Professional Employees Award pay guide: salaries, rates & the 25% rule 2026/2027

Most professional employees are salaried, but casuals do exist (e.g. contract IT and engineering roles). Here are the casual rates for ordinary daytime hours under the Professional Employees Award 2020 [MA000065], generated from the current Fair Work pay guide:

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

• The Professional Employees Award 2020 [MA000065] sets minimum salaries and conditions for professional engineers, professional scientists, information technology and telecommunications professionals, quality auditors and medical-research employees.
• It sets minimum annual salaries (not just hourly rates), reviewed each July after the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review. The FY2026/27 rates took effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, up 4.75%.
• Minimum rates run from about $33.71/hr (Level 1 graduate, 3-year degree) to $49.02/hr (Level 4 principal professional) — roughly $66,800 to $97,200 a year for full-time work.
• Casuals receive a 25% loading on top of these ordinary rates.
• The award has limited penalties: early/late work (before 6am or after 10pm, Mon–Sat) at 125%, Sundays and public holidays at 150%. There is no ordinary Saturday-day loading and no standard shift schedule.
• The 25% threshold rule: overtime and penalty provisions don’t apply to an employee whose salary is 25% or more above the applicable award minimum — a key feature that separates this award from most others.
• Get four things right: award coverage, classification level, employment type, and whether the employee sits above the 25% threshold.

Think of the Professional Employees Award (MA000065) as the legal minimum standard for covered professional work — but a lighter-touch one than most awards.

It sets:

• Minimum annual salaries for graduate through principal-level professionals
• A limited set of penalties for early/late, Sunday and public-holiday work
• Rules about ordinary hours, additional hours and time off in lieu
• A link into the National Employment Standards (NES) for leave and other basic rights

You can always pay more — and for professionals, employers usually do, via market-rate contracts and enterprise agreements — but you can’t legally pay less than the Award minimum, and if a covered employee is paid below the 25% threshold you must also apply the Award’s penalties.

The Award is updated each July after the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review. Your job as an employer is to work out whether your staff are covered, classify them correctly, pay at least the Award minimum salary, and apply penalties where they’re due.

In simple terms, the Professional Employees Award covers employees doing professional engineering, scientific, IT/telecommunications, quality-auditing and medical-research work. It commonly applies to:

• Professional engineers (graduate and experienced engineers across disciplines)
• Professional scientists (chemistry, physics, metallurgy, agriculture, food science, and similar)
• Information technology and telecommunications professionals
• Quality auditors and senior quality auditors working in quality-improvement programs
• Medical-research employees at medical research institutes

The biggest coverage trap is assuming all professionals are covered. Managerial staff, professionals whose duties sit clearly above the award classifications, and employees genuinely covered by an industry award instead (for example an engineer employed under the Manufacturing Award doing production work) may fall outside MA000065. Coverage turns on the actual duties, not the job title.

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

• The employee is a manager or executive whose role is above professional-level duties → often award-free.
• The work is really clerical/administrative → Clerks – Private Sector Award.
• The employee is a licensed tradesperson doing electrical or electronic contracting work → Electrical Award.
• The professional is employed in an industry with its own award covering the work (e.g. some health roles under the Health Professionals Award).

When in doubt, check the Award on the Fair Work website and use Fair Work’s Pay and Conditions Tool (PACT), or work through our guide on how to find which award applies.

This section is a practical snapshot of the current FY2026/27 minimum rates so you can sanity-check payroll. The Award sets minimum annual salaries; the hourly figures here are derived from those salaries (annual ÷ 1,982 hours) and are generated from the same data that powers the calculator above. Rates assume correct award coverage and classification.

For adult employees, ordinary hours (hourly derived from the minimum annual salary):

Casuals receive the same base rate plus a 25% casual loading in place of paid leave. Adult casual rates for ordinary daytime hours:

The Award classifies professionals by qualification and experience, from a fresh graduate up to a principal-level professional. Getting the level right is the main driver of the minimum salary you owe.

• Level 1 – Graduate – a new graduate professional. Pay points step up with a 3-year vs 4–5-year degree and with early-career experience (pay points 1.1–1.4).
• Level 2 – Experienced professional – works with autonomy on professional tasks; also covers experienced quality auditors.
• Level 3 – Senior professional – significant responsibility, complex work; also senior quality auditors.
• Level 4 – Principal professional – directs programs or provides expert authority (the top classification).

For each employee, record the award, level and employment type, for example:

This classification should appear in the employment contract, your HR/payroll system, and any award-interpretation software you use. If you’re unsure, read the classification definitions in the Award, or confirm the right classification level with our free checker.

Here’s how common professional roles map to Award classifications. Remember these are Award minimums — market salaries for experienced engineers, data and IT professionals are usually well above these figures.

