Pay & Wages
Queensland Rail Pay Rates 2026: EA Pay Grades & Award Floor
What Queensland Rail workers should be paid in 2026 — the Rail Industry Award floor by classification, casual loading, penalties, and where the Queensland Rail enterprise agreements sit.
Who covers Queensland Rail workers — award or agreement?
Queensland Rail is the state-owned operator of the South East Queensland passenger network and the regional lines, employing train crew, station and customer staff, network maintainers, signallers and traincrew trainers across Queensland.
Queensland Rail's pay is set by its enterprise agreements — the train crew and the broader Queensland Rail agreements (below) — sitting above the Rail Industry Award 2020, which is tabled below as the federal floor. As a state-owned corporation its staff are federal-system employees, which is why the agreements appear in the Fair Work Commission's register.
The federal awards relevant to Queensland Rail roles:
- Rail Industry Award 2020 (MA000015)
Rail award floor — operations stream (1 July 2026)
The Rail Industry Award 2020 (MA000015) is the federal safety net under every rail operator's agreement. Its operations-stream base rates (weekly ÷ 38) are:
| Classification | Permanent | Casual (incl. 25%) |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 Rail Worker (operations stream) | $25.74/hr | $32.17/hr |
| Level 2 Rail Worker (operations stream) | $26.97/hr | $33.71/hr |
| Level 3 Rail Worker (operations stream) | $29.78/hr | $37.23/hr |
| Level 4 Rail Worker (operations stream) | $32.67/hr | $40.84/hr |
| Level 5 Rail Worker (operations stream) | $35.77/hr | $44.71/hr |
| Level 6 Rail Worker (operations stream) | $38.24/hr | $47.80/hr |
Rail agreements pay well above this ladder, so the award matters as the floor when an agreement expires and as the benchmark in bargaining, not as your payslip. The award also publishes shift, weekend and annualised variants of each level that are not shown here.
Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.
The Queensland Rail enterprise agreements
Enterprise agreements set rates above the award, with their own classification structures and allowances. Current Queensland Rail agreements in our corpus (8 in total):
- Watco Queensland Rail Supply Chain Enterprise Agreement 2023 — approved April 2024, nominal expiry 3 April 2028.
- Queensland Rail Traincrew Enterprise Agreement 2024 — approved September 2024, nominal expiry 29 February 2028.
- Queensland Rail Travel and Tourism and Other Employees Enterprise Agreement 2023 — approved January 2024, nominal expiry 28 February 2026.
- Queensland Rail Rollingstock and Operations Enterprise Agreement 2023 — approved January 2024, nominal expiry 28 February 2026.
- Queensland Rail Administrative, Professional and Technical Enterprise Agreement 2023 — approved January 2024, nominal expiry 28 February 2026.
- Queensland Rail Train Control Enterprise Agreement 2023 — approved January 2024, nominal expiry 28 February 2026.
- Queensland Rail Station Operations Enterprise Agreement 2023 — approved January 2024, nominal expiry 28 February 2026.
- Queensland Rail Network Enterprise Agreement 2023 — approved December 2023, nominal expiry 28 February 2026.
We don't reproduce agreement dollar figures here — the agreement covering your site, state and stream is the document to read. Find your agreement, then your classification, then your pay point, and compare it with your payslip. The award tables on this page are the floor every one of these agreements must beat.
Rail pay issues worth checking on any payslip
General award-compliance issues that come up across the rail sector. This is a checklist for your own payslip, not a finding about Queensland Rail:
- Agreement pay grades not applied after a transfer of business or franchise change.
- Rostering and shift-change penalties under the agreement missed on short-notice changes.
- Unpaid sign-on, handover and travel at the start and end of shifts.
- Allowances (meal, travel, relieving) dropped when payroll systems change.
What to do if your pay looks wrong
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.
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FairWork Mate is an independent Australian publisher of workplace-rights information. Our content is prepared with AI assistance and draws on primary sources — the Fair Work Act, modern awards, and Fair Work Commission and Fair Work Ombudsman material. It is general information, not legal advice.