Casual Loading Calculator.

The 25% loading, and where it comes from

A casual employee is paid a loading on every hour worked instead of accruing paid leave. The standard figure is 25%, and it is 25% in 45 of the 45awards covered on this site. For employees no award or agreement covers, the figure is set by the Fair Work Commission each year.

The percentage is not in the Fair Work Act. Section 294 requires every national minimum wage order to set a casual loading for award and agreement free employees, and section 295 requires it to be expressed as a percentage. Section 284(3) treats casual loadings in awards as modern award minimum wages. So the 25% is a Commission figure re-made each year, sitting in each award's own casual clause, rather than a number written into the legislation.

Casual loading is added to penalty rates, never multiplied

This is the single most expensive mistake in casual pay, and it runs in both directions. On a 225% public holiday rate, a casual is paid 250%, which is 225 plus 25. It is not 225 x 1.25 = 281.25%.

The Fast Food Industry Award MA000003 says so in the note attached to its penalty rates table, and then proves it in the table itself.

Fast Food Industry Award 2020 (MA000003) clause 21, Table 6. The first two rows are the proof: no award prints a rate of 137.5% or 143.75% where the published figures are 135% and 140%.

A handful of awards do build casual rates differently, which is why the calculator reads the rule from each award rather than assuming. To price a full week of mixed hours instead of a single rate, use the penalty rates calculator.

Flat dollar allowances sit outside the loading

Where an award pays a flat amount per hour on top of a percentage, the loading does not touch it. In the Hospitality Industry (General) Award MA000009, the evening additions of $2.95 and $4.42 an hour are printed identically in the full-time column and the casual column of the penalty rates table. Only the percentage moves, by the 25 points of loading. This is verified in that award and should not be assumed for others.

Working backwards from a loaded rate

If your payslip shows one rate and you want to know the base inside it, divide by 1.25. Do not subtract 25%. A $37.50 casual rate is a $30.00 base rate. Subtracting 25% would give $28.13 and understate the base by $1.87 an hour, because the loading is a percentage of the base and not of the loaded total. The Base rate tab does this for you.

What the loading is actually buying

The General Retail Industry Award MA000004 puts it in one line at clause 11.1: "The casual loading is payable instead of entitlements from which casuals are excluded by the terms of this award and the NES." The Fair Work Act is more specific. Section 545A(4) lists the entitlements the loading compensates for, and it is the closest thing to a statutory definition of what the 25% buys:

• paid annual leave;
• paid personal and carer's leave;
• paid compassionate leave;
• payment for absence on a public holiday;
• payment in lieu of notice of termination;
• redundancy pay.

That list has teeth. If someone was engaged and paid as a casual but was not actually a casual employee, and later claims those entitlements, a court must reduce the amount payable by the loading already paid. Annual leave itself is excluded for casuals by section 86 of the Act rather than by section 87, which is why a casual accrues nothing at all rather than accruing and losing it. See casual vs permanent for the full comparison.

Public holidays: rostered or nothing

A casual who is not rostered on a public holiday is paid nothing for it. Section 116 of the Fair Work Act pays an absent employee their base rate for their ordinary hours of work on the day, and the note to the section says an employee is not entitled to payment if they are a casual who is not rostered on. Nothing is being withheld: there are no ordinary hours for the section to attach to.

The same note names part-time employees whose hours do not fall on that weekday, so this is an ordinary hours rule rather than a casual-specific penalty. A casual who is rostered and works the day is paid the award public holiday rate for the hours worked, which is usually better than the permanent employee standing next to them. See public holiday pay for casuals and the public holiday pay calculator.

Super is calculated on the loaded rate

The ATO lists casual loading as qualifying earnings, so the 12% super guarantee applies to the loaded hourly rate and not to the base rate underneath it. On a $30.00 base with a 25% loading, the super is 12% of $37.50. Since 1 July 2026 that contribution has to reach your fund within 7 business days of the day you are paid, rather than quarterly. The Super tab shows both figures, and superannuation on annual leave covers what did and did not change on 1 July 2026.

Moving from casual to permanent

Casual conversion was repealed. The pathway now is employee choice, at sections 66AAB to 66AAD of the Fair Work Act. You can give written notification after 6 months of employment, or 12 months with a small business employer, that you believe you no longer meet the definition of a casual employee in section 15A. Your employer must respond in writing within 21 days, and may only decline on the three grounds in section 66AAC(4). Where the notification is accepted, the change takes effect from the first full pay period after the response.

Whether you are a casual at all is decided by "the real substance, practical reality and true nature of the employment relationship" under section 15A(2)(a), which can be inferred from how the job is actually performed rather than from the contract alone.

The repeal, what to put in the notification, and the three grounds an employer can refuse on are set out in full in casual conversion, and what replaced it.

Related calculators

• Penalty rates calculator to price a whole week of Saturday, Sunday, public holiday and shift hours.
• Annual leave loading calculator for the 17.5% loading permanent employees get on leave they take.
• Public holiday pay calculator for what a gazetted holiday is worth, worked or not.
• Modern awards by industry, with the casual clause and penalty table for each one.
• Casual vs permanent and super on leave and loading.