you worked in one pay period, split by when you worked them
4Enter the gross pay you received for that period
5Compare what you were paid against the award minimum for those exact hours

How underpayment usually happens

Most underpayment isn't an employer paying below the minimum wage outright — that's obvious enough to spot. It's penalty rates: an employee works Sundays or public holidays and gets paid a flat hourly rate for every hour, when the award requires a higher rate for those hours. The pay looks reasonable against the base rate, so nobody questions it.

The other common causes are casual loading not being paid, junior or apprentice rates being applied to someone who isn't one, and unpaid time — opening up, closing down, handovers and training that fall outside rostered hours but are still work.

What decides your minimum pay

Your award and classification: Modern awards set different minimums for different roles and levels. Your classification should be on your payslip or contract — if you can't find it, ask your employer in writing.
When you worked: Evenings, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays attract penalty rates under most awards. The same hours worked on different days are worth different amounts.
Casual loading: Casuals are paid a loading — usually 25% — on top of the base rate in place of paid leave. It should be visible in your rate, not something you have to ask for.
Registered agreements: An enterprise agreement can set different rates to the award, but it must leave you better off overall. If you're covered by one, compare against the agreement rather than the award.

If you think you've been underpaid

•Keep your payslips and your own record of the hours you worked — a roster screenshot or diary is enough
•Raise it with your employer first; genuine payroll errors are common and are usually fixed once pointed out
•The Fair Work Ombudsman helps employees recover underpaid wages at no cost, and you can contact them anonymously
•You can generally recover underpayments going back six years, so don't assume older pay periods are out of reach

Frequently Asked Questions

Official Sources

ATO rates checked against official sources — verified 28 July 2026

Estimates only. Not financial or tax advice. Full disclaimer for your rights and our limitations of liability.

Rates and thresholds last updated for the 2026–27 financial year.

This tool provides information, not legal or industrial advice. It can't account for registered agreements, annualised salary arrangements, allowances or the facts of your employment. If you think you've been underpaid, the Fair Work Ombudsman is the right place to go, and their help is free. You can also work through the Award Pay Rate Calculator to see how a full week is built up.

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