Clerks – Private Sector Award pay guide: rates, penalties & classifications 2026/2027

Many offices, call centres and admin teams rely on casual staff. Here are the casual rates you need to know for ordinary weekday hours (Mon–Fri, within the span of hours). These figures are generated from the current Fair Work pay guide:

If you only skim one section, make it this one:

• The Clerks – Private Sector Award 2020 [MA000002] sets minimum pay and conditions for clerical and administrative employees in the private sector.
• These minimums are reviewed each July following the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review. The FY2026/27 pay guide took effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, lifting all rates by 4.75%.
• You must get four things right for every staff member:
  • Award coverage – does the Clerks Award actually apply, or does an industry award cover the business?
  • Classification level – Level 1 (year 1–3), Level 2 (year 1–2), Level 3, Level 4, Level 5, or a call-centre stream.
  • Employment type – full-time, part-time, or casual.
  • When they work – weekday ordinary hours, Saturday, Sunday, public holidays, overtime or shiftwork.
• Example of 2026/27 adult minimum pay:
  • Level 1 (year 1) clerical starter: full-time/part-time $26.97/hr, casual $33.71/hr (includes 25% casual loading).
  • Level 3: full-time/part-time $31.11/hr, casual $38.89/hr.
  • Level 5 (office manager): full-time/part-time $33.99/hr, casual $42.49/hr.
• Junior rates are lower but still fixed by the Award — e.g. an 18-year-old Level 1 (year 1) employee gets about $18.88/hr full-time/part-time (70% of the adult rate).
• On top of base rates you may also pay penalty rates (Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays), shiftwork loadings, overtime, and allowances (first aid, laundry, meal, vehicle).
• Casuals with regular, ongoing hours can request conversion to permanent under the Fair Work Act employee-choice pathway.

Think of the Clerks – Private Sector Award as a standard contract template for office and administrative work that you can’t go below.

It sets:

• Minimum hourly rates for different clerical levels and ages
• Extra pay for Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays, shiftwork and overtime
• Allowances (first aid, laundry, meal, vehicle, working from home)
• Rules about casuals, part-timers, the span of ordinary hours, breaks and classification
• Links into the National Employment Standards (NES) for leave and other basic rights

You can always pay more or offer better conditions, but you can’t legally pay less than the Award.

The Clerks Award is updated roughly every July after the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review. That’s when base rates typically go up.

Your job as an employer is to:

1. Work out whether your clerical staff are covered by this Award.
2. Classify them correctly.
3. Pay at least the Award minimum, including penalties and allowances.
4. Update rates when the pay guide changes.

In simple terms, the Clerks Award covers employers in the private sector — and their employees — who are engaged wholly or principally in clerical work, including administrative duties of a clerical nature. It commonly applies to:

• Receptionists, front-desk and switchboard staff
• Data entry, records and filing clerks
• Accounts, payroll and bookkeeping clerks
• Secretaries, personal assistants and administrative assistants
• Call-centre and customer-contact operators
• Office managers and administration coordinators

Important: The Clerks Award is essentially the default award for clerical work where no industry or occupation award applies. If your business is covered by an industry award, the clerical employees in that business are usually covered by that award’s own clerical classifications instead.

Typical situations where the Clerks Award applies:

• A standalone office, professional-services firm or head office whose main activity is administrative
• A bookkeeping, accounting-support or administration outsourcing business
• A contract or in-house call centre performing customer-contact work

You may need a different award (or none at all) if:

• The clerical employee works in a business covered by an industry award — for example, an admin assistant in a retail business may fall under the General Retail Industry Award, and payroll/office staff in a factory under the Manufacturing Award.
• The person is a manager or professional whose duties are clearly above the Award’s clerical classifications (e.g. a qualified accountant, HR manager or IT professional).
• The employer is a public-sector or local-government body (the Clerks Award is private sector — see the Local Government Industry Award).

When in doubt, check:

• The Clerks Award on the Fair Work website; and
• Fair Work’s Pay and Conditions Tool (PACT) for award coverage; or
• An employment adviser or lawyer for a formal opinion.

