The National Minimum Wage in Australia
The rate for an employee no award or agreement covers, read from the National Minimum Wage Order PR799279 rather than from a summary of it. The casual, junior and disability variants the Order sets, which awards sit below it, and what the full-time figure leaves after tax.
The short answer
- The National Minimum Wage is $26.44 an hour, or $1,004.90 a week for 38 ordinary hours, from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026.
- A casual on it is paid $33.05 an hour, which includes the 25% casual loading.
- It applies only to employees 21 and over whom no award or agreement covers. Most employees are paid under an award instead.
- It is a before-tax figure. Full-time, it leaves about $865.64 a week after income tax and the Medicare levy, with $120.59 of super paid on top.
- Weekly, from the Order
- $1,004.90
- Hourly, from the Order
- $26.44
- Casual hourly, Fair Work
- $33.05
- Annual gross, our arithmetic
- $52,254.80
- Previous rate, 2025 Order
- $948.00 / $24.95
- Decision
- [2026] FWCFB 3500, 2 June 2026
- Order
- PR799279, 19 June 2026
- Fair Work page last updated
- 7 August 2026
What the National Minimum Wage is from 1 July 2026.
The Order states two figures and one basis: “$1,004.90 per week, calculated on the basis of a week of 38 ordinary hours, or $26.44 per hour”. Everything else in this table is worked out from those two, and is labelled that way.
| Period | Gross | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly | $26.44 | Published, Order clause 4.1 |
| Weekly, 38 hours | $1,004.90 | Published, Order clause 4.1 |
| Casual hourly | $33.05 | Published by Fair Work, includes 25% loading |
| Fortnightly | $2,009.80 | Derived, weekly x 2 |
| Annual | $52,254.80 | Derived, weekly x 52 |
The Order came into operation on 1 July 2026, but it reaches each employee from the start of their first full pay period beginning on or after that date. A pay period that straddles 1 July is paid at the old rate throughout. The worked example of how that lands on a real fortnight, and the structural change the same decision made to the lowest award classifications, are on Minimum Wage Increase 2026.
What the minimum wage leaves you after tax.
The calculator is prefilled with the weekly figure from the Order. Change the hours, the cycle or the amount to match your own pay, and every figure updates in your browser.
Your pay
LivePay cycle
Sets which cycle the figure above describes.
Adjustments
Single Australian resident for tax purposes, no HECS/HELP debt and no Medicare levy surcharge. Every figure runs in your browser.
Gross pay
$52,255
Before tax, before super
Tax withheld
$7,242
Income tax plus the Medicare levy
Employer super
$6,271
Paid on top, not deducted
Take-home pay
$45,013
What lands in your account
Your pay, every cycle
Take-homePer week
$866
52 weeks a year
Per fortnight
$1,731
The usual pay cycle
Per hour
$22.78
At 38 hours a week
What your gross pay is made of
- Take-home pay$45,01386.1%
- Income tax$6,19611.9%
- Medicare levy$1,0452.0%
The ring is your gross pay of $52,255 being divided up. Superannuation is not in it, because your employer pays the $6,271 of super on top of that figure rather than taking it out.
Pay breakdown
Gross $52,255| Component | Amount | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $52,255 | 100.0% |
| Income tax | - $6,196 | 11.9% |
| Medicare levy | - $1,045 | 2.0% |
| Take-home pay | $45,013 | 86.1% |
| Employer super, paid on top | $6,271 | n/a |
Share is measured against gross pay. Income tax is shown after any offset. Super sits outside the total because it is an employer cost, not a deduction.
Your income tax, bracket by bracket
2026-27- 1$0 to $18,200 at 0c per dollar$18,200 of your income falls in this bracket$0
- 2$18,201 to $45,000 at 15c per dollar$26,800 of your income falls in this bracket$4,020
- 3$45,001 to $135,000 at 30c per dollar$7,255 of your income falls in this bracket$2,176
The slices add up to $6,196 of income tax on a taxable income of $52,255. The Medicare levy of $1,045 is separate and added after. Only the slice inside each bracket pays that bracket rate, so a pay rise never taxes your whole income at the higher rate. Every bracket and its threshold is on Tax Brackets.