New graduates start at Level 1 and move up the pay points as they gain experience:

• Level 1 graduate (3-year degree): about $33.71/hr, or roughly $66,800/year full-time
• Level 1 graduate (4–5-year degree): about $34.58/hr
• Pay points 1.2–1.4 step up to about $38.47/hr as experience grows.

As professionals take on autonomy and responsibility they move to Levels 2–4:

• Level 2 experienced professional: about $39.77/hr (~$78,800/year)
• Level 3 senior professional: about $43.46/hr (~$86,200/year)
• Level 4 principal professional: about $49.02/hr (~$97,200/year)

Information technology and telecommunications professionals, and quality auditors, are classified on the same Level 1–4 scale by qualification and responsibility. A senior quality auditor typically sits at Level 3.

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

• Full-time is generally 38 ordinary hours per week.
• Part-time employees work fewer, regular hours with an agreed pattern.
• Both accrue paid annual leave and personal/carer’s leave under the NES (pro-rata for part-time).

• No firm advance commitment to ongoing work with an agreed pattern.
• Paid a 25% casual loading instead of paid leave.
• Common for contract IT and short-term project engineering/science roles.

This is the section that makes the Professional Employees Award different from every other award. Its penalties are limited, and they switch off entirely for higher-paid staff.

The penalties (for employees paid below the 25% threshold):

• Early morning / late evening — work before 6am or after 10pm, Monday–Saturday, is paid at 125% (permanent) / 150% (casual).
• Sunday — any hours are paid at 150% (permanent) / 175% (casual).
• Public holidays — any hours are paid at 150% (permanent) / 175% (casual).
• No ordinary Saturday-day loading and no standard shift-loading schedule — daytime Saturday work is paid at the ordinary rate.

For employees below the threshold, hours worked beyond 38 per week (or an agreed average) are compensated at the minimum hourly rate or by time off in lieu — the award’s design assumes salary compensates for reasonable additional hours. Employers can require reasonable additional hours, but must keep them reasonable. For anyone above the 25% threshold, additional-hours compensation is a matter for the contract, not the award.

Compared with industry awards, the Professional Employees Award prescribes very few fixed-dollar allowances. Most work-related costs are handled by reimbursement of reasonable expenses rather than set allowance rates:

• Travel and vehicle use — reasonable costs are reimbursed; if you require an employee to use their own vehicle, check the current per-kilometre rate in the Fair Work pay guide.
• Equipment and clothing — reasonable, work-required costs are reimbursed.
• There is generally no all-purpose allowance built into the base rates.

Because allowance and reimbursement details change with each pay guide, confirm the current figures under “Allowances” in the Fair Work pay guide.

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

Permanent employees are entitled to, among other things:

• Paid annual leave – 4 weeks per year based on ordinary hours.
• Paid personal/carer’s leave (sick leave) based on ordinary hours.
• Compassionate leave, parental leave, family and domestic violence leave, and other NES entitlements.

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

A simple process you can actually follow.

• Confirm the employee does covered professional work and isn’t better covered by an industry award, or award-free as a manager.
• Check whether a registered enterprise agreement applies — if so, its terms generally replace the Award (but must beat it on the BOOT).

• Grab the official Professional Employees Award pay guide from Fair Work and save the current minimum salaries.

For each worker, write down: the award (MA000065), the level (Level 1 graduate pay point, or Level 2–4), and employment type. Match this to their actual duties and qualifications, not just their job title.

For each covered employee, compare their salary to 125% of the applicable award minimum. If they’re at or above it, overtime/penalty provisions don’t apply; if they’re below it, you must apply the early/late, Sunday and public-holiday penalties.

• Enter at least the minimum salary per classification, and configure the penalties so they apply automatically for below-threshold staff.

Keep contracts, timesheets and pay records. Consider HR software with digital employment contracts to keep everything organised, and make sure payslips clearly show ordinary hours, any penalties and reimbursements.

The traps that trip up employers of professionals most often.

Many employers assume salaried engineers, scientists and IT staff have no award. MA000065 covers a lot of them — and sets a minimum salary you can’t go below.

Paying penalties to staff who are above the threshold (not required), or failing to pay them to staff who are below it (a breach). Check each employee against 125% of the minimum.

Even a well-regarded professional on a modest contract must receive at least the Award minimum for their classification.

Graduate and early-career professionals are the ones most likely to sit below the threshold — so their weekend and out-of-hours work does attract penalties.

Still paying last year’s minimum. Download the new pay guide every July and compare it to your payroll.

Applying the Professional Employees Award correctly is a legal requirement — but it’s more about salaries and one key threshold than complex penalties:

• Confirm coverage first: covered professional work vs an industry award vs award-free.
• Classify correctly: Level 1 graduate pay points through Level 4 principal.
• Check the 25% threshold: it decides whether overtime and penalties apply at all.
• Pay at least the minimum salary, apply the limited penalties for below-threshold staff, and estimate out-of-hours costs before you roster.
• Update every July and keep good records.

For official guidance, visit the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Professional Employees Award summary.