The single most common Clerks Award mistake is applying it to clerical staff who are actually covered by the industry award that covers the business. Here’s the difference for a small business owner:

This section gives you a practical snapshot of the current FY2026/27 rates so you can sanity-check your payroll. All figures are minimums from the Fair Work Clerks Award pay guide effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, and are generated from the same data that powers the calculator above.

The rates below assume correct award coverage and classification.

For adult employees (21 and over), ordinary hours within the span of hours:

Casuals receive the same base rate plus a 25% casual loading to make up for not getting paid leave. Adult casual rates for ordinary weekday hours:

Junior rates are a percentage of the relevant adult rate for the employee’s classification. The Clerks Award junior scale is:

• Under 16: 45%
• 16 years: 50%
• 17 years: 60%
• 18 years: 70%
• 19 years: 80%
• 20 years: 90%
• 21 and over: adult (100%)

A few FY2026/27 examples at Level 1 (year 1), full-time/part-time:

• 17-year-old: about $16.18/hr
• 18-year-old: about $18.88/hr
• 19-year-old: about $21.57/hr

Select a junior age in the calculator above to estimate any level. Because the junior tables are long and specific, always match age + classification + employment type against the latest Fair Work pay guide.

Getting the classification wrong is one of the most common causes of underpayment. The Clerks Award classifies employees by the level of skill, judgement and responsibility their duties require — not their job title. Here’s the plain-English version.

• Level 1 – Entry-level clerical work under direct supervision: reception, filing, mail, basic data entry, photocopying, simple word processing and cash handling. Level 1 has three pay-points (year 1, 2, 3) so pay increases with service.
• Level 2 – Clerical work requiring some experience and judgement: maintaining records, accounts and payroll data entry, secretarial and customer-service duties, operating business equipment.
• Level 3 – Work needing knowledge and skills beyond Level 2: maintaining a set of accounts, PA/secretarial duties, some responsibility for guiding other staff.
• Level 4 – Responsibility for a work area or function: bookkeeping to trial balance, senior secretarial work, and supervising clerical employees.
• Level 5 – Advanced clerical and administrative skills: office management, coordinating a team, and higher-level responsibility for a function.

The Clerks Award also has dedicated call-centre classifications for call-centre and customer-contact teams:

• Principal customer contact specialist – experienced operators handling complex customer contact.
• Technical associate – operators providing specialised technical customer support.

These sit alongside the general clerical levels and have their own rates in the tables above.

For each employee, you should record something like:

This classification should appear in the employment contract / letter of engagement, your HR or payroll system, and any rostering or award-interpretation software you use. If you’re unsure, read the classification definitions in Schedule A of the Award and, if needed, get an employment adviser to confirm the right level. You can also confirm the right classification level with our free checker.

Here’s how common office roles map to Clerks Award classifications and FY2026/27 pay rates. These are the rates you’re most likely to need.

Most receptionists and junior admin assistants start at Level 1 and progress through the year pay-points:

• Level 1 (year 1): full-time/part-time $26.97/hr, casual $33.71/hr
• Level 1 (year 3): full-time/part-time $29.11/hr, casual $36.39/hr

An experienced administrator with more judgement and independent duties may be Level 2 ($29.45–$30.00/hr FT/PT).

Accounts and payroll roles usually sit at Level 2 to Level 4 depending on responsibility:

• Level 2: accounts/payroll data entry — $29.45–$30.00/hr FT/PT
• Level 3: maintaining a set of accounts — $31.11/hr FT/PT
• Level 4: bookkeeping to trial balance, supervising other clerks — $32.67/hr FT/PT

Call-centre staff may be classified under the general clerical levels or the dedicated call-centre streams:

• Level 1–3: general customer-contact work — $26.97–$31.11/hr FT/PT
• Principal customer contact specialist: $31.33/hr FT/PT ($39.16 casual)
• Technical associate: $37.24/hr FT/PT ($46.55 casual)

An office manager who coordinates a team and takes responsibility for an administrative function is typically Level 5: $33.99/hr full-time/part-time, or $42.49/hr as a casual (ordinary hours). Higher-level management roles above the clerical classifications may fall outside the Award altogether.

