First: which award are you on?
“Hospitality” covers two awards with different Sunday rates, and which one you’re on depends on where you work, not on your job:
- Hospitality Industry (General) Award [MA000009]: pubs, hotels, motels, taverns and wine bars, resorts, casinos, caterers, and restaurants run by those businesses (clause 4.2).
- Restaurant Industry Award [MA000119]: restaurants, cafés, reception centres, night clubs and roadhouses, unless they’re run by a business on the Hospitality award (clause 4.2).
Registered clubs and takeaway shops have awards of their own. Level 1 base rates are the same in both: $26.44 an hour for an adult from 1 July 2026, after the Annual Wage Review (Fair Work).
The rates, side by side
For a level 1 adult from 1 July 2026, on a base rate of $26.44 an hour. Casual rates include the 25% loading.
| Day | Full-time or part-time | Casual |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday | $33.05125% | $39.66150% |
| Sunday | $39.66150% | $46.27175% |
| Public holiday | $59.49225% | $66.10250% |
| Day | Full-time or part-time | Casual |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday | $33.05125% | $39.66150% |
| Sunday | $39.66150% | $39.66150%; 175% from level 3 |
| Public holiday | $59.49225% | $66.10250% |
The gap is on Sunday for casuals. At the pub, a level 1 casual gets 175%, $46.27 an hour. At a café, a casual up to level 2 gets 150%, $39.66, the same as a permanent; it’s 175% from level 3 (Restaurant award, clause 24.2). Public holidays are 225% for permanent staff and 250% for casuals under both (Hospitality award, clause 29.2).
A Sunday shift, worked out
- Base pay8 h × $26.44
- $211.52
- Sunday penalty175% of base, loading included
- $158.64
Pay before tax$370.16
Penalty rates count as ordinary time earnings for super, so the Sunday rate lifts your super too. Since 1 July 2026, under Payday Super, employers have to pay it within 7 business days of each payday, not once a quarter (Fair Work). The hospitality pay calculator does a whole week, weekdays and evenings included.
Public holidays: the rate, and saying no
A full public holiday shift as a level 1 casual at the pub pays $528.80 for 8 hours: 250% of base. Three rules sit around it (Fair Work):
- You can be asked, and you can refuse. The request has to be reasonable, and you can say no if it isn’t or if you have reasonable grounds. Your type of work, your family responsibilities, the notice you got and the penalty rate all count.
- Permanent staff get paid for the day off. If a public holiday lands on a day you’d normally work and you don’t work it, you’re paid your base rate for your ordinary hours.
- Casuals don’t. A public holiday you don’t work is unpaid. Work it, and it’s 250%.
Public holidays differ by state and territory, so check the list for yours (Fair Work).
Under 21? The same percentages, on your junior rate
Under 21, your base rate is a share of the adult one, and the Sunday and public holiday percentages apply to that junior rate. Under the Hospitality award, 20-year-olds get the full adult rate; at 19 it’s 85%, at 18 70%, at 17 60% and under 17 50%.
So an 18-year-old’s base rate at the pub is $18.51 an hour, and as a casual, a Sunday pays $32.39 an hour: $259.14 for 8 hours. Every age and award is on the junior rates page. Under 18, super is only paid in weeks you work more than 30 hours.
Late nights, and why rates don’t stack
Monday to Friday, late hours earn a flat amount on top of the day’s rate: $2.95 an hour from 7 pm to midnight and $4.42 from midnight to 7 am at the pub; at a restaurant or café, the same amounts from 10 pm to midnight and from midnight to 6 am. Weekends and public holidays have their own rates instead.
Penalty rates aren’t cumulative: each hour gets the highest rate that applies, never two added together. And hours are paid by the day they fall on, so a Saturday close that runs past midnight is on Sunday rates from 12 am. Past 38 hours in a week, overtime rates take over from penalty rates; see the penalty rates page.