Part Time Penalty Rates 2026-27
A part-time employee is paid penalty rates at the same percentage as a full-time employee at the same classification. The awards do not print a part-time percentage, because they do not have one. What is genuinely different for a part-timer is which hours count as ordinary hours, and that turns on the pattern of hours agreed when they were engaged.
The short answer
Yes. Of the 34 rate tables in the three awards read for this page, 16 are headed for full-time and part-time employees together and none are headed for part-time employees on their own. One column covers both, so a part-time Saturday is 125% of the base hourly rate, a Sunday 125% to 150% and a public holiday 225%.
A casual is 25 points higher on the same hours. That is the 25% casual loading, not a better penalty rate, and a part-timer receives paid leave in its place.
The part the tables cannot answer: whether an hour worked outside your agreed pattern is an ordinary hour at a penalty rate or an hour of overtime. Each award’s part-time clause decides that, and no overtime rate is published here.
The award prints one column for both, and that is the answer.
There is no interpretation involved here. Each award’s rates schedule puts full-time and part-time employees in the same table, names them both in the heading, and then puts casuals in a separate table. The headings below are the awards’ own words.
General Retail Industry Award 2020 (MA000004)
B.1.1 · percentage of the minimum hourly rate
Full-time and part-time adult employees other than shiftworkers—ordinary and penalty rates
Saturday 125%, Sunday 150%, public holiday 225% for both. A casual at the same classification is paid Saturday 150%, Sunday 175% and public holiday 250%.
Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009)
B.2.1 · percentage of the ordinary hourly rate
Adult full-time and part-time employees—ordinary and penalty rates
Saturday 125%, Sunday 150%, public holiday 225% for both. A casual at the same classification is paid Saturday 150%, Sunday 175% and public holiday 250%.
Fast Food Industry Award 2020 (MA000003)
A.1.1 · percentage of the minimum hourly rate
Full-time and part-time adult employees—ordinary and penalty rates
Saturday 125%, Sunday 125% to 150%, public holiday 225% for both. A casual at the same classification is paid Saturday 150%, Sunday 150% to 175% and public holiday 250%.
A retail employee level 1 is paid $27.81 an hour for ordinary hours and $34.76 an hour on a Saturday, whether they are full-time or part-time. Every percentage on this page, and the hourly figure each award prints against it, is on Penalty Rates.
What changes for a part-timer is which hours are ordinary hours.
A penalty rate is paid on ordinary hours that fall at a time the award treats as unsociable. A part-time employee is engaged on an agreed regular pattern of hours, so the question that decides the pay is not what percentage applies but whether the hour was an ordinary one.
Inside the agreed pattern
These are ordinary hours. If they fall on a Saturday, a Sunday, a public holiday or inside an evening window the award names, the penalty percentage applies in full, at the same rate a full-time employee would receive.
Outside the agreed pattern
These may be ordinary hours by agreement, or they may be overtime. Each award’s part-time clause decides which, and the answer changes the rate that applies. No overtime figure is published here.
Every one of the 16 conditions in these three awards is defined by a day and a time of day, never by how many hours a week the employee is contracted for. That is why the percentage does not move when the roster does. If your extra hours are overtime, read your award’s overtime clause or call the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94. No overtime figure is published here.
Three traps that catch part-time rosters in particular.
Two penalties on one shift, in hospitality
A part-timer rostered on a Sunday evening is not paid the Sunday percentage plus the evening one. Clause 29.3 of the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 says: “Subject to clause 29.3(c), where more than one penalty rate would be payable for hours worked at a particular time, the employer must pay the employee the highest applicable penalty rate, but no other applicable penalty rate is payable.”
A late finish is not a shift rate, in retail
Clause 23.1 of the General Retail Industry Award 2020 says: “Part 6 applies only to persons specifically employed to do shiftwork.” A part-time employee rostered onto a late shift without being engaged as a shiftworker is on the ordinary penalty percentages, which are the ones on this page. The shiftwork tables are priced separately and are published on the retail award page.
Your Sunday percentage depends on your level, in fast food
The Fast Food Industry Award 2020 prints two Sunday percentages: 125% at level 1, and 150% at levels 2 and 3. A part-time level 1 employee is paid 125% on a Sunday, and a page that prints one fast food Sunday figure has it wrong for them.
A part-time employee is not a casual, and the gap is the loading.
The two are often used as though they meant the same thing, and on a payslip they do not. A casual is paid 25 points more on the same hours in every condition these three awards publish, and receives none of the entitlements that 25% is compensating for.
| Award | Saturday | Sunday | Public holiday | Casual, same hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General Retail Industry Award 2020MA000004 | 125% | 150% | 225% | 150% / 175% / 250% |
| Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020MA000009 | 125% | 150% | 225% | 150% / 175% / 250% |
| Fast Food Industry Award 2020MA000003 | 125% | 125% to 150% | 225% | 150% / 150% to 175% / 250% |
The casual column is Saturday, Sunday and public holiday in that order, and every figure in it already includes the loading. How the loading works, and which awards print it rather than leaving it to be worked out, is on Casual Loading.
