Award pay calculators that show their working
Pick an award, enter a shift and see what it is worth: each penalty band, the hours in it, the percentage of base, the hourly rate and the clause of the award it came from. When a shift needs a fact the calculator cannot know, it says so instead of printing a number.
Nothing you type leaves your browser. The calculation runs on your device, using the same award engine LoggerIQ prices shifts with.
A general guide to minimum award rates, not payroll advice. The Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide for each award is the authority and each calculator links to it.
Five awards, interpreted properly
Deliberately five, the awards most shift teams in food, retail, clubs and home care are on, each kept to the published pay guide rather than a shallow pass at all of them.
| Award | Who it covers | Example the calculator opens on | Open |
|---|---|---|---|
| RestaurantMA000119 · rates from 1 July 2026 | Restaurants, cafes and takeaway businesses where food is eaten on the premises, including front of house and kitchen staff. | Saturday 10 October 2026, 17:00 to 01:00 comes to $304.65 across 3 lines. | Open |
| HospitalityMA000009 · rates from 1 July 2026 | Hotels, pubs, taverns, motels, resorts and casinos, from bar and gaming staff to housekeeping and kitchen. | Friday 9 October 2026, 18:00 to 02:00 comes to $280.69 across 4 lines. | Open |
| RetailMA000004 · rates from 1 July 2026 | Shops and retail businesses: sales, checkout, shelf filling, stores and retail supervisors. | Thursday 8 October 2026, 14:00 to 21:30 comes to $131.43 across 2 lines. | Open |
| SCHADSMA000100 · rates from 1 July 2026 | Home care workers under the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services award, in the disability and aged care home care streams. | Friday 9 October 2026, 15:00 to 23:00 comes to $243.53 across 2 lines. | Open |
| ClubsMA000058 · rates from 1 July 2026 | Registered and licensed clubs: food and beverage, gaming, kitchen, guest service, leisure, security and stores staff. | Saturday 10 October 2026, 18:00 to 01:30 comes to $304.21 across 3 lines. | Open |
Five steps, each one visible on the page
A multiplier gets a Saturday night wrong in three places: the Sunday hours after midnight, the casual loading added twice and the break taken out of the wrong band. These steps are why the calculators do not.
Find the base rate
The adult hourly rate for the classification, from the award table. For a junior, the junior percentage comes off first, worked out the way that award says to round it.
Cut the shift at every boundary
The shift is split at midnight and at the edge of every penalty window. The unpaid break comes out where it was taken. Hours after midnight on Saturday are Sunday hours, priced as Sunday.
Decide what is overtime
Time past the award’s daily limit for that employment type is overtime, counted from the end of the shift. Where the limit depends on an arrangement the calculator cannot see, it refuses rather than picks.
Price each piece
Each piece takes the highest band in force. Casual figures are the all-inclusive percentages the pay guide publishes, so the casual loading is never added twice. Flat evening and night amounts are added per hour.
Top up and add up
A shift shorter than the minimum engagement is topped up to it. Each hourly rate is rounded to the cent before it is multiplied, so every line reconciles with the pay guide.
What a free calculator cannot know
- The rest of the week. Each calculator prices one shift, so overtime for passing 38 hours in a week is not counted.
- Your agreements. An enterprise agreement, an individual flexibility arrangement or above-award pay changes the answer and none of them is visible here.
- Allowances. Meal, tool, laundry, first aid and similar allowances are not added.
- Everything each award page lists. Every calculator opens a list of the provisions it does not price, in plain words, taken from the award content itself.
Want this for a whole week instead of one shift at a time? Set your award and each person’s classification in LoggerIQ and each person’s week of recorded hours is priced with the same engine, clause by clause. See pay rates.
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