Every casual in an Australian venue is entitled to the 12% super guarantee no matter how little they earn, with one exception that hospitality runs into constantly: an employee under 18 qualifies only in a week where they actually work more than 30 hours.
Skai Solutions answers the phone for Australian and New Zealand venues, so we spend a lot of time inside the part of hospitality where the roster moves after it is published. That is exactly where this rule bites. The figures below come from the ATO's own pages, read on 24 October 2026, and the worked example is priced on the Restaurant Industry Award.
No. The Australian Taxation Office puts it in one line: all employees are eligible for super guarantee. It lists full time, part time and casual workers as included, and says you pay super regardless of how much you pay the employee, up to the maximum contribution base.
That second half is the part that still trips up venues. There used to be a A$450 a month earnings threshold, and a casual who earned less than that in a month got nothing. It was removed on 1 July 2022. If your payroll still has a monthly minimum sitting in it, or if whoever set up your system did it before 2022, you have a liability you cannot see. A dishwasher who does one four hour shift a month is owed super on that shift.
The one exception that describes anyone on a hospitality roster is employees under 18.
Yes. The ATO's list of payments that are ordinary time earnings has casual loading on the ordinary time earnings side, which means the 25 per cent loading your award makes you pay is itself part of the base you calculate super on. You do not strip the loading out first.
This matters more in hospitality than in most industries because the loading is a bigger share of the bill. On the Restaurant Industry Award the loading runs between A$6.44 and A$8.03 an hour depending on classification. Super at 12 per cent on top of the loading alone is roughly 77 cents to 96 cents an hour that a venue budgeting on the base rate has not counted.
The same list settles the other questions operators ask in the same breath:
| Payment | Super payable? |
|---|---|
| Casual loading | Yes |
| Overtime | No, provided ordinary hours are clearly identified |
| Shift penalties, including public holiday penalties | Yes |
| Annual leave loading | Yes, unless it is clearly tied to lost overtime |
| Task allowances, for example first aid or higher duties | Yes |
| An allowance the employee is expected to spend fully on the job | No |
Date this one when you rely on it. That ATO page was last updated on 30 April 2026 and states that it applies to earnings paid up to 30 June 2026. Earnings paid from 1 July 2026 sit under the newer payday super rules, and the test there is described as qualifying earnings rather than ordinary time earnings. We have not published a side by side of the two because the ATO page we read on 24 October 2026 does not define qualifying earnings, and guessing at the difference between two statutory tests is not something a venue should take off a vendor's website. Ask your accountant or read the ATO's own qualifying earnings page.
Only in a week where they work more than 30 hours. The ATO's employer page states it plainly: employees under 18 years old are eligible for super guarantee if they work for you for more than 30 hours in a week. The same page adds the sentence that settles most of the arguments about it, and it is the reason averaging will not save you: the hours are the actual hours worked in that week, not averaged across pay periods.
Read that twice, because three things in it decide what you owe.
It is a WEEKLY test on ACTUAL hours, not a monthly or quarterly one and not an average. The same 17 year old can be eligible in one week and not eligible in the next, on the same contract, at the same venue. Nothing about the person changes. The roster changes.
It is MORE THAN 30 hours, not 30 or more. A week of exactly 30.0 hours carries no super guarantee entitlement. A week of 30.5 does.
And when it is crossed, it applies to the whole week's qualifying earnings, not to the hours above 30. There is no apportioning. The 31st hour does not bring one hour of super with it. It brings the week.
Here is the arithmetic on one person, with every input shown so you can put your own numbers through it. This is Skai Solutions' own calculation, not a rule, and the rates are the award minimum for the classification rather than whatever your venue actually pays.
Inputs: a 17 year old casual, Restaurant Industry Award Level 1, from 1 July 2026. The junior percentage at 17 is 60 per cent of the Level 1 weekly rate of A$1,004.90, which is A$602.90 a week, or A$15.87 an hour across 38 hours. Add the 25 per cent casual loading and the hourly rate is A$19.84. Super guarantee is 12 per cent.
| Hours rostered that week | Wages | Super | Total cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30.0 | A$595.20 | A$0.00 | A$595.20 |
| 31.0 | A$615.04 | A$73.80 | A$688.84 |
One extra hour costs A$93.64. The hour of work in it is worth A$19.84. The other A$73.80 is super on the whole week, switched on by the 31st hour.
So the marginal cost of that single hour is 4.7 times its wage rate. There is no other hour on a hospitality roster that behaves like this. It is not a reason to keep anyone under 30 hours, and deliberately cutting hours to dodge the entitlement is the kind of arrangement that gets looked at hard. It is a reason to know which of your under 18s are near the line before you publish the roster, rather than finding out when the quarter is reconciled.
Two things make this specifically a hospitality problem. Hospitality rosters a lot of 16 and 17 year olds, so most venues have several people sitting near the line. And hospitality hours move: a Saturday function, someone calling in sick, a second person covering a no show, and a 28 hour week becomes a 33 hour week after the fact. Because the ATO measures actual hours in the week rather than an average, the test lands on the roster you ended up working, not the one you published.
