Hospitality penalty rates, explained in plain words

If you run a cafe, restaurant, pub or bar, your floor staff are most likely covered by the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 — MA000009, usually shortened to "the hospitality award" or HIGA. The award sets minimum hourly rates, and then multiplies them at times people would rather not work. Those multipliers are the penalty rates.

The percentages that matter

As at October 2026, the headline penalty rates under the hospitality award, as a percentage of the ordinary base rate, are:

There are also flat per-hour additions for evening work between 7pm and midnight on weekdays, and a larger one between midnight and 7am. Those are dollar amounts that change with the award each July, so look them up rather than memorising them.

The casual loading trap

Casuals are paid a 25% loading on top of the base rate, in place of paid leave. The trap: in the table above, the casual percentages already include that loading. A casual on a Saturday gets 150% of the base rate — not 125% plus another 25%. Adding the loading twice is one of the most common payroll errors in hospitality, in both directions: some venues double-pay it, others forget it entirely on penalty days.

Where to get the actual dollar figures

Base rates change every 1 July with the Fair Work Commission's annual wage review, and they differ by classification level. Don't trust a blog's table (including ours — that's why this page has no dollar figures). Use the Fair Work Ombudsman's pay calculator at calculate.fairwork.gov.au, or read the award itself at awards.fairwork.gov.au.

What this means for the roster

Penalty rates are why the same eight hours can cost very different money. A casual moved from Tuesday to Sunday costs 40% more for identical work. When you're trimming a week to hit a labour-cost target, weekend and public-holiday hours are where the money actually is — an hour cut from Sunday is worth nearly two cut from Wednesday.

What Rostru does and doesn't do here

We'd rather say this plainly: Rostru does not calculate penalty rates or interpret the award. Rostru rosters people at their agreed rates, warns about long weeks, short rest and overlaps, and exports approved hours as a clean CSV. Your payroll software or bookkeeper applies the award maths to those hours. Clean, geofence-verified hours in; correct pay out.