Sunday Penalty Rates by Award: Find Your Exact Rate (2026)

Sunday penalty rates are higher rates of pay that compensate employees for working on Sundays — a day traditionally associated with rest, family, and religious observance. The rates are set by your Modern Award and expressed as a percentage of your ordinary base hourly rate. For example, if your base rate is $26.44/hour and your Sunday penalty rate is 200%, you earn $52.88/hour on Sundays.

The percentage varies significantly between awards and between employment types (permanent vs casual). Casual employees often receive a different (sometimes lower, sometimes higher) Sunday rate than permanent employees, because the casual loading is factored into the calculation differently across awards.

General Retail Industry Award (MA000004): Sunday rate for full-time/part-time employees is 200% of base rate. Hospitality Industry Award (MA000009): 175% of base rate. Fast Food Industry Award (MA000003): 150% of base rate.

Restaurant Industry Award (MA000119): 175% of base rate. Cleaning Services Award (MA000022): 200% of base rate.

Clerks Private Sector Award (MA000002): 200% of base rate. Hair and Beauty Industry Award (MA000005): 200% of base rate. Building and Construction Award (MA000020): 200% of base rate. Aged Care Award (MA000018): 200% of base rate.

Note these are 2025-26 rates and may change after the annual wage review.

For casual employees, Sunday rates often already include the casual loading (they don't get 25% on top of the Sunday rate). General Retail Industry Award: casual Sunday rate is 200% of base. Hospitality Industry Award: casual Sunday rate is 175% of base.

Fast Food Industry Award: casual Sunday rate is 150% of base. Restaurant Industry Award: casual Sunday rate is 175% of base.

Cleaning Services Award: casual Sunday rate is 200% of base. Important: these percentages are applied to the ordinary BASE rate, not the casual rate (base + 25%). So a casual retail worker earning $26.44 base would get $52.88/hour on Sunday, not $66.10 (which would be 200% of the casual rate). Check your specific award — the exact treatment of casual loading on Sundays varies.

Step 1: Find your base hourly rate. This is your ordinary rate BEFORE any casual loading or penalties. You can find it on your payslip, in your award's pay guide, or using our Pay Rate Lookup tool.

Step 2: Find your Sunday penalty rate percentage from your award (see tables above). Step 3: Multiply: base rate × penalty percentage = Sunday hourly rate.

The short answer? Example: A Level 1 retail employee (base rate $24.53) working on Sunday at 200% earns $49.06 per hour. For a 6-hour Sunday shift, that's $294.36 gross.

If you're a casual, confirm whether your award's Sunday rate already includes the casual loading or whether it's added on top.

If you believe your employer isn't paying the correct Sunday penalty rates, take these steps: (1) Check your award — use the FWO's Pay and Conditions Tool (PACT) to confirm the correct rate. (2) Compare against your payslips — look for the specific penalty rate line item on Sundays. (3) Raise it with your employer first — it may be a payroll error. (4) If unresolved, contact the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94. They can investigate and recover underpayments going back up to 6 years. Keep records of all your Sunday shifts (dates, hours, pay received).

Wage theft — including failure to pay penalty rates — is now a criminal offence in Australia.