Pastoral Award rates 2025/2026 (Australia)

Quick summary for time-poor owners

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

The Pastoral Award 2020 [MA000035] sets minimum pay and conditions for many farm and livestock roles (and other pastoral streams like dairy, feedlots, shearing, piggery, poultry). This guide focuses mainly on Broadacre Farming and Livestock Operations – Farm and livestock hands (FLH1–FLH8).

Your "must get right" checklist for every worker:

• ✅ Award coverage – does the Pastoral Award apply to your business and this employee's duties? Use PACT.
• 📋 Classification – e.g., FLH1 vs FLH2 vs FLH3 etc (and note the entry-level time limits changed from 1 April 2025).
• 👥 Employment type – full-time, part-time, casual (minimum engagement rules apply).
• ⏰ Hours and timing – ordinary hours vs overtime, Sunday categories, public holidays, and allowances.

2025 adult minimum pay examples (Broadacre – FLH stream)

• FLH2 adult (full-time/part-time): $24.95/hr
• FLH2 adult casual: $31.19/hr (includes 25% casual loading)

Overtime and public holidays (Broadacre – FLH stream)

• Ordinary hours are averaged 38 hours/week over a 4-week cycle, and must not exceed 152 hours in any consecutive 4 weeks.
• Overtime rates (FT/PT) are generally 150% Mon–Sat, and Sunday can be 150% (feeding/watering stock) or 200% (other work). Casual overtime is higher because it includes casual loading.
• Public holiday rate (FT/PT) is 200%; casual public holiday is 225%.

Common searches and quick answers

These are the most common query themes that repeatedly show up in official Fair Work guidance, award tables/notes, and employer compliance questions (and they're the ones that most often cause payroll errors):

• "Pastoral Award pay rates 2025 / 2026" → see 2025 pay rates (adult).
• "Station hand hourly rate / FLH levels" → see Classifications (FLH1–FLH8) and Pay rates.
• "With keep deduction" → see "With keep" deductions.
• "152 hours overtime Pastoral Award" → see Ordinary hours + overtime.
• "Sunday rates feeding and watering stock" → see Overtime (Sunday categories).
• "Minimum shift (casual / part-time) Pastoral Award" → see Minimum engagement.
• "Entry-level classification changes April 2025" → see April 2025 entry-level changes.
• "Meal allowance / vehicle allowance Pastoral Award" → see Allowances.
• "Can I pay a salary / annualised wage / day rate?" → see Paying a salary / annualised wage.
• "Can I deduct accommodation / costs from pay?" → see Deductions law (s 324 + Fair Work guidance).

What is the Pastoral Award?

Think of a modern award as a minimum safety net you can't go below.

The Pastoral Award sets (among other things):

• Minimum wage rates by classification and age (adult and junior)
• Overtime and public holiday rates (and how to calculate them)
• Allowances (some are "all-purpose", some are expense-related)
• Minimum engagement rules for casuals/part-timers
• Classification rules, including the April 2025 entry-level time limits

You can always pay more or provide better conditions, but you generally can't pay less than the Award minimums.

Who it covers and award coverage traps

"Agriculture" is a broad label. What matters legally is:

• the industry/business coverage rules of the award; and
• the employee's actual duties/classification.

A common trap is mixing up:

• Pastoral Award (livestock/broadacre-related streams) vs
• Horticulture Award (horticultural crops—fruits/vegetables/grains/seeds/hops/nuts/etc—excluding broadacre field crops, plus specific horticulture tasks).

Best practice:

• Confirm coverage in Fair Work's Pay and Conditions Tool (PACT) before you set rates.
• If you use labour hire, double-check who the employer is and which award applies to that employment relationship.

2025 pay rates overview (adult)

These are minimum adult rates for Broadacre Farming and Livestock Operations – Farm and livestock hands (FLH1–FLH8).

Important notes before you use the table:

• Adult rates apply from age 20.
• "All-purpose" allowances (like leading hand/first aid) must be added before calculating overtime and penalty rates.
• If you provide keep, a deduction may apply (see "With keep" section).

These figures come directly from the Award's pay tables and minimum rates.

💡 Click any rate to copy it to your clipboard.

Junior rates (under 20)

Under the Award, junior rates are a percentage of the relevant adult rate. The Award sets the junior percentage scale (under 16 → 50% up to 19 → 90%).

