Christmas Day, Boxing Day & NYE pay rates 2026 — by award

The Christmas-NYE public holidays for 2026-27 in every Australian state and territory:

• Christmas Day — Friday 25 December 2026
• Boxing Day (public-holiday substitute) — Monday 28 December 2026 (the actual date 26 Dec falls on a Saturday)
• New Year's Day — Friday 1 January 2027

South Australia and the Northern Territory have part-day public holidays for Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve (typically 7pm-midnight) — relevant if you work in retail or hospitality in those states.

Public-holiday penalty rates for working on a gazetted public holiday, by major modern award:

• Hospitality (MA000009): 250% adult permanent / 275% adult casual
• General Retail (MA000004): 250% adult permanent / 275% adult casual
• Restaurant (MA000119): 250% adult permanent / 275% adult casual
• Fast Food (MA000003): 250% adult permanent / 275% adult casual
• Clerks Private Sector (MA000002): 250% adult
• SCHADS (MA000100, disability/aged care): 250% adult
• Manufacturing (MA000010): 250% adult
• Nurses (MA000034): 250% adult
• Building & Construction (MA000020): 250% adult (some allowance variations)

Junior rates: most awards apply the junior percentage of adult rate THEN multiply by the public-holiday penalty. So a 19-year-old casual on hospitality earns ~95% of adult casual rate × 275% on Christmas Day — comfortably over $70/hr gross.

Casuals get the 25% casual loading included in their base rate. Public-holiday penalty then compounds on top — that's why most major awards set 275% for casuals working public holidays (the adult permanent 250% multiplied by 1.10 to give the 25%-into-275% conversion).

Example: Hospitality casual adult Level 1 base rate from 1 July 2025 is approximately $31.19/hr (including 25% loading). Working Christmas Day at 275% = ~$85.77/hr gross.

Permanent (full-time and part-time) employees who would normally have worked a day that's a public holiday are paid at their normal rate of pay for the day off — no deduction from leave balance, no "no work, no pay". This is NES section 116.

If a permanent works the public holiday, they get the penalty rate for the hours worked PLUS their normal day's pay. So if you're on a full-time hospitality contract and you work an 8-hour Christmas Day shift, you get 8 hours at 250% PLUS the day's ordinary pay (often combined as 350% by your employer's payroll system — check your payslip).

No. Fair Work Act s 114 says the employer can request public-holiday work; you can refuse if your refusal is reasonable. Reasonableness factors:

• Family responsibilities (especially with children)
• Personal circumstances (carer, religious, cultural)
• Nature of the role (hospitality vs office)
• Notice given (less notice = easier to refuse)
• Whether reasonable expectation of public-holiday work was set at hiring
• OT compensation and penalty rates offered

Hospitality, healthcare and emergency-services roles are typically reasonable to request. Pure Mon-Fri office roles typically are NOT.

If you were underpaid for a public holiday — either not paid the penalty rate, or as a permanent not paid for the day off — you have a clear underpayment claim. The Fair Work Act 6-year recovery limit means you can claim back to mid-2020 if you've been underpaid systematically.

Use the Back Pay Calculator to quantify what you're owed, the Christmas Shutdown Rights Checker for the full rights picture, and the FairWork Mate AI advisor for situation-specific answers.