How we source and check every rate

AwardScale's rates come from the Fair Work Commission's Modern Awards Pay Database, the Commission's record of modern-award minimum rates, penalty rates and allowances. Each rate is shown to the cent as the database publishes it.

Where an award sets casual, junior or penalty rates, the page shows the database's resulting figure rather than multiplying a base rate by a loading, because the way loadings and penalties combine differs from award to award.

For a handful of awards the database has no weekend or public holiday rows, or lists its penalty rates by percentage without naming the day. For those, the page applies the percentage set in the award's own clause to the minimum hourly rate, rounds to the cent, names the clause, and checks every result against the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide. The award pages say which method each rate comes from.

Where the award has been varied after the database export was published, the rates come from the consolidated award text and are checked against the pay guide in force, and the page shows the date the variation took effect.

Annual figures are the weekly rate multiplied by 52.14 (365 days divided by 7), unless the database publishes an annual salary, and each is labelled. They are a guide to a full year at the minimum weekly rate.

On top of the published rates, AwardScale works out the comparisons: where each rate ranks within its award, the gap to the next level, how far it sits above the national minimum wage, what changed on 1 July 2026, and what a week with weekend shifts pays. Those figures are calculated from the same data, and last year's rates come from the Commission's previous pay database export.

Every rate is re-checked against the consolidated awards and the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guides, and the date of the last complete check appears on every page. The check fails if a single figure no longer matches, and the rates are not shown as checked until it passes again.

AwardScale currently covers 25 awards and 420 classifications.

Corrections are welcome and are logged. If a reader flags a figure, we check it against the award and the pay guide, fix it if it is wrong, and keep a record of the change.