Merivale Pay Rates 2026: Bar, Floor, Kitchen & Casual Pay

Merivale is the Sydney hospitality group behind ivy, the Coogee Pavilion, the Beresford, Totti's and dozens of other pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels. It employs thousands of bar, floor, kitchen and events staff, most of them casual, across venues that trade late and every weekend.

Merivale venue staff are covered by the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 — restaurants within the group can sit on the Restaurant Industry Award — and the group's pay practices have been the subject of legal action, which makes the award floor below worth checking against your payslip. Penalty rates for late nights, weekends and public holidays are where most of the money is.

The federal awards relevant to Merivale roles:

• Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009)

Workforce snapshot. In its 2024-25 report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Hemmes Group Pty Limited declared 4,359 employees — 76.3% casual and 46.1% women, with 616 in management roles. Source: WGEA 2025 Public Data File, data.gov.au (CC-BY 3.0 AU).

From 1 July 2026 the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009) adult minimums in the food, beverage and clerical streams are:

Weekend, late-night and public holiday penalties apply on top — check a specific shift with the penalty rates calculator. Junior rates apply under 21 (percentages of the adult rate, except that liquor-service roles are adult-rated from 18).

Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.

As at 6 September 2026, our corpus of 14,141 federally registered enterprise agreements holds no current agreement for Merivale. That usually means one of three things: the employer pays on the award (or on individual contracts above it), the agreement covering you is registered under a different entity name (check the employer name on your payslip and search our agreements database), or — for state public-sector employers — pay is set by a state award or agreement outside the federal register. If you have a copy of an agreement that names Merivale, it beats the award figures above.

The patterns worth checking on a Merivale payslip:

• Flat rates that don't beat the penalties — an 'all-in' hourly rate must leave you better off than the award's weekend, late-night and public holiday loadings for your actual roster.
• Unpaid set-up and pack-down before opening and after close.
• Introductory level for too long — it is a three-month, no-experience rate, not a permanent grade.
• Split and broken shifts without the award's allowances, and casual shifts under the minimum engagement.

Match your payslip to your classification in the agreement (or the award tables above), and price any gap with our back-pay calculator. Raise it in writing with payroll or your manager first — most underpayments are fixed at that step. Unresolved, the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) recovers underpayments at no cost, up to six years back, and your union can run the claim for you. Not sure which instrument covers you? Ask our AI advisor with your role and location.