Rates applied
Assumed- Tax scale
- Resident, 2026-27
- Medicare levy
- 2%, 2025-26 thresholds carried forward
- Super guarantee
- 12%, on top
- Next dollar taxed at
- 30.0%
The ATO has not published 2026-27 Medicare levy reduction thresholds. The 2025-26 thresholds are carried forward here and marked assumed rather than invented. See the Methodology page.
Your take-home is $268 higher under 2026-27 than 2025-26.
Take-home pay
$45,013
Per fortnight
$1,731
Full-time on the National Minimum Wage, 2026-27.
| Line | Payslip estimate | With the offset |
|---|---|---|
| Gross, 52 weeks | $52,254.80 | $52,254.80 |
| Income tax | $6,196.44 | $5,980.26 |
| Low Income Tax Offset | $0.00 | $216.18 |
| Medicare levy, 2% | $1,045.10 | $1,045.10 |
| Take-home, a year | $45,013.26 | $45,229.44 |
| Take-home, a month | $3,751.11 | $3,769.12 |
| Take-home, a fortnight | $1,731.28 | $1,739.59 |
| Take-home, a week | $865.64 | $869.80 |
| Take-home, an hour of 38 | $22.78 | $22.89 |
| Average tax rate | 13.9% | 13.4% |
| Employer super at 12%, on top | $6,270.58 | $6,270.58 |
The payslip column is what withholding looks like: the offset is applied at tax time, never by an employer. Both columns divide annual tax by the period, where a real payslip is withheld from the ATO’s weekly table and rounds to the dollar, so treat the weekly figure as about $865.64 rather than exactly it. Super of $120.59 a week is paid on top of gross and is not in any take-home figure.
A different amount, cycle or year runs on the Wage Calculator. The tax on its own is broken out bracket by bracket on the Income Tax Calculator, the super on the Super Guarantee Calculator, and a fortnightly cycle on the Fortnightly Pay Calculator.
Who the National Minimum Wage applies to, and who is paid an award rate instead.
The Order applies to an award/agreement free employee, and defines an employee as a national system employee under the Fair Work Act. It then carves out three groups who get a special national minimum wage of their own: junior employees, employees under a training arrangement, and employees with a disability. The Fair Work Ombudsman states the adult rate as the figure for employees 21 and over, full-time and part-time.
The Commission’s own announcement says “only a negligible fraction of the workforce is actually paid in accordance with the National Minimum Wage”. The Ombudsman puts the rule the other way round: “If an employee is covered by an award or agreement, the minimum wage set out in the award will apply instead of the National Minimum Wage.” An enterprise agreement must leave its employees better off overall than the award, and a contract cannot pay less than whichever instrument applies. So for most people the figure that matters is their award classification, which is what Award Pay Rates and Pay Rates by Occupation are for.
Some award rates sit below it
The Ombudsman is explicit: “The minimum award wages in some awards may now be less than the National Minimum Wage. For example, some awards contain introductory pay rates for new employees in their industry.” The 2026 decision set that entry-level floor at $978.10 a week, or $25.74 an hour, for an employee’s first six months, and the ongoing floor at the National Minimum Wage. That entry rate is an award floor, not a variant of the National Minimum Wage, and it is not available to an award-free employer. It is the rate the Manufacturing Award prints for its C14 classification, set out with the rest of that award on Manufacturing Award Pay Rates.
Of the 22 awards published on this site, 16 start at or above the National Minimum Wage at their lowest adult classification and 6 start below it: Clubs Award Pay Rates ($25.74), Fitness Award Pay Rates ($25.74), Gardening and Landscaping Award Pay Rates ($25.74), Hospitality Award Pay Rates ($25.74), Manufacturing Award Pay Rates ($25.74), Restaurant Award Pay Rates ($25.74). These counts are recomputed from the award files every time the page is built.
The casual minimum wage.
