Skai Solutions read the Fair Work pay guide: a Level 3 food and beverage attendant on the Restaurant Industry Award is on A$27.97 an ordinary hour from 1 July 2026, and getting one level wrong costs about A$1,758 a year for a single full time employee.
The Restaurant Industry Award MA000119 does not classify people by the title you put on the roster. It classifies them by the duties they actually perform, using the classification schedule inside the award itself. A person you call a waiter can sit at Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3 depending on what they are asked to do in a shift, and the level decides the rate for every hour they work.
That is why "she is just a waitress" is not an answer to a Fair Work inspector. The seven classifications below are the ones the award actually names, and the pay rates attached to them come from the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide published 24 June 2026, applying from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026.
| Level | Roles the award names at this level | Weekly (full time) | Ordinary hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introductory | Entry classification, before the employee is competent in a named grade | A$978.10 | A$25.74 |
| Level 1 | Food and beverage attendant grade 1, kitchen attendant grade 1 | A$1,004.90 | A$26.44 |
| Level 2 | Food and beverage attendant grade 2, cook grade 1 | A$1,029.10 | A$27.08 |
| Level 3 | Food and beverage attendant grade 3, cook grade 2 | A$1,062.90 | A$27.97 |
| Level 4 | Tradesperson | A$1,119.10 | A$29.45 |
| Level 5 | Food and beverage supervisor, cook grade 4 | A$1,189.40 | A$31.30 |
| Level 6 | Cook grade 5 | A$1,221.10 | A$32.13 |
The full duty descriptions sit in the classification schedule of the Restaurant Industry Award MA000119. Read them against what the person did last Saturday night, not against what you hired them to do in March. Staff drift upward: the moment a Level 1 kitchen attendant starts doing cookery, the award has an opinion about it.
These are the full time and part time rates. They are the same seven levels with the award penalty applied.
| Level | Saturday | Sunday | Public holiday |
|---|---|---|---|
| Introductory | A$32.18 | A$38.61 | A$57.92 |
| Level 1 | A$33.05 | A$39.66 | A$59.49 |
| Level 2 | A$33.85 | A$40.62 | A$60.93 |
| Level 3 | A$34.96 | A$41.96 | A$62.93 |
| Level 4 | A$36.81 | A$44.18 | A$66.26 |
| Level 5 | A$39.13 | A$46.95 | A$70.43 |
| Level 6 | A$40.16 | A$48.20 | A$72.29 |
Every one of these rates rose 4.75% on 1 July 2026, which is what the Fair Work Commission awarded in the Annual Wage Review 2026 across all modern awards. Australian Bureau of Statistics wage price data for the same year put annual wage growth in accommodation and food services at 2.8%, against 3.2% across all industries, which is the gap that tells you the award floor moved faster than the market did. Our hospitality award rates page covers what that rise did to a whole roster.
A casual is paid the ordinary hourly rate for the level plus the 25% casual loading. That much is simple arithmetic and Skai Solutions has done it here, so a Level 2 casual on an ordinary weekday is on A$33.85 an hour and a Level 3 casual is on A$34.96.
| Level | Ordinary hourly | Casual, ordinary day (plus 25%) |
|---|---|---|
| Introductory | A$25.74 | A$32.18 |
| Level 1 | A$26.44 | A$33.05 |
| Level 2 | A$27.08 | A$33.85 |
| Level 3 | A$27.97 | A$34.96 |
| Level 4 | A$29.45 | A$36.81 |
| Level 5 | A$31.30 | A$39.13 |
| Level 6 | A$32.13 | A$40.16 |
Now compare that column with the Saturday column above. At every single level the two numbers are identical, because both are 125% of the ordinary rate. This is where payroll goes wrong. It is very easy to look at those matching numbers and conclude that a casual working a Saturday is also on 125%. They are not. The award sets casual weekend and public holiday rates separately, and you must never build them by stacking the casual loading on top of the penalty rate or by assuming the casual keeps the full time penalty. Take casual weekend rates from the Fair Work pay tool for the award, every time.
