A casual goes on overtime past 12 hours in a day or 38 hours a week averaged over the roster, and the award pays 150 per cent for the first two hours Monday to Friday and 200 per cent after that.
Skai Solutions answers the phone for restaurants, cafes and takeaways in Australia and New Zealand, and the overtime most small venues pay is not trading demand, it is admin that did not fit in the shift. This page sets out when overtime starts for each kind of employee, the published rates in percentages and in dollars, how time off in lieu actually works, and the two rules after the overtime that cost more than the overtime does.
It depends which kind of employee is standing in front of you, and the thresholds are not the same.
| Employee | Overtime applies to |
|---|---|
| Full time | Work outside the spread of hours, or outside rostered hours |
| Part time | Time over 38 hours a week averaged over the roster cycle, over the daily maximum, or over rostered hours |
| Casual | Time beyond 12 hours in a day or shift, or beyond 38 hours a week averaged over a roster of up to four weeks |
| Anyone on a rostered day off | All time worked, with a minimum of four hours paid |
Those are clauses 23.1 to 23.3 of the Restaurant Industry Award MA000119, read 19 October 2026. Two of them catch people out. Overtime on each day is calculated separately, so you cannot net a short Tuesday against a long Thursday. And the rostered day off rule pays four hours minimum even if the person came in for forty minutes to cover a gap, unless the work continues a normal roster that started the day before.
The part time row is the one that generates most of the back pay. A part timer's agreed hours are a floor, not a ceiling you can quietly raise. If you are regularly asking a part timer to stay on, you are either paying overtime or you are varying the agreement in writing. Our page on casual against part time hospitality staff has the rest of that distinction.
Table 7 of the award sets them as a percentage of the minimum hourly rate.
| When | Rate |
|---|---|
| Monday to Friday, first 2 hours | 150% |
| Monday to Friday, after 2 hours | 200% |
| Saturday, first 2 hours | 175% |
| Saturday, after 2 hours | 200% |
| Sunday, all hours | 200% |
| Rostered day off, all hours | 200% |
In money, using the rates applying from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. A Level 2 food and beverage attendant is on A$27.08 an hour. Monday to Friday that makes the first two overtime hours A$40.62 and everything after A$54.16. Saturday opens at A$47.39. Sunday overtime is A$54.16 from the first minute, because there is no two hour step on a Sunday. Our page on hospitality award pay levels has the full classification ladder if you need a different level.
Where more than one penalty could apply, only the higher one is paid. That is clause 24.3, and it is the reason you cannot stack a Sunday penalty on top of an overtime rate.
Yes, and this is the question the search data says operators actually have. Under clauses 11.5 and 23.1(c), a casual is paid overtime rates for time worked beyond the clause 11.2 hours, using the same Table 7 rates. The clause 11.2 limits are 12 hours in a day or shift and 38 hours a week averaged over a roster cycle of up to four weeks.
Two practical readings. A casual who works nine hours on a Saturday is not on overtime, they are on the Saturday casual penalty, which is a different and lower number. A casual who works thirteen hours on a function day is on overtime for the thirteenth hour whatever the day of the week. And because the weekly test averages over the cycle, a casual pushed to 45 hours in a single week may still be inside 38 averaged over four, which is exactly why the roster cycle has to be written down somewhere.
Casual loading and overtime interact in ways that depend on your own facts, so run the specific case through the Fair Work Pay and Conditions Tool rather than taking a page's word for it, including ours.
You can, under clause 23.5, and it has four conditions that are usually broken.
The second condition is where the money leaks. An informal "take Thursday off" culture that swaps hour for hour is underpaying by a third on every weekday overtime hour and by half on every Sunday one.
Almost nothing written about hospitality overtime mentions these, and they are the expensive part.
The 20 minute paid break. An employee required to work more than two hours of overtime after their rostered hours is entitled to an additional 20 minute paid rest break. Clause 16.8. Paid, and on top of the overtime rate.
