Australian pay is not a single hourly rate — it is a web of Modern Award penalty rates that change by day, time of day, and employment type. Saturday, Sunday, and public-holiday loadings, weekday evening rates, casual loading, and tiered overtime all stack on top of the base rate. Schedaddle reads your store’s award and shows you, per employee, exactly how the hours fall across those bands — and the loaded labour cost of the roster in ordinary-rate terms. It is reporting that makes award cost visible, not legal advice or a payroll engine.
Available on The Schedaddle and The Full Sprint plans.
MA000004
General Retail Industry Award
MA000009
Hospitality Industry General Award
MA000003
Fast Food Industry Award
Under the Fair Work system, most Australian retail, hospitality, and fast-food workers are covered by a Modern Award that sets minimum penalty rates. The same hour of work is paid differently depending on when it happens: ordinary time on a weekday, a higher rate on Saturday, a higher rate again on Sunday, and the top rate on a public holiday. Many awards also load weekday evening hours after a set hour, and casual employees carry a loading (commonly 25%) on top of all of it.
On top of the penalty bands, awards cap ordinary hours per day and per shift span, and pay overtime in tiers — for example, the first few overtime hours at one-and-a-half, then double time beyond that. The result is that the cost of a roster is not "hours × rate." Two employees who each work 38 hours can cost very different amounts depending on which days and times those hours land on.
Schedaddle ships penalty-rate data for the three awards that cover the verticals it serves: the General Retail Industry Award (MA000004), the Hospitality Industry General Award (MA000009), and the Fast Food Industry Award (MA000003). You pick your award once in Settings, and the Hours Breakdown report switches from the standard overtime view to the award penalty-band view for your store.
The rates are an authoritative-intent reference reviewed annually against the Fair Work Commission’s wage review (which takes effect on 1 July each year). They are there to make cost visible week to week — not to replace your award interpretation or your payroll system.
Turn it on for your store. In Settings you select your Modern Award and mark which employees are casual. From then on, the Award Hours Breakdown report classifies every clocked shift into its penalty band — ordinary, Saturday, Sunday, public holiday, and weekday evening — and applies tiered overtime for hours beyond the daily ordinary cap or the spread of hours.
See the loaded cost, not just the hours. Alongside the raw hours per band, the report computes a "loaded" figure: ordinary-hour equivalents, where each band is weighted by its penalty multiplier and casual staff carry their loading. That gives you the real labour cost of the roster in ordinary-rate terms — per employee and as a store total — before you ever run payroll.
Export it. Every breakdown exports to CSV over any date range, so you can hand finance or your payroll bureau a clean, band-by-band picture instead of reverse-engineering penalty rates from a timesheet.
This is reporting, not payroll and not legal advice. Schedaddle shows you how hours fall across award penalty bands and what that loads up to — it does not calculate net pay, run STP, or guarantee award compliance. The rates are a reference we keep current, but awards carry classifications, allowances, and coverage tests we do not evaluate for you. Verify the final numbers against the current award and your payroll provider.
The auto-scheduler is not award-interpreted either. Schedaddle’s draft builder optimises for coverage, fairness, and your business rules; it does not yet minimise penalty-rate cost when it assigns shifts. The award report tells you what a roster costs after the fact, which is the visibility most operators are missing — but you stay in control of how you build the week.
Three: the General Retail Industry Award (MA000004), the Hospitality Industry General Award (MA000009), and the Fast Food Industry Award (MA000003). You select your award in Settings and the Hours Breakdown report renders penalty-rate hours for it.
It classifies every clocked shift into its award penalty band — ordinary, Saturday, Sunday, public holiday, weekday evening — applies casual loading and tiered overtime, and shows the loaded labour cost in ordinary-hour equivalents. It is an informational report to verify, not a payroll calculation or legal advice.
It is ordinary-hour equivalents: each band of hours multiplied by its penalty rate (and casual loading for casual staff), summed per employee and per store. It tells you what the roster costs in ordinary-rate terms, so you can compare rosters and forecast labour cost before payroll runs.
Not yet. The draft builder optimises for coverage, fairness, and your business rules — it does not minimise award penalty cost when assigning shifts. The award report shows you the cost of a roster after you build it; you decide how to adjust.
The penalty-rate reference is reviewed annually against the Fair Work Commission wage review, which takes effect on 1 July each year. Treat it as a current-as-of reference to verify against the live award, not a guarantee.
It is available on The Schedaddle and The Full Sprint plans. The Scuttle (free) tier does not include the labour-law reporting view.
This guide is general information, current as of 2026, and is not legal or payroll advice. Verify penalty rates with the current Modern Award or your payroll provider.
Pick your Modern Award and Schedaddle shows penalty-rate hours and loaded labour cost — per employee, per store, ready to export.