An Australian cafe turning over A$400,000 can fund about 60 paid hours a week, a range of 48 to 73, which across a seven day trading week is barely more than one paid person on the floor at any moment.
Skai Solutions works that from two published sources rather than from a staff-per-cover rule, because no such rule is published for this market. The ATO's coffee shop labour band gives the wage budget and the Fair Work pay guide gives what an hour costs, and dividing one by the other answers the question in the only unit you can actually roster.
There is no published staff-per-cover figure for Australian cafes, and any article giving you one has made it up or imported it from the United States. What does exist is a published labour band and a published wage floor, and those two together answer the question properly, in hours rather than in bodies.
The ATO's coffee shops benchmark, built from lodged 2023-24 tax returns, puts labour at 21% to 32% of turnover for a cafe in the A$250,001 to A$600,000 band. The Fair Work Ombudsman's pay guide for the Restaurant Award MA000119, published 24 June 2026 and applying from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, puts a Level 2 food and beverage attendant at A$27.08 an hour ordinary, which is A$33.85 as a casual with the 25% loading.
Wage budget divided by hourly rate. The table is ours, the two inputs are not.
| Turnover | Labour at 21% | Labour at 26.5% | Labour at 32% | Paid hours a week at A$33.85 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A$250,000 | A$52,500 | A$66,250 | A$80,000 | 30 to 45 |
| A$400,000 | A$84,000 | A$106,000 | A$128,000 | 48 to 73 |
| A$600,000 | A$126,000 | A$159,000 | A$192,000 | 72 to 109 |
| A$800,000 | A$168,000 | A$212,000 | A$256,000 | 95 to 145 |
Skai Solutions' arithmetic on the ATO coffee shops benchmark labour range (2023-24 lodged returns, ATO page last updated 16 March 2026) and the Fair Work MA000119 pay guide casual Level 2 rate of A$33.85 an hour from 1 July 2026. Weekly hours are the annual wage figure divided by A$33.85 and by 52, rounded. It excludes superannuation, workers compensation and payroll tax, all of which sit on top and reduce the hours further. The 800,000 row uses the over-A$600,000 band, where the ATO labour range is 27% to 35%.
So the answer for a typical A$400,000 suburban cafe is about 60 paid hours a week, with a defensible range of 48 to 73. Not a headcount. Hours.
This is the part that makes operators sit up. A cafe open seven days from 7am to 3pm trades 56 hours a week. Sixty paid hours across 56 trading hours is 1.07 people. Averaged across the week, the benchmark wage budget for a A$400,000 cafe funds slightly more than one paid person in the building at any moment, and that person has to cover the machine, the floor, the till and the kitchen.
Nobody runs a cafe that way, which tells you where the missing hours come from.
| Turnover | Paid hours a week, centred | Paid people on at any moment across 56 trading hours |
|---|---|---|
| A$250,000 | 38 | 0.7 |
| A$400,000 | 60 | 1.1 |
| A$600,000 | 90 | 1.6 |
| A$800,000 | 141 | 2.5 |
Skai Solutions' arithmetic, same inputs as above, at the midpoint of each ATO labour band, against a 56 hour trading week. An average, not a roster: real cafes concentrate staff into the morning peak and run thin after 11am.
In a sole trader or partnership the owner's own labour is usually not in the wage figure at all. So a A$400,000 cafe reporting labour at 26.5% is very often one owner working 50 hours a week for nothing plus 60 hours of paid help, which is 110 hours of actual work being reported as 60. That is the single biggest reason published labour percentages look achievable and rosters do not.
It also sets the real test for anyone buying or valuing a cafe. If the owner's hours are not costed, the business has an unfunded liability the day they stop. Price the owner in at a Level 5 supervisor rate, A$31.30 an hour ordinary or A$39.13 casual, and 50 hours a week is about A$81,000 a year that is not in the accounts. On a A$400,000 turnover that moves labour from 26.5% to about 47%, and it is the same arithmetic a buyer will do when working out what the business is worth.
