Australia national minimum wage 2026 and the award rates that sit above it

Adult employees in Australia without an award or agreement must now receive at least AUD 26.44 per hour, the rate in force since 1 July 2026. For a full-time adult employee on 38 ordinary hours a week, that equals AUD 1,004.90 a week and AUD 52,254.80 across a year. It is the first time the weekly figure has passed AUD 1,000.

The increase is 6%, up from AUD 24.95 an hour and AUD 948.00 a week in 2025-26. The Fair Work Commission sets the rate each year through its Annual Wage Review; the 2026 review page on fwc.gov.au holds the decision and supporting material, and the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations announced the outcome in a release that gives the headline figures above.

That AUD 26.44 figure protects adults whose work falls outside every modern award and who have no enterprise agreement. That group is smaller than many overseas employers expect. Senior professionals, some managers and people in roles no award describes are the usual examples, and most of them are paid well above AUD 26.44 an hour anyway.

For employers budgeting in other currencies, the practical reading is simple. The new rate is a legal minimum for award-free adults, the award rate governs almost everyone else, and neither figure includes the 12% superannuation guarantee, which the employer pays on top.

A modern award rate decides the pay floor because awards cover most roles in Australia and their classification rates sit above the national minimum. Modern awards are instruments made by the Fair Work Commission for an industry or an occupation. Each one sets minimum pay by classification level, and adds rules on penalty rates, overtime, allowances and hours of work.

Awards sit on top of the National Employment Standards (NES), the statutory minimums in the Fair Work Act 2009 that cover leave, notice, maximum weekly hours and similar entitlements. The employer must pay at least that award’s rate for the classification that matches the job’s duties. The job title in the offer letter does not decide coverage; the work the person actually does does.

An enterprise agreement can replace the award for employees it covers, provided the Fair Work Commission approves it under the better off overall test (BOOT). New employers of one or two staff in Australia will rarely have an agreement, so the award is the reference point in almost every first hire.

This is why a single national number is a poor budget guide. A customer support hire, a retail sales role and a junior engineer can fall under different awards, each with its own grid of classification rates, and a role with evening or weekend work can attract penalty rates that change the effective hourly cost. Choosing the wrong classification is the usual root of an underpayment claim, and the Closing Loopholes reforms made deliberate underpayment a criminal matter; check the commencement date and scope with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. Our Australian employment contract checklist shows where award coverage should appear in the offer and contract.

The two increases apply to different people: the 6% rise moves the national minimum wage, while the 4.75% rise moves every modern award minimum rate from 1 July 2026. An employee on an award classification therefore saw a 4.75% change in their minimum, even though the headline national figure rose further.

A worked illustration helps. Assume a hypothetical award classification paid exactly AUD 30.00 an hour on 30 June 2026. A 4.75% increase lifts that minimum to about AUD 31.43 an hour, or roughly AUD 1,194 for a 38-hour week. The same employee remains well above the new national minimum of AUD 26.44, so the national rate has no direct effect on their pay. The real classification rates in each award are published by the Fair Work Commission and the Fair Work Ombudsman and should be checked there.

The gap between the two rises matters most at the bottom of the scale. The lowest award classifications and the national minimum are close together, and a 6% rise in the national figure narrows the distance further. Employers paying at or near the lowest award levels should compare both numbers each July.

Employees paid above the minimum are not automatically entitled to a 4.75% raise. The increase changes the legal floor; a salary that already exceeds the new award rate for the classification can stay where it is unless the contract says otherwise. Many employers still review pay in July because the new floors are published at the same time.

Part-time staff are paid the same hourly minimum for the hours they work. A part-time adult on 20 hours a week at the national rate earns at least AUD 528.80 a week, and their leave accrues on a pro rata basis. A part-time employee under an award takes the award’s hourly classification rate in the same way.

Casual employees receive a loading on top of the minimum rate to compensate for having no paid annual or personal leave, and the loading under the national minimum wage order is commonly stated as 25%. On that basis the minimum casual rate would be AUD 33.05 an hour (26.44 multiplied by 1.25); confirm the current casual rate and any award-specific loading with the Fair Work Ombudsman before using it in an offer.

Casual status in Australia depends on whether there is a firm advance commitment to continuing, indefinite work, and there is a process for casuals to move to permanent employment after a qualifying period. Those rules were reshaped in 2024 and are best checked on the Fair Work Ombudsman’s site for the specific role, because an arrangement labelled casual but run like a permanent job carries risk.

