"Double pay" is the phrase everyone uses for public holiday work, and it is almost always wrong. Not slightly wrong in the way rounded numbers usually are, but wrong in both directions at once: most people are paid more than double, a large minority are paid less, and only two of the 33 modern awards on this site pay exactly double. This guide gives the real distribution, because the phrase itself is what causes people to accept the wrong amount.
Key takeaways
- Only 2 of 33 awards pay exactly 200%. Nurses and Real Estate.
- 25 of 33 pay 250%, double time and a half, which is more than double.
- 5 pay 225%, and they are the retail, food and hospitality awards where most people asking this question work.
- 1 pays no public holiday penalty at all. Teachers.
- The Fair Work Act sets no public holiday penalty rate. Every rate comes from an award or agreement.
The short answer
No. There is no such thing as a statutory double-pay rate for public holidays in Australia. The Fair Work Act creates a right to be absent (section 114) and a right to be paid your base rate for ordinary hours if you are absent (section 116). It sets no penalty rate for working. Every penalty figure comes from a modern award or an enterprise agreement.
Once you look at what the awards actually say, "double" turns out to be the least common answer of the four.
What the 33 awards actually pay
| Rate | Name | Awards | Versus "double pay" |
|---|---|---|---|
| 250% | Double time and a half | 25 | More than double |
| 225% | Double time and a quarter | 5 | More than double |
| 200% | Double time | 2 | Exactly double |
| 100% | No penalty | 1 | Not paid extra at all |
Thirty of the 33 awards pay more than double. One pays nothing extra. Two pay exactly double. If you assumed "double" and you are on a 250% award, you have just talked yourself out of half a day's pay for every public holiday you work.
The only two awards at exactly 200%
Nurses (MA000034) and Real Estate (MA000106) are the two that genuinely pay double time for public holiday work. If you are a nurse, "double pay" is accurate. For almost everyone else it is not.
The award that pays no penalty
The Teachers Award (MA000077) carries no public holiday penalty rate. That is not an error in our data and it is not an underpayment: the award is built around an annualised salary with leave aligned to school holiday periods, so it does not price individual days the way a shift-based award does. Teachers should read their entitlements through that structure rather than through penalty rates.
A worked example
Take an eight-hour public holiday shift on a $30.00 base hourly rate, for a full-time or part-time employee:
| Award type | Rate | Hourly | Eight hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most awards (25 of 33) | 250% | $75.00 | $600.00 |
| Retail, food, hospitality, pharmacy | 225% | $67.50 | $540.00 |
| Nurses, Real Estate | 200% | $60.00 | $480.00 |
| Teachers | 100% | $30.00 | $240.00 |
The gap between the top and bottom rows on a single shift is $360. That is why the generic phrase is worth abandoning in favour of your own award's number. Find it on the award index, or put your own rate through the public holiday pay calculator.
Common questions
Where does the "double pay" idea come from?
Partly from overseas usage, partly from "double time" being a familiar overtime concept, and partly because 200% is an easy number to say. It has no basis in the Fair Work Act, which sets no public holiday penalty at all.
Do casuals get double pay?
Casuals get the award's casual public holiday rate, which is normally the permanent rate plus 25 percentage points of casual loading, added rather than compounded. See public holiday pay for casuals.
Can my enterprise agreement pay less than the award?
An enterprise agreement must leave employees better off overall than the award, tested as a whole rather than clause by clause. So a lower public holiday rate is possible if other terms more than make up for it.
What if I do not work the public holiday?
You are paid your base rate for the ordinary hours you would have worked, with no penalty. If you had no ordinary hours that day, you are paid nothing. See public holiday pay rates.
Author & reviewer
Sarah has spent over a decade advising Australian SMBs on Fair Work, NES compliance, and payroll. Based in Sydney, she has worked across hospitality, retail and professional services.