The Order sets the casual loading for award and agreement free employees at 25%, and the decision records that it “will remain at 25 per cent”. The Ombudsman publishes the resulting figure as $33.05 an hour, and $26.44 plus a quarter is $33.05, so the published figure and the arithmetic agree to the cent. The loading is paid in place of paid leave, notice and redundancy, which a casual does not get.
20 hours a week, payslip estimate
$602.12
a week after tax, from $661.00 gross. Income tax $46.65, Medicare levy $12.23 on assumed thresholds, super $79.32 on top.
20 hours a week, with the offset
$615.58
a week once the full $700.00 Low Income Tax Offset is applied at assessment. Over the year that is $32,010.10 on $34,372.00 gross.
20 hours is an illustration, not a typical week. Casuals are not guaranteed hours, and a year of 52 identical weeks overstates most casual years. How the loading combines with penalty rates, which is where most pages go wrong, is on Casual Loading, and any base rate converts to a casual rate on the Casual Loading Calculator.
Junior minimum wages for under-21s who are award-free.
Special national minimum wage 3 is a percentage of the adult rate by age, set in clause 8.2 of the Order. It reaches only a junior no award covers. A junior in fast food or retail, for instance, is on their award’s own junior scale, which is on the Fast Food Award Pay Rates and Retail Award Pay Rates pages. The Order prints the percentages and no dollar figures. The hourly and casual hourly columns are the figures the Ombudsman publishes, stored as published rather than recomputed. The weekly column is our arithmetic.
| Age | Of adult rate | Weekly, derived | Hourly, Fair Work | Casual hourly, Fair Work |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 16 | 36.8% | $369.80 | $9.73 | $12.16 |
| 16 | 47.3% | $475.32 | $12.51 | $15.64 |
| 17 | 57.8% | $580.83 | $15.29 | $19.11 |
| 18 | 68.3% | $686.35 | $18.06 | $22.58 |
| 19 | 82.5% | $829.04 | $21.82 | $27.28 |
| 20 | 97.7% | $981.79 | $25.84 | $32.30 |
The published hourly figures reconcile to the weekly rate times the percentage, divided by 38. Multiplying the rounded $26.44 instead lands a cent low at 17 and 19, which is the error on more than one page ranking for this. Two things to know before relying on the table: the Commission’s 2026 decision says a “comprehensive reconsideration of junior rates” in the Order will be necessary at a later review, with no date given; and a junior covered by an award is on that award’s own junior scale, not this one. Those scales are on the award pages under Award Pay Rates, and every award’s percentages are set against these, age by age, on Junior Pay Rates.
Apprentices and trainees who are award-free.
Special national minimum wages 4 and 5 carry no dollar figure in the Order. Clause 9.2 points an award-free apprentice to clause 15.2 of the Miscellaneous Award 2020, or clause 15.7 for a school-based apprentice, and clause 10.2 points an award-free trainee to Schedule E of the same award, the National Training Wage. Those tables have not been extracted and checked on this site, so no figure is published here. The Ombudsman’s advice is to use its Pay and Conditions Tool and select the Miscellaneous Award. An apprentice an award does cover is paid on that award’s own apprentice scale, and the scales this site has checked are set out by year on Apprentice Wages.
Employees with disability: the two special minimum wages.
Special national minimum wage 1
For an employee with a disability whose productivity is not affected by it. The adult figure is the National Minimum Wage itself, $1,004.90 a week or $26.44 an hour, and a junior, apprentice or trainee is on the matching special wage above. There is no discount.
Special national minimum wage 2
The Supported Wage System, for an employee who meets the impairment criteria for the Disability Support Pension and whose productivity is affected. Pay is the assessed capacity, from 10% to 90%, applied to the National Minimum Wage, and never less than $113.00 a week. An employee assessed at 50% is paid $502.45 a week, our arithmetic. A trial period of up to 12 weeks, extendable by up to 4, is paid at no less than the same $113.00.
The $113.00 floor is stated by both the Order and the Ombudsman, up from $109.00 under the 2025 Order. Eligibility and the assessment are handled through the Department of Social Services, not the employer.
How the minimum wage is set, and when it next changes.