The national minimum wage also feeds into payments the employer does not fund. The government’s Paid Parental Leave scheme pays eligible parents at the national minimum wage rate, and from 1 July 2026 it covers 26 weeks of Parental Leave Pay, with 4 weeks reserved for each parent in a couple. The employer usually passes that payment through payroll for eligible long-term employees, while the funding comes from the government.

Annual leave loading, often 17.5% of four weeks’ base pay, is a separate matter. It is generally treated as outside the National Employment Standards and payable only where the relevant award, an enterprise agreement or the contract provides for it. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s leave loading guidance is the place to confirm whether a given award includes it.

An Australian employer pays superannuation on top of the wage, so a full-time employee on the national minimum costs at least AUD 58,525.38 a year before state taxes and insurance. That is AUD 52,254.80 in wages plus the 12% superannuation guarantee of AUD 6,270.58, calculated on qualifying earnings.

Since 1 July 2026 that super is due each payday under Payday Super, with the fund receiving it within 7 business days of the wages being paid. For a minimum-wage employee paid weekly, each week’s contribution is about AUD 120.59 (12% of AUD 1,004.90), and it has to leave the payroll account every week.

State costs come next and depend on where the employee works. Payroll tax in New South Wales is 5.45% of taxable wages, including super, but only above an annual threshold of AUD 1,200,000, so a small employer may pay none; an employer whose grouped wages already exceed the threshold pays it from the first dollar. Workers’ compensation premiums are set by industry classification under each state scheme. Other states set their own payroll tax rates and thresholds.

Paid leave works differently from these on-costs. The four weeks’ annual leave and the 10 paid personal/carer’s leave days each year come out of the same wage when the employee takes them, so they do not raise the annual total, although covering the work during an absence can. Unused annual leave builds up as a liability on the employer’s books until the employee takes it.

A line-by-line Sydney breakdown for a salaried professional, with every assumption listed, is in what a Sydney employee costs in 2026-27.

A foreign employer should confirm award coverage and classification before it fixes an Australian salary, because that is the step most likely to create an underpayment later. The checks below take an hour or two for a single role and prevent the most common mistakes.

• Identify which modern award, if any, covers the duties of the role, and the classification level that matches them
• Compare the offered salary with the award rate from 1 July 2026, including any penalty rates or overtime the working pattern will trigger
• Decide whether the job is full-time, part-time or casual, and record the basis in the contract
• State that superannuation is paid on top of the salary at 12%, and name the default fund if the employee makes no choice
• Note the state or territory of work, since payroll tax, workers’ compensation and long service leave follow state law
• Diary each 1 July for the next Annual Wage Review result

Where salary is expressed as an annual amount that is meant to absorb award entitlements such as overtime, the employer should keep records that show the salary still meets what the award would have paid. Annual reconciliation of that kind is common practice for award-covered salaried staff.

If you hire via Employer of Record Australia, we employ your hire in law, review award coverage while drafting the contract, then apply each July increase in our payroll. You keep the decision on the salary itself. Our charge from USD 560 a month for each employee is shown alongside payroll costs on our pricing page.

Q01When did the AUD 26.44 hourly minimum start?+

A.It applies from 1 July 2026, following the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review 2026, and replaced the 2025-26 rate of AUD 24.95 an hour.

Q02Is the national minimum wage the same as the lowest award rate?+

A.No. The AUD 26.44 hourly figure covers adults with no award or enterprise agreement. Award-covered employees are paid at least the rate for their award classification, which rose 4.75% from 1 July 2026.

Q03Does the minimum wage figure include superannuation?+

A.No. The superannuation guarantee of 12% of qualifying earnings is paid by the employer on top of wages, and from 1 July 2026 it has to be credited to the fund by the seventh business day after each payday.

Q04Do casual employees get a higher hourly rate?+

A.Casuals are paid a loading to make up for having no paid annual or personal leave, commonly stated as 25% for award-free adults. Confirm the current casual rate and any award loading with the Fair Work Ombudsman before making an offer.

Q05Must a salary above the award be raised by 4.75% each July?+

A.Not automatically. The Annual Wage Review raises minimum rates. A salary that already exceeds the new award minimum for the classification can stay the same unless the contract or an agreement requires a review.