Australia Post Pay Rates 2026: How EA Pay Levels Work

Australia Post is unusual: posties, sorters, and retail staff are not covered by a general modern award like retail or transport workers. Pay for the 60,000-plus workforce is set by the Australia Post Enterprise Agreement 2024, approved by the Fair Work Commission, sitting on top of the Australia Post Enterprise Award 2015 — an enterprise-specific award that applies only to Australia Post.

StarTrack, Australia Post's parcel and freight arm, runs its own agreement: the StarTrack – Transport Workers' Union Enterprise Agreement 2025.

Because your rate comes from an enterprise agreement rather than an award table, the numbers on your payslip depend on your EA classification level and pay point — not on a public award pay guide. The agreement documents themselves are the source of truth, and both are searchable in full on this site via the links above.

Enterprise agreement rates must pass the better off overall test against the underlying instrument, and no adult employee in Australia can be paid below the National Minimum Wage — $26.44 per hour from 1 July 2026. Australia Post EA rates sit above this floor, with higher classifications, shift penalties, and allowances layered on top.

The practical consequence: if an adult Australia Post or StarTrack payslip ever shows an ordinary hourly rate below $26.44, something is wrong regardless of what the EA says.

Under the EA your pay is determined by three things:

• Your classification — for example Postal Delivery Officer, Postal Sorting Officer, Post Office-based retail roles, and technical/administrative streams each have their own scale.
• Your level and pay point within that classification — most streams have incremental pay points that step up with service.
• Your employment type — casuals receive a loading on top of the base rate; fixed-term and permanent staff accrue leave instead.

Your classification and level should appear on your payslip or your engagement letter. If it isn't there, ask payroll to confirm in writing which EA classification and pay point you are on — you are entitled to know, and it is the only way to verify your rate against the agreement.

Every year from around October, Australia Post runs a large Christmas casual intake across parcel facilities, delivery, and retail. Things to know before you accept:

• You are covered by the same enterprise agreement as permanent staff — Christmas casuals are not on some separate, lower scale outside the EA.
• Casual loading applies on top of the base rate for your classification, compensating for the leave and job security you don't get.
• Shift timing matters — parcel sorting runs early mornings, nights, and weekends, and the EA attaches penalties and shift allowances to those hours. Your hourly rate should change depending on when you work, not stay flat.
• Keep your rosters and payslips. Short seasonal engagements are exactly where payroll errors slip through unnoticed.

Issues workers most often raise:

• Wrong classification or pay point — doing higher-duties work (for example, relieving in a team leader role) without the corresponding higher rate.
• Flat rates across all hours — weekend, early-morning, and night work under the EA generally attracts penalties or shift allowances; a rate that never changes is a red flag.
• Casual loading absorbed — the loading must be identifiable on top of the base rate, not blended into a single figure you can't check.
• Missed increments — pay points that should step up with service but never do.

Because the EA is the source document, the fix always starts the same way: get your classification in writing, then read the rate table for that classification in the agreement itself.

Three steps:

1. Confirm your classification and pay point in writing, then look up the corresponding rate in the Australia Post Enterprise Agreement 2024 (or the StarTrack TWU Agreement 2025 if you're on the StarTrack side).
2. Compare against six months of payslips using our payslip checker, and calculate any gap with the back-pay calculator.
3. Raise it internally first — Australia Post has formal dispute steps under the EA. If it isn't resolved, the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) handles underpayment complaints at no cost, and you have six years to recover unpaid wages.