The eight hour break, and what happens if they do not get it. If the next rostered start is less than eight hours after the overtime finished, the employee may start later without losing pay. And if they do not get eight hours off, the OVERTIME RATE CONTINUES until they do. Clause 23.2. Read that again, because it is the rule that turns a cheap decision into an expensive one: keeping a closer back until 1am and rostering them on at 8am does not cost you one extra hour at 200 per cent, it puts the whole of the next shift on the overtime rate until the eight hours have been served.
That single clause is the strongest financial argument there is for not solving a staffing gap by extending the person who is already there. Our page on changing a roster that has already gone out covers the notice rules that sit alongside it, and minimum shift hours in hospitality covers the floor at the other end of the shift.
Labelled as Skai Solutions' own arithmetic on the published rates above, so you can put your own numbers through it. A Level 2 closer stays three hours past roster on a Friday: two hours at A$40.62 and one at A$54.16 is A$135.40, plus a paid 20 minute break at A$27.08 an hour, about A$9.03. Call it A$144.43 for the night. Do that twice a week and it is A$15,020 a year, against a labour line that our page on restaurant labour cost percentage says is already 18 to 34 per cent of turnover for an Australian restaurant.
And if that closer is rostered back on inside eight hours, the next shift goes on at the overtime rate too, which is where a A$144 decision becomes a A$400 one.
Most of the overtime in a small venue is not demand, it is admin that did not fit in the shift: the cash up, the orders, the voicemails from people who rang during service. If your closers are staying back to return calls, you are paying 200 per cent for an hour of phone work. Skai Solutions answers the phone during service so the calls are already handled and written down when the floor closes. Setup takes five days.
If the overtime is genuine trading demand, it is cheaper to roster a second person for the peak than to extend one person past it, because the extension triggers the eight hour rule and the second person does not. That is a rostering decision, not a payroll one, and how many staff a cafe needs is the page that sizes it.
When does overtime start under the hospitality award?
It depends on the employee. Full timers go on overtime for work outside the spread of hours or outside rostered hours. Part timers for time over 38 hours a week averaged over the roster cycle, over the daily maximum, or over rostered hours. Casuals for time beyond 12 hours in a day or shift, or beyond 38 hours a week averaged over a roster of up to four weeks. Anyone working a rostered day off is on overtime for all of it, with four hours minimum.
What is the overtime rate in the restaurant award?
Table 7 of MA000119 sets 150 per cent for the first two hours Monday to Friday and 200 per cent after that, 175 per cent for the first two hours on Saturday and 200 per cent after, and 200 per cent for all hours on a Sunday or a rostered day off. On the rates applying from 1 July 2026 a Level 2 attendant on A$27.08 an hour is at A$40.62, then A$54.16.
Does a casual get overtime in hospitality?
Yes. Clauses 11.5 and 23.1(c) pay a casual overtime at the Table 7 rates for time beyond the clause 11.2 limits, which are 12 hours in a day or shift and 38 hours a week averaged over a roster cycle of up to four weeks. A casual working nine hours on a Saturday is on the Saturday penalty rate, not overtime. Run your own case through the Fair Work Pay and Conditions Tool.
Can I give time off in lieu instead of paying overtime?
Yes, under clause 23.5, with four conditions. It must be agreed in writing, the time off equals the overtime payment rather than the hours worked so two hours at time and a half earns three hours off, it must be taken within six months or be paid out at the original overtime rate, and the employee can ask for payment instead at any time.
Is there a break after working overtime?
Yes. Clause 16.8 gives an additional 20 minute paid rest break to an employee required to work more than two hours of overtime after their rostered hours. It is paid, and it is on top of the overtime rate itself.
What happens if staff do not get eight hours off after overtime?
The overtime rate continues until they do. Under clause 23.2, if the next rostered start is less than eight hours after the overtime finished the employee may start later without losing pay, and if they do not get the eight hour break the overtime rate keeps applying. That is why rostering a late closer back on the next morning is far more expensive than the extra hour itself.
Can you stack a Sunday penalty on top of overtime?
No. Clause 24.3 says that where more than one penalty could apply, only the higher one is paid. Sunday overtime is 200 per cent of the minimum hourly rate from the first minute, with no two hour step, and the ordinary Sunday penalty is not added to it.