What You'll Get Paid

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In Australia and New Zealand, everyone has the same basic rights at work that protect you from unfair treatment.

What you must get paid for different jobs is set out by law.

Navigator is here to help you understand what you should expect at your workplace. Find out how others have handled issues like:

Poor accommodation
Workplace health and safety issues

Excessive deductions
Underpayment of wages

Dealing with migration agents
Movement restrictions

Is your pay correct?

It's important to understand. But it's complicated.

Minimum wage

In Australia, all workers are entitled to a minimum wage. The minimum pay rate you must be paid weekly and hourly is set by law.

Workers can also negotiate piece rates with their employer.

But even if you're paid piece rates to pick fruit and vegetables, you must still get a minimum pay rate of $25.41 per hour.

If you negotiate a piece rate with your boss, the law says you have to be able to earn at least 15% more per hour than the minimum hourly rate set out in the Horticulture Award.

Whatever you agree to, you can't be forced into agreeing to that rate of pay.

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The National Minimum Wage is $23.23 per hour or $882.80 per week (as of July 2023). You must be paid this amount or more than this.

In some industries, something called an Industrial Award sets out workers' minimum pay and conditions. If you work in these industries, you must be paid what the Award sets out as pay rates for different jobs. You must be paid this amount or more than this.

For work involving planting, picking, sorting or packing fruit and vegetable pickers your pay and conditions is contained in the Horticulture Award.

The minimum pay for an full-time adult worker (Grade 1) is $22.61 per hour.

The minimum pay for an adult casual worker (Grade 1) is $28.26 per hour.

For work in vineyards involving picking wine grapes or pruning your pay and conditions is contained in the Wine Award.

The minimum pay for an full-time adult worker (Grade 1) is $22.93 per hour. The minimum pay for an adult casual worker (Grade 1) is $28.66 per hour.

You must be paid for the time you spend in training, in meetings, doing a trial shift, or any other mandatory work activities.
If you work over a weekend or public holiday, early morning or night shifts, you must be paid extra (called a penalty wage) or be given an extra paid day off.
If you get injured at work, you must be compensated by your employer.

Piece rates

A piece rate is where you get paid by the piece of fruit or vegetable.

The amount you are paid depends on how much you pick, pack, prune or make (for example, in kilograms or bins of produce).

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If you're working in an industry covered by the Horticulture Award, a piece rate has to give you at least 15% more than the hourly rate of pay.

If you're working in an industry covered by the Wine Award, the piece rate has to give you at least 20% more per hour than the hourly rate of pay.

Piece rates have to be set and agreed with you before you starting working as a pieceworker.

Your employer has to:

Keep separate records for each pieceworker (called piecework records).
Show how they calculated your piece rates and these have to be set before a piecework record is made.

Minimum wage guarantee

All workers (full-time, part-time and casual) who are pieceworkers under the Horticulture Award have something called a minimum wage guarantee for each day they work.

This means a pieceworker must be paid at least the hourly rate contained in the Award multiplied by the number of hours you've worked that day.

If a pieceworker would earn more than the minimum wage guarantee for that day’s work under the piece rate, you get paid the higher amount of money.

There may be other benefits available to you as a pieceworker, depending on your industry.

For the latest info, go to the Australian Government's Fair Work Ombudsman website: https://www.fairwork.gov.au/

Minimum hours

For a short-term worker (someone with a job with an employer for up to 9 months), you must be offered at least 30 hours work a week.

For long-term workers (from 1 - 4 years), you must be offered full-time hours (generally, 38 hours work a week).

Wage deductions

Wage deductions can only be for things that mainly benefit you. An employer has to explain wage deductions to you and get your agreement without pressuring you.

For example, an employer is required to give you financial assistance for your pre-departure and on-arrival costs as a cash advance. This may be deducted from your wages when you start earning.

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The cash advance offered to you must be at least AUD$200 but you can decline this.

Wage deductions that are allowed include:

Your airfares
Your transport costs from where you arrive to where you'll work or stay
Costs of visa processing, health insurance, health checks
Costs of personal things you'll be using like bedding, food, mobile phone
Clothing and shoes that aren't Personal Protective Equipment

An employer is not permitted to deduct their costs associated with:

Your selection, recruitment, or arranging accommodation and transport for you
Their travel costs
Using a recruitment agent

Tax

Workers in Australia and New Zealand must pay tax. This is usually a deduction from your wages.

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Most workers in Australia need to lodge a tax return with the Australian Tax Office to see if they have any tax payments or refunds.

You don't need to lodge a tax return if you're a short-term foreign worker and all your wages came through your PALM scheme job.

If you're a long-term PALM scheme worker, you're likely to need to do a tax return.

Workers who meet certain requirements must also be paid superannuation by their employer. 'Super' is the Australian retirement savings system like the National Provident Fund in some countries.

When you've got a job in Australia, your employer has to pay 11% super in addition to your normal pay into a super fund. It stays there until you leave Australia, when you can claim it.

For more info, go to the Australian Tax Office at www.ato.gov.au

Leave

Workers are allowed to take leave from work for many reasons, including to go on a holiday, because they're sick, or to take care of family members. Leave entitlements are different for different workers, depending on if you're full-time, part-time or casual.

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Full-time and part-time workers can get paid sick and annual leave, which builds up over the time you work. Casual workers can get sick leave but won't be paid for time off, and don't get paid annual leave.

Paid annual leave

Full-time workers = 4 weeks (20 days)
Part-time workers = 4 weeks but adjusted to your part time hours of work
Casual = none

Paid sick leave

Full-time and part-time workers = 10 days
Casual = none

Health insurance

Maintaining health insurance will be a requirement of your visa while in Australia. This is likely to be one of your wage deductions. Info about your health insurer, how to contact them and make a claim should be in your arrival documents.

Making complaints or giving feedback to your employer

You can’t get in trouble or have your visa cancelled for making complaints or giving feedback.

Employers can face serious penalties if they don't pay workers their correct pay and entitlements. For more info, go to the Australian Government's Fair Work Ombudsman at www.fairwork.gov.au. Don't be afraid to make a genuine complaint. Your welfare is taken seriously and you can help protect yourself and others by stopping unfair treatment.

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