Where these figures come from.
- General Retail Industry Award 2020 (MA000004), clause 22, Table 12—Penalty rates, consolidated to 1 July 2026, retrieved 6 September 2026. Read the award text.
- Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009), clause 29, Table 14—Penalty rates, consolidated to 1 July 2026, retrieved 6 September 2026. Read the award text.
- Fast Food Industry Award 2020 (MA000003), clause 21, Table 6—Penalty rates, consolidated to 1 July 2026, retrieved 6 September 2026. Read the award text.
Every percentage on this page was read from the award text at those three sources and checked against the dollar figures the same table prints. The full source record, with the determinations behind each figure, is on Penalty Rates.
What this page does not cover.
Listed as plainly as what it does, because a rate page that hides its gaps is how the wrong number ends up on a payslip.
The part-time clause itself
This page publishes rate tables, and the tables do not say when an extra hour becomes overtime, what notice a change of pattern needs, or what the minimum engagement is. Those sit in the award clause, not in the schedule.
Overtime
If your extra hours are overtime rather than ordinary hours, nothing here prices them. The penalty clause tables in these awards state no overtime percentage.
Shiftwork
Retail limits its shiftwork rates to employees specifically employed as shiftworkers under clause 23.1, and those tables are not published here. A part-timer on a late roster is not automatically on a shift rate.
SCHADS and every other award
Three awards are read for this page. MA000100 publishes no penalty table and states its overtime in words, so no SCHADS figure appears. A percentage from one award is not evidence about another.
Pro rata leave and entitlements
A part-time employee accrues leave in proportion to their ordinary hours. This page is about what an hour of work pays, not about what accrues on it.
Hospitality all-purpose allowances
The hospitality percentages apply to the ordinary hourly rate, which includes all-purpose allowances. The dollar figures its schedule prints are calculated on the minimum hourly rate alone, so they are a floor for anyone carrying one.
Part Time Penalty Rates questions, answered.
Do part time workers get penalty rates?
Yes, at the same percentage as a full-time employee at the same classification. The awards settle it in their own table headings: across the three awards read for this page, 16 of the 34 rate tables are headed for full-time and part-time employees together, and none are headed for part-time employees alone. A part-time Saturday is 125% of the base hourly rate, a Sunday is 125% to 150% and a public holiday is 225%, exactly as for a full-timer.
Are part-time penalty rates lower than full-time penalty rates?
No. Being part-time reduces how many hours you are rostered, not what each hour is worth. There is no reduced percentage and no pro rata discount on a penalty rate. Where a part-timer can end up with less than expected it is because fewer of their hours fall inside a penalty window, or because hours outside their agreed pattern are treated as overtime rather than as ordinary hours at a penalty rate.
What happens if I work hours outside my agreed part-time pattern?
That is the one part of this question the rate tables cannot answer. A part-time employee is engaged on an agreed pattern of hours, and each award's part-time clause decides whether an hour outside that pattern is an ordinary hour, in which case the penalty percentages here apply, or overtime, in which case they do not. No overtime rate is published here, because the penalty clause tables in these three awards state no overtime percentage. Read your award's part-time and overtime clauses, or ask the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94.
Do part-time employees get penalty rates on a public holiday?
Yes, at 225% of the base hourly rate, the same as a full-time employee at that classification. A casual is paid 250%, and that figure already includes the 25% casual loading rather than adding to it. Whether you are entitled to be paid at all for a public holiday you do not work is a separate question about your ordinary hours, not about the penalty percentage.
Why is a casual paid more per hour than a part-time employee for the same shift?
Because of the casual loading, not because of a better penalty rate. In all 16 conditions across these three awards the casual percentage is the full-time and part-time percentage plus exactly 25 points. A part-time employee is paid the lower figure and receives paid annual leave, paid personal leave, notice of termination and an agreed pattern of hours instead. The 12 casual tables in these awards are separate tables for that reason.
Does my roster change which penalty percentage applies?
No. Every condition in these awards is defined by a day and a time of day, such as a Saturday, a Sunday, a public holiday or an evening window, and not by how many hours you are contracted to work. The one exception is not about hours either: the Fast Food Industry Award sets its Sunday percentage by classification level, so a level 1 employee is paid a lower Sunday percentage than a level 2 or 3 employee whether they are full-time or part-time.
See what an hourly rate leaves you with.
The calculator works on the hourly rate you enter, so put a penalty figure from this page into it to see the after-tax result for those hours.
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