Hairdresser Pay Rate 2026-27
Salon work is covered by the Hair and Beauty Industry Award 2020, which sets 6 levels for hairdressing and beauty work in one scale. Western Australia is the exception worth checking before you read the table.
A Western Australian salon may not be under this award
Modern awards reach employers in the national industrial relations system. Western Australia did not refer its private sector powers to the Commonwealth, so it runs its own system alongside the national one. A Western Australian employer that is not a constitutional corporation, typically a salon run by a sole trader or a partnership rather than an incorporated company, is covered by the state system and by the Hair and Beauty Industry (WA) Award instead of by MA000005.
No Western Australian state rate is published here. Every figure below is the federal award, read from the Fair Work award library. If your salon is in Western Australia, settle which system you are in first. The test is the employer’s legal structure, not the suburb or the size of the salon, and the Fair Work Ombudsman pay calculator answers for the federal award only.
The short answer
A hairdresser is paid $27.81 an hour at Hair and beauty employee level 1, or $1,056.80 a week full-time for 38 ordinary hours. The scale runs through 6 levels to $32.00 an hour at Hair and beauty employee level 6. A casual at the floor is paid $34.76 an hour, including the 25% loading, before any Saturday, late night or public holiday penalty. Apprentice and junior rates sit below every figure here and are not published on this site.
Award floor
$27.81
Hair and beauty employee level 1, an hour
Top level
$32.00
Hair and beauty employee level 6, an hour
Casual, at the floor
$34.76
Includes the 25% loading
Take-home a year
$46,848
$1,802 a fortnight, at the floor
These are legal minimums set by a modern award, not a market average. This site does not publish average or advertised salaries, because the number that matters on a payslip is the floor an employer cannot go below. Many employers pay more, and an enterprise agreement can set a higher rate again.
Hairdresser rates, level by level.
Adult base rates for all 6 levels of the award’s one classification scale. Every figure was cross-checked against the award’s own rates summary, schedule B, so no casual rate on this page is derived. None of them includes a penalty rate, and none of them is an apprentice or junior figure.
Hair and Beauty Industry Award 2020
1 July 2026 · PR799286
The award names these classifications twice over. Its rates clause calls the first one Hair and beauty employee level 1 and its rates summary schedule calls the same row Level 1, which is why two summaries of this award can look like they are describing different tables. All 6 rows were matched across both.
| Classification | Weekly | Hourly | Casual hourly | Take-home a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hair and beauty employee level 1 | $1,056.80 | $27.81 | $34.76 | $46,848 |
| Hair and beauty employee level 2 | $1,081.00 | $28.45 | $35.56 | $47,704 |
| Hair and beauty employee level 3 | $1,119.10 | $29.45 | $36.81 | $49,051 |
| Hair and beauty employee level 4 | $1,139.90 | $30.00 | $37.50 | $49,787 |
| Hair and beauty employee level 5 | $1,174.00 | $30.89 | $38.61 | $50,993 |
| Hair and beauty employee level 6 | $1,215.90 | $32.00 | $40.00 | $52,474 |
Hourly figures are the weekly rate over 38 ordinary hours. Take-home is an estimate for a single Australian resident for tax purposes with no study loan debt and no Medicare levy surcharge, worked out with the same Wage Calculator used across this site. Superannuation is paid by your employer on top of these rates and is never deducted from them.
Which award covers a hairdresser, and where it stops.
The Hair and Beauty Industry Award 2020 (MA000005) is the national award for the hair and beauty industry: hairdressing and beauty work, and the employees who do it. The award sets one scale for the whole industry rather than separate hairdressing and beauty tables: 6 levels, every one of them named as a hair and beauty employee. A hairdresser and a beauty therapist are classified on the same 6 levels, and those 6 levels are the whole adult scale, so nothing in this award sits above Hair and beauty employee level 6. All 6 are listed on the Hair and Beauty Award Pay Rates page as well.
Which level applies is set by the award’s classification definitions, which this site has not published yet. This page will not tell you that a completed qualification, a particular certificate or a job title puts you on one level rather than another, because it cannot show you the definition that says so. Read the level named on your payslip against the table above and check it against the work you are actually doing.
The Western Australian boundary in the panel at the top of this page is the largest limit on these figures, because it decides whether this award applies at all rather than which level inside it applies. Western Australia runs its own industrial relations system, and where the employer is not a constitutional corporation the Hair and Beauty Industry (WA) Award applies instead of this one, with its own rates. This page publishes nothing from it, because this site has no verified source for its rates. Everywhere else, modern awards are national instruments and there is no separate state hairdresser rate to look for.
Two other things sit outside the table. The first is the apprentice and junior scales: both are percentages of an adult rate, both are set in the award, and neither is published here. The second is what happens when a stylist rents a chair or a booth rather than being employed. The rates in this award are minimum rates for employees, so if you pay rent to a salon and invoice for your own work, the question of whether you are an employee at all comes before the question of which level you are on. This page cannot answer it for you.