An Expert Panel of the Fair Work Commission conducts an Annual Wage Review each financial year, usually between March and June, and the resulting Order usually comes into operation on 1 July, reaching each employee at their first full pay period on or after that date. The 2026 decision, [2026] FWCFB 3500, was announced on 2 June 2026 and the Order was made on 19 June 2026. The decision keeps the National Minimum Wage aligned with the C13 classification rate in modern awards, an alignment established in the 2023 review.
| Figure | 2025 Order | 2026 Order | Rise, our arithmetic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | $948.00 | $1,004.90 | +$56.90 (6.00%) |
| Hourly | $24.95 | $26.44 | +$1.49 (5.97%) |
| Supported Wage System floor | $109.00 | $113.00 | +$4.00 |
The Commission prints no percentage for the National Minimum Wage, so the rises above are worked out from the two Orders. The 4.75% the same decision announced is the increase to modern award minimum rates, and reading it onto the National Minimum Wage understates what happened: the weekly figure rose 6.00%, because the two lowest award classifications were lifted by more than the headline. That adjustment is set out on Minimum Wage Increase 2026.
No date for the next change is published. The decision refers to “the 2027 Review” without scheduling it, and as at 17 September 2026 the Commission’s annual wage reviews page listed no 2027 case. When the 2027 Order issues, the figures on this page, their source dates and the page’s own modified date change together.
Worked examples, with the arithmetic.
The same sums the tool runs, on real figures. Every number below is computed by the tested engine from the published rates, so the prose and the tool can never disagree.
Full-time on the National Minimum Wage, 38 hours a week
$1,004.90 x 52 weeks = $52,254.80 gross Income tax (2026-27 resident scale) = $6,196.44 Medicare levy at 2% = $1,045.10 Take-home = $45,013.26 a year / 52 = $865.64 a week Employer super at 12% = $6,270.58 on top
About $865.64 a week lands in the account, or $1,731.28 a fortnight, before the Low Income Tax Offset. At tax time the offset is worth $216.18 for the year, which lifts the weekly figure to $869.80.
Casual on the National Minimum Wage, 20 hours a week
$33.05 x 20 hours = $661.00 a week x 52 weeks = $34,372.00 gross Income tax = $2,425.80 Medicare levy (shade-in zone) = $636.10 Take-home = $31,310.10 a year / 52 = $602.12 a week
$661.00 gross becomes about $602.12 a week, or $615.58 once the full $700.00 Low Income Tax Offset is applied at assessment. The year assumes 52 paid weeks at the same hours, which a casual is not guaranteed.
Is this accurate, and how does it work?
The method is published rather than described. Nothing here is a black box, and the limits are listed as plainly as the workings.
- 1Start from the weekly figure in the Order. $1,004.90 x 52 = $52,254.80. Entering $26.44 an hour instead gives $52,245.44, $9.36 less, because the hourly figure is $1,004.90 / 38 rounded to the cent. The widget is prefilled with the weekly figure so it reconciles to the Order.
- 2Income tax on the 2026-27 resident brackets. Nothing on the first $18,200, 15c in the dollar to $45,000, then 30c on the rest. On $52,254.80 that is $6,196.44.
- 3Medicare levy at 2%. $1,045.10 on the full-time figure, which sits above the low-income shade-in, so the full levy applies. The 20-hour casual example lands inside the shade-in zone, and those thresholds are carried forward from last year until the ATO publishes this year's.
- 4The Low Income Tax Offset is shown both ways. It is applied at assessment, not to PAYG withholding, so a payslip never shows it. Worth $216.18 a year on the full-time figure and the full $700.00 on the 20-hour casual one.
- 5Annual tax divided by the period. Weekly take-home is the annual figure divided by 52. A real payslip is withheld from the ATO's weekly tax table (Schedule 1), which rounds to the dollar, so it can sit a few dollars either side of the figure here.
- 6Super is added, never deducted. 12% of qualifying earnings, $6,270.58 a year on the full-time figure, paid by the employer on top of the wage.
What this does not cover.
- The after-tax figures are estimates: annual tax divided by 52, not the ATO weekly withholding schedule. A payslip can differ by a few dollars.