The Award works together with the national definitions of full-time, part-time and casual employment.

• Usually 38 ordinary hours per week, ongoing
• Guaranteed regular hours
• Entitled to paid annual leave and paid personal (sick & carer’s) leave, plus other NES leave

• Fewer than 38 hours per week, with a regular pattern of hours
• Entitled to paid leave on a pro-rata basis
  • Example: 20 hours/week → 4 weeks’ annual leave = 80 hours per year
• Under the Clerks Award, part-time employees must be rostered for a minimum of 3 consecutive hours on any shift, and their agreed hours and pattern should be recorded in writing.

• No firm advance commitment to ongoing work with an agreed pattern
• Paid a 25% casual loading on top of the base rate instead of paid leave
• Also entitled to a minimum of 3 hours pay per engagement under the Clerks Award

Recent changes to the law mean casual conversion now mainly operates through the employee choice pathway under the Fair Work Act, rather than mandatory employer offers in all cases.

In simple terms, a casual may be able to request conversion if:

• They have been employed for at least 6 months (or 12 months for small businesses); and
• Their work pattern has become regular and ongoing, and could continue as a part-time or full-time arrangement.

If they convert:

• They lose the 25% casual loading
• They gain paid leave entitlements
• You must treat them as permanent going forward (with the usual rules around hours, overtime, etc.)

Because the rules depend on hire date and business size, get advice before refusing a conversion request. See our casual conversion guide for the full process, and our explainer on casual loading for how the 25% is calculated.

This is where a lot of office employers slip up. The Clerks Award pays ordinary weekday hours at the base rate, then adds penalties for weekends, public holidays and shiftwork, and overtime for hours outside the span or beyond ordinary hours. The idea is simple: the less sociable the time, the higher the pay.

For a day worker (not a shiftworker), ordinary hours can only be worked within the span of hours:

• Monday to Friday: 7.00am to 7.00pm
• Saturday: 7.00am to 12.30pm

Work outside this span, or beyond an employee’s ordinary hours, is overtime. There are no ordinary hours on a Sunday for a day worker — Sunday work is paid at the Sunday rate.

Overtime is triggered when a full-time employee works more than 38 hours per week (or beyond their rostered ordinary hours), a part-time employee works beyond their agreed hours, or anyone works outside the span of ordinary hours. Overtime rates for day workers are:

• Monday to Saturday: first 2 hours 150%, then 200%
• Sunday: 200% for all overtime
• Public holiday: 250% for all overtime

Casual employees are paid overtime with the 25% loading folded in (e.g. first 2 hours = 175%). For a complete breakdown of break and overtime rules, see our Fair Work breaks and overtime guide and the overtime thresholds by award explainer. You can also estimate weekend and overtime costs before you publish a roster.

Employees engaged as shiftworkers (rather than day workers) receive shift loadings instead of the day-worker span rules:

The Clerks Award includes a specific working-from-home provision. Where an employee genuinely works from home by agreement, the employer and employee can agree to work ordinary hours within a wider span of 6.00am to 11.00pm Monday to Friday (and 7.00am to 12.30pm Saturday), giving remote office staff more flexibility without triggering overtime for the extended span. The agreement must be genuine and recorded.

Beyond hourly pay and penalties, the Clerks Award has a shopping list of allowances — extra payments that kick in for specific situations. The main FY2026/27 allowances are:

The Award sits on top of the National Employment Standards (NES), which set minimum leave entitlements for permanent employees.

They are entitled to, among other things:

• Paid annual leave – generally 4 weeks per year, based on their ordinary hours.
  • Example: 20 hours per week → 4 weeks’ leave = 80 hours per year.
• Paid personal/carer’s leave (sick leave) – also based on their ordinary hours.
• Compassionate leave, parental leave, family and domestic violence leave, and other NES entitlements.