From the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, the figures above are the floor. Because the increase applies from the first full pay period on or after that date rather than on the date itself, a payslip covering the changeover can lawfully carry the older figure for part of the period, which is the most common reason a July payslip disagrees with a published rate.
Every classification in this award, including the ones this page leaves out, is listed on the Hair and Beauty Award Pay Rates page.
Where these figures come from.
Provenance
Verified- Award
- Hair and Beauty Industry Award 2020 (MA000005)
- Effective from
- 1 July 2026
- Consolidated to
- 1 July 2026
- Determinations
- PR799280, PR799286, PR799444
- Retrieved
- 9 September 2026
- Ordinary hours
- 38 a week
Every rate above was read from the award text at the Fair Work award library and nothing on this page is copied from another pay site. Rates change from the first full pay period on or after the effective date, so a payslip covering the changeover can lawfully carry the older figure for part of the period.
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.
Western Australian state award
A Western Australian salon that is not an incorporated company sits outside the national system and under the Hair and Beauty Industry (WA) Award. This site publishes no figure from it, because it has no verified source for one.
Apprentice rates
An apprentice is paid a percentage of the adult rate that rises each year of the apprenticeship. Those percentages are set in the award and are not published on this site yet.
Junior rates
An employee under 21 can be paid a junior percentage of the adult rate for their level, which is also not published here. Do not read a figure on this page as a junior minimum.
Penalty rates, overtime and allowances
Saturday, late night, public holiday and overtime loadings, and every allowance the award sets, are additional to the rates above and are not in this table.
Classification definitions
What puts an employee on one level rather than another is set in the award and is not published on this site yet, so no qualification or job title is matched to a level here.
Chair and booth rental, and market pay
These are minimum rates for employees. A stylist renting a chair is a different question again. This page publishes the award floor only: not an average, not a median, and not what a given salon actually offers.
Hairdresser Pay Rate questions, answered.
How much do hairdressers get paid in Australia?
Under the Hair and Beauty Industry Award 2020 (MA000005), between $1,056.80 and $1,215.90 a week for 38 ordinary hours, depending on the level, which is $27.81 to $32.00 an hour. Those are national minimums and the same figures apply in every state and territory, with one exception worth checking: a Western Australian salon that is not an incorporated company may sit under a state award instead of this one. Apprentice and junior rates are lower than every figure here and are not published on this site.
What is the hourly rate for a hairdresser?
$27.81 an hour at Hair and beauty employee level 1, which is the floor for this industry, rising through 6 levels to $32.00 an hour at Hair and beauty employee level 6. Each hourly figure is the weekly rate over a 38 hour week and the award publishes it as its own column, so it is not a division this site performed. Saturday, evening, public holiday and overtime work is paid above those figures and this page does not publish those loadings.
What is the casual rate for a hairdresser?
A casual is paid the rate for their level plus a loading of 25 per cent, so $34.76 an hour at Hair and beauty employee level 1 and $40.00 an hour at Hair and beauty employee level 6. Casual work is common in salons, and the loading is paid instead of paid leave rather than as a bonus on top of it. Penalty rates for Saturday, late nights and public holidays apply on top of the casual rate and are not included here.
Do apprentice and junior hairdressers get these rates?
No. An apprentice is paid a percentage of the relevant adult rate that rises with each year of the apprenticeship, and an employee under 21 can be paid a junior percentage. Both are set in the award and neither is published on this site yet, so do not read a figure on this page as the minimum for an apprentice or a junior. This gap matters more here than on most pages, because hairdressing is an apprenticed trade and a large share of the work is done by employees on one of those two scales. Use the Fair Work Ombudsman pay calculator for an apprentice or junior figure until they are published.
Is the hairdresser pay rate different in Western Australia?
It can be, and this is the one state where the answer is not simply no. Modern awards are national instruments, so $27.81 an hour at Hair and beauty employee level 1 applies in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and both territories alike. Western Australia did not refer its private sector industrial relations powers to the Commonwealth, so an employer there that is not a constitutional corporation, typically a salon run by a sole trader or a partnership rather than an incorporated company, is covered by the state system and by the Hair and Beauty Industry (WA) Award rather than by this award. This site publishes no Western Australian state rate, because it has no verified primary source for one. The test is the employer's legal structure, not the suburb.
What level is a qualified hairdresser paid at?
The award does not answer that by job title. The award sets one scale for the whole industry rather than separate hairdressing and beauty tables: 6 levels, every one of them named as a hair and beauty employee. Which level applies is decided by its classification definitions, which this site has not published yet, so this page will not put a qualification or a job title against a level. Read the level named on your payslip against the table above. If your payslip names no level, that is worth asking about, because the level is what sets the rate. The same 6 levels cover beauty therapy work as well as hairdressing, which is why the award is named for both.
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