With award rates having gone up on July 1st 2021, we are just giving a reminder to make sure that the wages you are paying are correct. We just received an email from the Fair Work Ombudsman, which includes a tool to help work out the correct rates for this financial year and thought it was in our clients best interest if we pass that information along here.
You can find the tool on their website by clicking here.
It will help you to calculate base pay rates and other entitlements, including:
- penalties (e.g weekend, early or late shifts and public holidays)
- overtime
- allowances
- leave balances
- notice period and redundancy pay.
You must pay minimum pay rates and entitlements.
If you feel like you’ve underpaid staff, you can follow their step-by-step guide on how to fix an underpayment.
The Fair Work Commission recently increased the national minimum wage by 2.5%. The new national minimum wage is $772.60 per week or $20.33 per hour. It applies to anyone not covered by an award or a registered agreement.
The same 2.5% increase applies to minimum award wages, but is happening in 3 stages: Most awards increased from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2021. The increase for the Retail Award applies from the first full pay period on or after 1 September 2021.
These 21 awards increase from the first full pay period on or after 1st November 2021.
- Pilots Award
- Cabin Crew Award
- Airline Ground Staff Award
- Airport Award
- Alpine Resorts Award
- Amusement Award
- Dry Cleaning and Laundry Award
- Fitness Award
- Hair and Beauty Award
- Hospitality Award
- Live Performance Award
- Models Award
- Marine Tourism and Charter Vessels Award
- Nursery Award
- Racing Clubs Events Award
- Racing Ground Maintenance Award
- Registered Clubs Award
- Restaurant Award
- Sporting Organisations Award
- Travelling Shows Award
- Wine Award
Most employees are covered by an award. If you’re not sure which award applies, use Find my award. The increase doesn’t affect employees who already get paid more than the new minimum wage. If your employees are covered by a registered agreement, you should check it to see if this increase affects their pay.