• No paid annual leave or paid personal/carer’s leave.
• Instead, they receive the 25% casual loading on their hourly rate.

The Award may add extra detail (e.g. how leave interacts with public holidays), so read the relevant clauses or seek advice for complex situations.

Here’s a simple process you can actually follow in your business.

• Check that your clerical staff are covered by the Clerks – Private Sector Award 2020 [MA000002] and not an industry award that covers your business.
• If you’re not sure, get advice — being on the wrong award can make all your calculations wrong.

• Grab the official Clerks Award pay guide from Fair Work. From 1 July 2026, download the new 2026/27 guide reflecting the 4.75% increase.
• Save it somewhere obvious — this is your “price list”.

For each staff member, write down:

1. Award: Clerks – Private Sector Award 2020 [MA000002]
2. Level (Level 1 year 1–3, Level 2 year 1–2, Level 3, 4, 5, or a call-centre stream)
3. Employment type (full-time, part-time or casual)
4. Age (for juniors)

Make sure this matches their actual duties, not just their job title.

• Use the pay guide to enter the correct base rate for each classification and age.
• Double-check adult rates like: Level 1 (year 1) FT/PT $26.97, Level 1 (year 1) casual $33.71.
• And any juniors, e.g. an 18-year-old Level 1 (year 1) at about $18.88.

You have two realistic choices:

• Use Fair Work’s Pay and Conditions Tool each pay run (time-consuming, but possible for very small teams); or
• Use award-interpreting rostering/payroll software with payroll integration that understands the Clerks Award and automatically calculates penalties, shiftwork and overtime based on the roster and timesheets.

• Review the Allowances section of the pay guide.
• Decide when each allowance applies in your business (first aid, laundry, meal, vehicle).
• Update payroll so that allowances are easy to add (or automated if using software).

• Once or twice a year, check which casuals have regular patterns of work over 6–12 months.
• If they look “permanent”, look into casual conversion obligations and options.

• Keep copies of rosters, timesheets, pay records and contracts. Consider using HR software with digital employment contracts and employee onboarding to keep everything organised.
• Make sure payslips clearly show ordinary hours vs overtime, different penalty rates, and allowances.

Good records are your best defence if there’s ever a dispute or audit.

Here are the traps that trip up a lot of offices and small businesses.

• Paying an admin assistant in a shop or factory under the Clerks Award when the Retail or Manufacturing award actually covers them.
• This is the single most common Clerks Award error — and it usually means the wrong base rate, penalties and allowances.

• Level 1 has three pay-points (year 1–3) and Level 2 has two. Leaving someone on “year 1” after they’ve completed a year of service underpays them.
• Diarise service anniversaries so pay-points step up automatically.

• Treating early starts, late finishes or Saturday afternoons as ordinary hours when they’re actually overtime.
• Not paying the Saturday (125% FT/PT) or Sunday (200% FT/PT) rate for clerical staff who work weekends.

• Not paying the first aid allowance to the nominated first-aider, or the meal allowance when staff work overtime without a break.

• Still paying last year’s rates because “that’s what we’ve always paid”.
• Fair Work recommends you download the new pay guide every July and compare it to your payroll.

Applying the Clerks Award correctly isn’t optional — it’s a legal requirement. But it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here’s what to remember:

• Confirm coverage first: the Clerks Award is the default for clerical work only where no industry award covers the employer.
• Get the level and pay-point right: Level 1–5 plus the year pay-points and call-centre streams determine the base rate.
• Don’t ignore penalties, shiftwork and allowances: these are where most underpayments happen. You can estimate weekend and overtime costs before you publish a roster, or use software to help.
• Review your casuals: if they’ve been working regular hours for months, consider casual conversion obligations.
• Update every July: download the new pay guide and compare it to your payroll.
• Keep good records: written classifications, agreed hours, rosters, timesheets and payslips are your best protection.

For official guidance, visit the Fair Work Ombudsman website.