Casual Loading Explained for Retail Australia: A Roster Walkthrough

Casual loading is a flat 25% added on top of the ordinary hourly rate under the General Retail Industry Award — it's the trade-off casuals get for having no paid leave. It applies to every hour a casual works, and it sits underneath penalty rates, not instead of them. That's the bit most operators miss until payday: on a Saturday night, the loading and the penalty rate stack. This page walks a five-shift casual week so you can see exactly where the money goes before you build next week's roster.

What casual loading actually is

Casual loading is the 25% premium a casual employee gets on top of the ordinary hourly rate under the General Retail Industry Award. It's compensation for not receiving annual leave, personal leave, or notice of termination. It's always on — every hour, every day, whether it's a quiet Tuesday morning or a busy Saturday night.

Worked example — a plain weekday shift. Say the ordinary hourly rate for a Retail Employee Level 1 casual is $26.00/hour (use the current rate from the General Retail Industry Award page — the number moves each July).

• Base ordinary rate: $26.00
• Casual loading (25%): +$6.50
• Loaded rate paid: $32.50/hour

A casual working Monday 9am–3pm (6 hours) costs you 6 × $32.50 = $195.00 for that shift. That's the number to have in your head when you drop a name into a Monday slot on the roster.

How it's different from penalty rates — and why they stack

Penalty rates are a separate multiplier that applies on weekends, public holidays, and late evenings. Casual loading is always on; penalty rates only kick in during penalty windows. When both apply, they're calculated on the same ordinary base rate and added together — not multiplied on top of each other, but stacked.

Under the General Retail Award, a casual working a Saturday gets 25% loading + 25% Saturday penalty = 50% above the ordinary rate. Sunday is heavier again.

Worked example — a Saturday shift.

• Base ordinary rate: $26.00
• Casual loading (25%): +$6.50
• Saturday penalty (25%): +$6.50
• Loaded Saturday rate: $39.00/hour

A casual working Saturday 10am–4pm (6 hours) costs you 6 × $39.00 = $234.00. Same shift length as Monday, $39 more. That's the stack. For the exact current penalty multipliers (they differ for evenings, Sundays, and public holidays), see the penalty rates explainer.

A worked five-shift casual week

One casual, Retail Level 1, ordinary base $26.00/hour. Illustrative rates — round to your actual award numbers when you cost your own week.

| Day | Shift | Hours | Loaded rate | Shift cost | Running total | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | Mon | 9am–3pm | 6.0 | $32.50 (loading only) | $195.00 | $195.00 | | Wed | 12pm–5pm | 5.0 | $32.50 | $162.50 | $357.50 | | Thu | 4pm–9pm (evening penalty ~25% after 6pm) | 5.0 | $32.50 base / $39.00 after 6pm | $178.75 | $536.25 | | Sat | 10am–4pm | 6.0 | $39.00 (loading + Sat penalty) | $234.00 | $770.25 | | Sun | 10am–3pm | 5.0 | ~$52.00 (loading + Sun penalty) | $260.00 | $1,030.25 |

Total: 27 hours, ~$1,030 in labour cost for one casual. If you'd assumed a flat $26 × 27 = $702, you're $328 light. That's the payday gap.

When casuals make roster sense anyway

Casuals aren't automatically cheaper — but they're often the right call for the shape of demand.

• Unpredictable trading days. A wet Saturday, a random school-holiday rush, a delivery day that runs long. Casuals let you resize the roster week to week without carrying fixed hours you can't fill.
• Seasonal spikes. Christmas, EOFY, back-to-school. Rostering three extra casuals for six weeks is cleaner than restructuring a part-time contract.
• Trial periods. New hire, unproven — a few casual shifts lets both sides work out fit before committing.
• Experience venues. FECs, trampoline parks, escape rooms — weekend-heavy trade with school-holiday peaks. A casual pool of 8–12 covers party bookings without over-committing on quiet Tuesdays.

The honest test: if a role is filled the same hours every week, part-time is usually cheaper on weekends. If the role flexes, casual is usually cleaner even with the loading.

What this means when you're building the roster

Most operators build the roster in a grid that shows names and times, not loaded cost per shift. So the Saturday-night stack only shows up on payday. That's the fixable part — see the loaded cost as you drop the shift in, not two weeks later.

Schedaddle is priced per location, not per employee — so rostering a bigger casual pool for school holidays doesn't inflate your software bill the way per-seat tools do. It's a rostering tool with cost visibility, not payroll or award interpretation. For the actual award figures, use the General Retail Award page and plug your own hours into the award rates calculator.

Pull up last week's roster. Add a loaded-rate column beside each casual shift, mark the Saturday and Sunday hours, and total it. Does the number match what you paid — or is there a gap you've been carrying for months without seeing it?