- They assume an Australian resident claiming the tax-free threshold, with no HELP debt and no Medicare levy surcharge.
- The Low Income Tax Offset is shown both with and without, because it applies at assessment and never appears in PAYG withholding.
- The 2026-27 Medicare levy low-income thresholds are the prior year's carried forward and marked as assumed. That affects the junior and part-time examples, not the adult full-time one.
- The annual and fortnightly gross figures and the junior weekly figures are arithmetic on the Order, which publishes weekly and hourly rates only.
- The size of the rise from the 2025 Order is our arithmetic. The Commission prints no percentage for the National Minimum Wage itself.
- No figures for apprentices or trainees. The Order points them to the Miscellaneous Award 2020, which is not extracted here.
- No figures for employers in the Western Australian state system, who sit outside the Order.
- The casual examples assume 20 hours every week for 52 weeks, which a casual is not guaranteed.
Where these figures come from.
- Fair Work Commission, National Minimum Wage Order 2026, PR799279 (PDF), the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-19. Retrieved 2026-09-17.
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Award and agreement free wages and conditions, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-08-07. Retrieved 2026-09-11.
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Minimum wages, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-08-07. Retrieved 2026-09-17.
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Employees with disability pay rates, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-08-10. Retrieved 2026-09-17.
- Fair Work Ombudsman, Annual Wage Review 2026, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-07-01. Retrieved 2026-09-17.
- Fair Work Commission, National Minimum Wage Order 2025, PR786529 (PDF), the source gave its own last updated date as 2025-06-19. Retrieved 2026-09-17.
- Fair Work Commission, Annual Wage Review 2026 decision, [2026] FWCFB 3500 (PDF), the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-02. Retrieved 2026-09-17.
- Fair Work Commission, Annual Wage Review 2026 decision announcement (PDF), the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-02. Retrieved 2026-09-17.
- Fair Work Commission, Annual wage reviews, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-07-29. Retrieved 2026-09-17.
- ATO, Tax rates for Australian residents, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-08-13. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
- ATO, Low income tax offset, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-08. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
- ATO, Medicare levy, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-08-13. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
- ATO, Medicare levy reduction for low-income earners, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-30. Retrieved 2026-09-02. Not yet published for 2026-27: this is the prior year’s figure carried forward and labelled as such, never estimated. It is corrected as soon as the ATO publishes.
- ATO, Super guarantee rate, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-04-17. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
Every rate this site uses is listed on the Methodology page.
Common questions.
What is the National Minimum Wage in Australia?
$26.44 an hour, or $1,004.90 a week for 38 ordinary hours, from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026. It is set by the Fair Work Commission in the National Minimum Wage Order PR799279 and applies to an employee 21 or over whom no modern award and no enterprise agreement covers. A casual on it is paid $33.05 an hour. Most employees are paid under an award instead, and the award rate, not this figure, is their minimum. A Level 1 clerical employee in a law firm, for example, starts at $28.24 an hour on Legal Services Award Pay Rates, $1.80 above the National Minimum Wage. Every award published on this site is listed on Award Pay Rates, and large employers with enterprise agreements of their own, such as Woolworths, Coles and Kmart, on Pay Rates by Employer. The government's Parental Leave Pay is set from the hourly rate too, at 7.6 times it a day under section 65(2) of the Paid Parental Leave Act 2010, or $200.94, which the Parental Leave Pay Calculator works through.
Is the minimum wage before or after tax?
Before tax. The Fair Work Ombudsman puts it as "the amount of pay before tax is taken out (gross pay)". Full-time, $1,004.90 a week leaves about $865.64 after income tax and the Medicare levy, and $869.80 once the Low Income Tax Offset is applied at tax time. Super of $120.59 a week is paid on top of the gross figure, not taken out of it.
How much is the minimum wage after tax?
About $865.64 a week, $1,731.28 a fortnight or $45,013.26 a year on a 38-hour week, for a resident claiming the tax-free threshold with no HELP debt. With the Low Income Tax Offset applied at assessment it is $869.80 a week and $45,229.44 a year. The figures divide annual tax by 52, so a payslip withheld from the ATO weekly table can differ by a few dollars.
