Clerks (Private Sector) Award.

Clerks, Private Sector Award 2020 (MA000002) covers the private sector industry. Common roles include clerical work, administrative work, filing, typing. Covers private sector employers, and does not cover employees under a State reference public sector award (clause 4.3(d)). Sunday work attracts a high (200%) penalty making it an unusually expensive day to roster clerical staff. It also does not cover employers under an award with its own clerical classifications (clause 4.3(a)), and clause 4.4 lists industry awards it steps aside for in respect of the employees they cover, including the Banking, Finance and Insurance, Legal Services, General Retail, Hospitality and Restaurant awards and the Airline Operations Ground Staff Award. Check-in, ticketing and load sheet staff of an airline operations employer are paid under that award's clerical stream instead. This award has its own call centre classifications (clause 16.1), but it does not cover employers covered by the Contract Call Centres Award for the employees that award covers (clause 4.4(i)), and that award applies only to businesses supplying customer contact services to a number of clients under contract, not to a call centre a business runs for itself (its clauses 4.2 and 4.5(b)).

Full-time and part-time employees are paid 125% of the base hourly rate (1.25x) for working on Saturday. Casuals receive 150% (the FT rate plus the 25% casual loading).

FT/PT employees are paid 200% of the base hourly rate (2.00x) for Sunday work. Casuals receive 225% (the FT rate plus the 25% casual loading).

FT/PT employees who work on a gazetted public holiday are paid 250% of the base hourly rate (2.50x). Casuals receive 275% (the FT rate plus the 25% casual loading). Employees who don't work the holiday receive their ordinary day's pay if it would otherwise have been a working day.

Standard full-time employees get 4 weeks of paid annual leave per year under the NES. A shiftworker regularly rostered to work on Sundays and public holidays in a business where shifts are continuously rostered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (clause 32.2(a)). The 5-week entitlement comes from NES s.87(1)(b), which the Clerks (Private Sector) Award classifies eligibility for. Calculate annual leave accrual →

Day workers get the greater of 17.5% or the weekend penalty rates they would have earned during the leave, not both. Shift workers get the greater of 17.5% or the weekend and shift penalties they would have earned. Leave loading calculator →

25% on top of the base hourly rate, paid in place of entitlements a casual does not get, such as paid annual leave and paid personal/carer's leave. Casual loading is added to the FT/PT rate for Saturday, Sunday, public holidays, afternoon or evening shifts, night shifts and permanent night shifts.

No. The Clerks (Private Sector) Award does not include a formal RDO accrual cycle. Time off in lieu of overtime (TOIL) may still be available where the employer and employee agree, but it works differently from a formal RDO and is not automatically accrued.

Yes. Under this award, afternoon-shift work attracts 115% of the base hourly rate (1.15x); night-shift work attracts 115% of the base hourly rate (1.15x); permanent night shift attracts 130% of the base hourly rate (1.30x). For casuals, the 25% casual loading is added on top of these penalty rates.

The Fair Work Commission reviews award minimum rates each year in the Annual Wage Review. The rates on this page took effect from 1 July 2026. The official source is the FWO Pay Calculator, which always reflects the current rates. Open the FWO Pay Calculator →