Operators tend to think of a level as a small difference, because per hour it is. Per employee per year it is not. These are Skai Solutions' own subtractions from the weekly rates above, multiplied by 52 weeks, for one full time employee.
| Paid at | Should have been | Gap per week | Gap per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | Level 2 | A$24.20 | A$1,258.40 |
| Level 2 | Level 3 | A$33.80 | A$1,757.60 |
| Level 1 | Level 3 | A$58.00 | A$3,016.00 |
| Level 3 | Level 4 | A$56.20 | A$2,922.40 |
| Level 4 | Level 5 | A$70.30 | A$3,655.60 |
Three things make this worse than the table looks. Underpayment claims reach back over years rather than months, so a quiet error compounds. Superannuation and leave accruals are calculated on the wrong base, so the shortfall is larger than the gap in the table. And a level error is rarely confined to one person, because whoever set up the payroll categories usually set them all up the same way on the same afternoon.
Skai Solutions builds phone software. We are not a payroll provider and this is general information, not advice on your particular roster. Three specific limits worth stating plainly.
First, MA000119 is the Restaurant Industry Award. A cafe, a pub bistro or a hotel restaurant may sit under a different award with different classification names and different rates, and the award that covers you is decided by the business, not by the food. Second, junior rates, apprentice rates, overtime, split shift allowances, laundry allowances and meal allowances all sit outside this page and all change the number on the payslip. Third, a registered agreement in your business can override award rates, provided it leaves employees better off overall.
If you are working out your total wage bill rather than an individual rate, restaurant labour cost percentage is the page that puts these rates into a percentage of turnover, and hospitality wages in New Zealand covers the other market, which has no award system at all.
Here is the connection, and it is arithmetic rather than a sales line. A Level 2 casual on an ordinary weekday costs A$33.85 an hour. If one person spends 45 minutes of a lunch service on the phone taking bookings and answering the same four questions, that is about A$25 of labour a day, or roughly A$650 a month across a six day week, on a task that produces nothing a customer sees.
Wage rates are not a lever you control. The Fair Work Commission moves them once a year and you pay what it decides. What you can move is how much of that hour goes to work only a person can do. An AI phone agent answers the calls that arrive while the floor is busy, takes the booking, and leaves the person you are paying A$33.85 an hour on the floor where the revenue is. Staff calling in sick is the same lever pulled on a worse day.
Skai Solutions answers the calls your floor staff cannot get to, for a flat monthly fee, so award hours go to the tables instead of the handset.
Book a Free DemoA$27.97 an ordinary hour for a full time or part time employee under the Restaurant Industry Award MA000119, from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. Saturday is A$34.96, Sunday A$41.96 and a public holiday A$62.93. A Level 3 casual on an ordinary day is on A$34.96, being the hourly rate plus the 25% casual loading.
Seven, if you count the Introductory classification: Introductory, then Levels 1 through 6. Level 1 covers food and beverage attendant grade 1 and kitchen attendant grade 1. Level 6 covers cook grade 5. The award classifies by the duties actually performed, not by the job title on your roster.
A$24.20 a week for a full time employee, which is A$1,258.40 a year on Skai Solutions' arithmetic from the Fair Work weekly rates. Level 1 is a food and beverage attendant grade 1 or kitchen attendant grade 1. Level 2 is a food and beverage attendant grade 2 or a cook grade 1, so it is the point where the duties become more than general assistance.
No, and this is the most common payroll error in the award. A casual on an ordinary day is on 125% of the hourly rate, which happens to be the same number as the full time Saturday rate at every level. That coincidence misleads people. The award sets casual weekend and public holiday rates separately, so never derive them by stacking the loading on the penalty. Take them from the Fair Work pay tool.
4.75%, awarded by the Fair Work Commission in the Annual Wage Review 2026 and applying from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. For context, the Australian Bureau of Statistics measured annual wage growth in accommodation and food services at 2.8% over the same year, against 3.2% for all industries.
You owe the shortfall, and underpayment claims reach back over years rather than months. Superannuation and leave accruals sit on the wrong base as well, so the total is larger than the hourly gap suggests. Level errors also tend to affect several people at once, because payroll categories are usually all set up in one sitting.