Because junior tables are detailed, the safest workflow is:

1. Confirm the employee's FLH level
2. Confirm the employee's age
3. Use the Award table for the actual $ rate (so you don't mis-round)

Example (from the Award's junior table):

• 17-year-old FLH2 (FT/PT): $17.46/hr
• 17-year-old FLH1 (FT/PT): $17.00/hr

Classifications (FLH1–FLH8) and the April 2025 entry-level changes

Why classifications matter

Misclassification is one of the biggest underpayment risks. Pay rates aren't based on "job title"; they're based on the Award's classification descriptions.

Key change from 1 April 2025

Fair Work published guidance explaining that, from 1 April 2025, the Pastoral Award has new time limits and definitions for entry-level/introductory classifications, plus new ongoing classifications for station hands/cooks/offsiders and changes to some minimum pay rates in other streams (e.g., piggery attendant level 2).

In the Award's classification clause (Broadacre), you can see this reflected clearly:

FLH1 now includes (examples)

• Station hand with less than 6 months' experience in the industry
• Station cook with less than 6 months' experience in the industry
• Station cook's offsider with less than 6 months' experience in the industry

FLH2 now includes (examples)

• Station hand with 6 to 12 months' experience in the industry
• Station cook with more than 6 months' experience in the industry
• Station cook's offsider with more than 6 months' experience in the industry

Employment types and minimum engagement

Part-time

Part-time employees are permanent employees working less than full-time hours. Under the Pastoral Award, there is a minimum engagement for part-time work of 3 consecutive hours per shift (with a specific exception for certain junior dairy operators).

Casual

• Casuals get 25% casual loading (instead of paid leave).
• Minimum engagement for casuals is 3 consecutive hours per shift (again, with a specific exception for certain junior dairy operators).

Ordinary hours and overtime (the "152 hours" rule)

This is one of the most searched and most misunderstood parts of the Pastoral Award.

Ordinary hours

• Ordinary hours for full-time employees are based on an average of 38 hours per week over a 4-week period.
• The Award also provides that ordinary hours must not exceed 152 hours in any consecutive 4 weeks.

Overtime – broadacre FLH stream (high-level)

The Award defines overtime as time worked in excess of ordinary hours. Overtime rates for broadacre farm and livestock hands include:

Public holidays (broadacre FLH stream)

Public holiday rates are shown in the Award pay tables:

• FT/PT public holiday: 200% of ordinary hourly rate
• Casual public holiday: 225% of ordinary hourly rate

Allowances that commonly apply on farms/stations

Allowances are where a lot of "quiet underpayments" happen because they're easy to forget.

1) Leading hand allowance (all-purpose)

If an employee is a leading hand in charge of 2 or more people, a weekly allowance applies, depending on headcount:

• 2–6 employees: $28.69/week
• 7–10 employees: $33.43/week
• 11–20 employees: $47.65/week
• >20 employees: $59.88/week

This is an all-purpose allowance, meaning it's included when calculating penalties/overtime and payments during annual leave.

2) First aid allowance (all-purpose)

If an employee is appointed to perform first aid duties and holds a recognised first aid qualification, they must be paid $3.49 per day.

This is also an all-purpose allowance.

3) Use of vehicle allowance (expense-related)

If the employer instructs an employee to use their own vehicle during working hours for specified work purposes, the employee is paid $0.98 per kilometre.

4) Overtime meal allowance (expense-related)

Where the Award requires a meal to be provided during overtime, the employer must provide a suitable meal free of cost or pay $17.19 per meal when the meal isn't supplied.

5) Horse and saddle allowances (broadacre)

If a station hand is required to find their own:

• horse: $9.25/week
• saddle: $7.39/week

"With keep" deductions (and the law on deductions)

The Award rule

If keep is provided, the employer may deduct $159.34 per week from the employee's total weekly wages.

The separate legal rule on deductions (Fair Work Act)

Even if the Award allows a deduction, employers must still follow the general law about deductions. Fair Work explains that employers can only deduct pay in limited situations (e.g., with written agreement mainly for the employee's benefit, or if allowed under a law/award/agreement).

The Fair Work Act's permitted deduction rule is set out in s 324.

Practical compliance tips (keep deductions):

• Document the arrangement clearly (what's being provided, the amount, and how it's calculated).
• Show the deduction clearly on the payslip.
• Don't use "keep" as a catch-all to deduct unrelated costs.