How much is the minimum wage a year?
$52,254.80 gross, which is $1,004.90 multiplied by 52 weeks. The Order publishes weekly and hourly figures only, so the annual figure is arithmetic. Multiplying the hourly rate instead gives $52,245.44, $9.36 less, because $26.44 is $1,004.90 divided by 38 and rounded. After tax the year is about $45,013.26, and the tax on any other figure runs on the Income Tax Calculator. The Wage Calculator shows the same wage as take-home pay each week and fortnight.
What is the casual minimum wage?
$33.05 an hour: the $26.44 adult rate plus the 25% casual loading the Order sets for award and agreement free employees. The loading is paid instead of paid annual leave, paid personal leave, notice and redundancy pay, not on top of them. A casual rate of $30 an hour is under the casual minimum, though above the permanent one, while $35 an hour clears both. At 20 hours a week the casual minimum is $661.00 gross and about $602.12 after tax, or $615.58 with the Low Income Tax Offset. How the loading combines with weekend and public holiday rates under an award is on Casual Loading, and the percentages themselves are on Penalty Rates.
Is the minimum wage the same in every state?
The Order binds national system employers, and it defines an employee as a national system employee under the Fair Work Act, so the figure is the same in every state and territory for the employers it reaches. Employers in Western Australia's state industrial relations system sit outside the national system and outside this Order. Their minimum is set separately by the WA state system and is not restated on this page.
Do I get super on top of the minimum wage?
Yes. The super guarantee is 12% of qualifying earnings for 2026-27, paid by the employer on top of the wage and never deducted from it. On the full-time National Minimum Wage that is $6,270.58 a year, or $120.59 a week. The eligibility rules for employees under 18 differ and are not covered on this page. From 1 July 2026 a contribution must generally reach your fund within 7 business days of payday, as Payday Super explains.
Can an award pay less than the National Minimum Wage?
Yes, at an introductory level. The Fair Work Ombudsman states that "the minimum award wages in some awards may now be less than the National Minimum Wage", because some awards carry an introductory rate for new employees in their industry. The 2026 review set that entry-level floor at $978.10 a week, or $25.74 an hour, for an employee's first six months, and 6 of the 22 awards published on this site start there. Level 1 of the fitness award, set out on Fitness Award Pay Rates, is one of them, paid exactly that rate. Qualifications lift a classification well clear of it: a beauty therapist with a Certificate IV starts at level 4 of the hair and beauty award, as Beauty Therapist Salary sets out. The ongoing floor is the National Minimum Wage itself.
When does the minimum wage go up next?
No date is published. An Expert Panel of the Fair Work Commission reviews the National Minimum Wage every financial year, usually between March and June, and the new Order usually takes effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July. The 2026 decision, set out on Minimum Wage Increase 2026, refers to "the 2027 Review" without scheduling it, and as at 17 September 2026 the Commission had published no 2027 review page. This page will carry the new figures when the 2027 Order issues. Award rates can move before then, when the Commission varies a single award, and those changes are listed by start date on Pay Rate News.
Related pages.
- Minimum Wage Increase 2026The Annual Wage Review 2026 lifted award minimums 4.75% and the National Minimum Wage 6%, to $1,004.90 a week or $26.44 an hour, from 1 July 2026.
- Award Pay RatesModern award minimum pay rates by industry, how classification levels and pay points work, and how casual loading and penalty rates change what you earn.
- Casual Loading CalculatorConvert a permanent base hourly rate into a casual rate with loading, and see what the loading is worth each week.
- Income Tax CalculatorWork out income tax, the Medicare levy and the low income tax offset on any salary for 2026-27, with the bracket-by-bracket working shown.
- Fortnightly Pay CalculatorWork out fortnightly take-home pay from an annual salary, with income tax, the Medicare levy and super shown separately.
- Super Guarantee CalculatorWork out the superannuation your employer must pay on top of your wage at the 12% guarantee rate for 2026-27.
Every calculator on this site is listed on the Wage Calculator page.