Horticulture Award Penalty Rates
Saturday, Sunday, public holiday and overtime multipliers under the Horticulture Award, effective from 1 July 2026.
Award MINIMUM rates — enterprise agreements may differ. Check your classification's exact base rate on the Fair Work pay guide.
Horticulture Award [MA000028] — rates effective 1 July 2026
Casual employees get a 25% loading, included automatically in the results below.
Your award classification's ordinary hourly rate — check the exact figure on the Fair Work pay guide for your role, then enter it here.
Award minimum, not your actual pay — These are award MINIMUM penalty rates for the Horticulture Award (MA000028) — enterprise agreements can differ, and your specific classification's base rate may be higher than what you entered. Check your classification on the Fair Work pay guide.
This award has no ordinary-hours Saturday or Sunday penalty rate — the ordinary span of hours runs Monday to Saturday, and any Sunday work is always paid as overtime (at a different rate inside vs outside the seasonal harvest period).
Casual overtime (175%, casual loading included) applies only to hours over 12 per engagement or in a day, or over 304 ordinary hours in 8 weeks (clause 21.4) — not to every hour beyond a full-time day.
The pay guide publishes a single flat casual "Overtime" rate (175% of the base rate) that does not distinguish between the Sunday-outside-harvest, Sunday-harvest-first-5-hours and Sunday-harvest-after-5-hours full-time/part-time rows above — those three rows are shown here for full-time/part-time only.
The casual "outside span of hours" rate corresponds to the full-time/part-time afternoon/night shift loading.
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Horticulture Award penalty rate multipliers
Multipliers apply to your OWN base hourly rate (find it on the Fair Work pay guide for your classification) — they are not full wage tables.
| Rate type | Full-time / part-time | Casual |
|---|---|---|
| Public holiday | 200% | 225% |
| Afternoon / night shift (Mon–Fri) | 115.0% | 140% |
| Overtime — Mon–Sat | 150% | 175% |
| Overtime — Sunday (outside harvest period) | 200% | — |
| Overtime — Sunday, harvest period, first 5 hours | 150% | — |
| Overtime — Sunday, harvest period, after 5 hours | 200% | — |
| Working through a meal break | 200% | 225% |
This award has no ordinary-hours Saturday or Sunday penalty rate — the ordinary span of hours runs Monday to Saturday, and any Sunday work is always paid as overtime (at a different rate inside vs outside the seasonal harvest period).
Casual overtime (175%, casual loading included) applies only to hours over 12 per engagement or in a day, or over 304 ordinary hours in 8 weeks (clause 21.4) — not to every hour beyond a full-time day.
The pay guide publishes a single flat casual "Overtime" rate (175% of the base rate) that does not distinguish between the Sunday-outside-harvest, Sunday-harvest-first-5-hours and Sunday-harvest-after-5-hours full-time/part-time rows above — those three rows are shown here for full-time/part-time only.
The casual "outside span of hours" rate corresponds to the full-time/part-time afternoon/night shift loading.
Casual loading interaction
Casual employees under the Horticulture Award get a 25% casual loading on their base hourly rate, in exchange for not receiving paid annual leave, personal/carer's leave or notice of termination. That loading generally stacks additively on top of weekend and public holiday penalties — e.g. a Sunday penalty of X% for full-time staff becomes a higher % for casuals under this award.
Check the notes in the table above — some awards (Hospitality, Restaurant) pay casuals the SAME overtime rate as full-time/part-time staff, with no extra casual loading stacked on overtime specifically.
Worked dollar examples
Illustrative examples only — NOT classification minimum wages. Use your own base rate in the penalty rates calculator for an accurate figure.
$24.50/hr base rate
$28.00/hr base rate
$32.00/hr base rate
Public holidays
Public holiday penalty rates apply on the gazetted public holidays for your state or territory, which differ from the standard national list in some years. See the full, current list on Fair Work: Public holidays.