The super guarantee rate is 12.00 per cent for the year from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027. It was also 12.00 per cent for the year before, and the ATO's table shows 12.00 per cent from 1 July 2027 onward. The annual step ups have stopped, so a venue modelling labour cost no longer needs to build in a rising super percentage each July.
There is a ceiling, but it will not touch a casual. For 2026 to 2027 the maximum contribution base is A$270,830 a year. The ATO derives it from the A$32,500 concessional contributions cap divided by the 12 per cent charge percentage, which gives A$270,833.33, rounded down to the nearest A$10. Earnings above that in the period do not attract more super guarantee. If you employ anyone in a venue who is near it, super is not your interesting problem.
Three things sit outside the eligibility question, and a page that pretended otherwise would be doing you a disservice.
Whether the person is an employee at all. The super guarantee rules follow employment, and a contractor paid wholly or principally for their labour can still be an employee for super purposes even with an ABN. If you use agency chefs or contract cleaners, that is the question to get right first, and it is a bigger exposure than any roster line. Our page on agency chef rates in Australia covers how those arrangements are usually structured.
Which fund, and by when. From 1 July 2026 the payday super rules changed the timing of contributions. We have deliberately not stated the new deadline here because we could not verify the exact number of days from the ATO's own page on 24 October 2026. Do not take a deadline for a statutory payment from a website that has not cited it.
New Zealand. None of this applies there. KiwiSaver is a different scheme with different rates and a different employer obligation, and the employer contribution has to sit on top of the minimum wage rather than inside it. Our page on hospitality wages in New Zealand has the current KiwiSaver rates and the 16 and 17 year old change that started on 1 April 2026.
Pull your payroll's casual list and sort it by date of birth. Everyone under 18 is a line to check. For each of them, pull actual hours worked by week for the last quarter, not averages, because an average of 28 hours hides a 34 hour week. Any week over 30 hours with no super attached to it is an underpayment to fix.
Then check whether a monthly minimum is still configured anywhere in your payroll, and whether casual loading is inside the super base or outside it. Those two settings are where the systematic errors live, and a systematic error repeats every pay run until someone finds it.
Confirm the award rates for your own classifications in the Fair Work Pay and Conditions Tool rather than from this or any other page. Rates change every July and classifications are venue specific. Our pages on hospitality award pay levels, casual loading and junior pay rates set out how those three interact, and which award covers my restaurant is the one to read first if you are not certain you are even on the Restaurant Industry Award.
The roster changes that create this problem almost always arrive by phone. Someone rings at 7am to say they cannot make the lunch shift, and whoever is closest to the phone solves it by adding hours to whoever answers their mobile. That is how a 28 hour week becomes a 33 hour week without a decision being made.
Skai Solutions answers the phone so that the person solving the roster is not also the person taking bookings during service. It does not do your payroll and it does not know who is under 18. What it changes is the number of things being decided at once at 7am.
Do casual employees get paid super in Australia?
Yes. The ATO says generally all employees are eligible for super guarantee and that eligibility does not depend on whether you are full time, part time or casual, or on how much you earn. The only exception that applies to a venue is employees under 18, who are eligible only in a week where they work more than 30 hours.
Is there a minimum amount a casual has to earn before super is payable?
No. The old A$450 a month threshold was removed on 1 July 2022. The ATO's eligibility page states you are eligible for super guarantee regardless of how much you earn, so a single short shift attracts super.
Do you pay super on casual loading?
Yes. The ATO lists casual loading as ordinary time earnings, so the 25 per cent loading forms part of the base you calculate super on. On the Restaurant Industry Award the loading is between A$6.44 and A$8.03 an hour, so super on the loading alone is roughly 77 cents to 96 cents an hour.
Do you pay super on overtime for casuals?
No, provided the employee's ordinary hours of work are clearly identified. The ATO's ordinary time earnings list puts overtime outside ordinary time earnings while still treating it as salary and wages. Shift penalties, including public holiday penalties, are inside ordinary time earnings.
How many hours does a 17 year old have to work before super is payable?
More than 30 in that week. Exactly 30.0 hours carries no entitlement. The ATO's employer page says the hours are the actual hours worked in that week and are not averaged across pay periods, and once the week goes past 30 hours the super applies to the whole week's qualifying earnings rather than to the hours above 30.
What is the super guarantee rate for 2026 to 2027?
12.00 per cent. The ATO's table shows 12.00 per cent for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, the same rate as the previous year and the same from 1 July 2027 onward. The maximum contribution base for 2026 to 2027 is A$270,830 a year.
Does any of this apply in New Zealand?
No. New Zealand has KiwiSaver rather than the Australian super guarantee, with different rates and a different employer obligation, and employer contributions must be paid on top of the minimum wage rather than counted inside it.