Paying a salary, annualised wage, or "day rate"

This is a very common search ("Can I just pay $X per day for station hands / harvest / mustering?").

Key point: you can pay above-award in many ways, but you must still ensure employees receive at least the Award minimums and comply with the Award's specific mechanisms for pay arrangements (for example, the Pastoral Award contains provisions about pay structures such as annualised wage arrangements and flexibility arrangements—so you should read the relevant clause and get advice before relying on a flat rate).

Casual conversion

The Pastoral Award links casual conversion to the National Employment Standards (NES) provisions in the Fair Work Act (and sets out a dispute process).

Because conversion rules depend on business size, dates, and facts about the employee's pattern of work, treat conversion requests as a compliance task (not a "roster preference").

Learn more about how to handle casual conversion requests.

Leave entitlements (NES overview)

At a high level (and subject to the NES and any applicable award terms):

• Full-time and part-time employees get paid leave entitlements (annual leave, personal/carer's leave, etc.).
• Casuals generally do not receive paid annual leave/personal leave and instead receive casual loading.

If leave compliance is a risk area for your business, cross-check the NES and your payroll setup. See our guides on calculating leave entitlements and managing annual leave requests.

Step-by-step compliance plan (practical)

Step 1: Confirm award coverage

Use PACT and read the award coverage clause for your business.

Step 2: Classify every employee correctly

Document FLH level (and stream, if not broadacre). Pay special attention to the April 2025 entry-level time limits. Learn how to find which award applies.

Step 3: Set base rates

Load the correct hourly rates (adult/junior, FT/PT/casual).

Step 4: Configure overtime + public holidays correctly

Make sure your payroll is calculating overtime based on the Award's ordinary hours framework (including the 152-hours-in-4-weeks rule), and applying the correct Sunday category rates.

Step 5: Add allowances (and know which are all-purpose)

Leading hand and first aid are all-purpose allowances. Vehicle and meal allowances are expense-related. Use award interpretation software to automate this.

Step 6: Handle deductions lawfully (especially "keep")

Ensure deductions meet the Award and the Fair Work Act rules, and show them clearly on payslips.

Step 7: Keep good records

Minimum engagement, overtime, allowances, deductions—these all depend on decent time and pay records. The Award highlights payslip/pay record requirements for allowances. Consider using time and attendance software with digital timesheets.

Common mistakes (seen often in agriculture payroll)

1. Wrong award (Pastoral vs Horticulture vs other)

"Farm work" isn't one award. Confirm coverage.

2. Forgetting the April 2025 entry-level time limits

Keeping someone at FLH1 too long is an easy underpayment.

3. Treating weekends like a generic penalty system

The Pastoral Award's broadacre stream is heavily driven by overtime rules and Sunday categories rather than "retail-style weekend penalties." Use the correct overtime/public holiday framework.

4. Incorrect casual overtime calculations

Don't multiply a casual hourly rate by an overtime multiplier without checking the Award method.

5. Missing allowances

Leading hand, first aid, vehicle, and overtime meal allowances are commonly missed.

6. Unlawful or poorly documented deductions

Especially where accommodation/meals/keep are involved—deductions must meet legal rules.

Final takeaways

• Confirm coverage first (Pastoral vs other awards).
• Classify correctly, including entry-level progression rules from 1 April 2025.
• Use correct rates (adult/junior, FT/PT/casual) and configure overtime/public holidays properly.
• Don't forget allowances and whether they're all-purpose.
• Handle deductions carefully—especially "with keep".

Sources used for this guide

• Pastoral Award 2020 [MA000035] – consolidated award text, including pay tables, overtime, allowances, and classifications
• Fair Work Ombudsman – Changes to entry-level classifications in Horticulture Award and Pastoral Award (1 April 2025)
• Fair Work Ombudsman – Changes to entry-level classifications in awards (29 Nov 2024)
• Fair Work Ombudsman – Pay guides and PACT tool
• Fair Work Ombudsman – Deducting pay (rules and examples)
• Fair Work Act 2009 – s 324 (permitted deductions)
• Fair Work Ombudsman – Horticulture Award [MA000028] summary (for coverage comparisons)

For official guidance, visit the Fair Work Ombudsman website.