Yes, and a flat roster gets it wrong in both directions. On the MA000119 pay guide from 1 July 2026, a permanent Level 2 food and beverage attendant is A$27.08 ordinary, A$33.85 on Saturday, A$40.62 on Sunday and A$60.93 on a public holiday.
| Day | Permanent Level 2 rate | Hours A$1,000 buys |
|---|---|---|
| Monday to Friday | A$27.08 | 36.9 |
| Saturday | A$33.85 | 29.5 |
| Sunday | A$40.62 | 24.6 |
| Public holiday | A$60.93 | 16.4 |
Fair Work Ombudsman MA000119 pay guide published 24 June 2026, adult full time and part time rates from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. Hours per A$1,000 is Skai Solutions' arithmetic. Casual weekend and public holiday rates are set separately in the award, so never derive them by stacking the 25% loading on a penalty rate.
The same money buys a third fewer hours on Sunday than on Tuesday. A cafe that rosters the same four people every day is buying its most expensive hours on its busiest day and its cheapest hours on its quietest, which is the wrong way round. If you trade public holidays, the surcharge arithmetic is a separate question worth doing properly.
Two clauses set the floor, and they are different for casuals and part-timers.
So the smallest unit of cover you can buy is two hours, and it is three if the person is part-time. That is why the classic answer to a 45 minute lunch rush, calling someone in for an hour, does not exist as an option. More on minimum shift hours and on what casual loading actually costs, and the roster rules set the notice you have to give once it is published.
No. There is no published New Zealand benchmark equivalent to the ATO's, and the pay structure is different enough that the Australian hours do not transfer. New Zealand has no modern award, no casual loading and no award weekend penalty rates, and the adult minimum wage is NZ$23.95 an hour from 1 April 2026. The Restaurant Association of New Zealand's 2025 Hospitality Report puts wage costs at about 40% of hospitality revenue, but that is a survey figure across hospitality including accommodation and bars, so it is not the same measurement as the ATO labour band and should not be used in the same sum. Current New Zealand hospitality pay rates are the place to start instead.
Three options, cheapest first, and only one of them is buying something.
At 1.1 paid people on the floor, every phone call is a person leaving the coffee machine. Skai Solutions builds an AI receptionist that answers during service, takes bookings and orders and keeps working after close, and setup takes five days. Be careful about the arithmetic though: a missed call about a single coffee is worth cents, so most walk-in cafes should not buy one. It pays for itself in venues where the phone carries catering, functions and large bookings. If yours does not, it is not for you, and a basic message-taking plan or a good voicemail is the honest answer.
Knowing how many people you can afford is only half of it. Getting a new one useful is the other half, and how to train restaurant staff costs that out against the same award rates and the same minimum engagement rules.
Staff count toward the occupant number as well as the wage bill. Restaurant and cafe seating capacity per square metre explains where they land in the National Construction Code sum, and why a kitchen is deemed to hold 1 person per 10 square metres.
The bar setup decides how many hands the morning needs. Should a cafe lease or buy a commercial coffee machine has the August 2026 price survey and the write off rule that usually favours buying.
Staff count also feeds the amenities calculation, because in a shop or cafe employees and patrons may share facilities as long as the combined requirement is met. The table is on how many toilets a cafe needs.
Work it from the wage budget rather than from a headcount rule. On the ATO's coffee shop benchmark for 2023-24, a cafe turning over A$400,000 reported labour of 21% to 32% of turnover, so A$84,000 to A$128,000 of wages. At the Restaurant Award MA000119 casual Level 2 rate of A$33.85 an hour from 1 July 2026 that buys about 2,480 to 3,780 paid hours a year, or 48 to 73 hours a week. Centred, about 60 hours a week. That is Skai Solutions' arithmetic on two published sources, not a published staffing figure.
Divide your annual wage budget by your blended hourly rate. A cafe holding labour at the ATO midpoint of 26.5% of a A$400,000 turnover has A$106,000 of wages, which is about 3,131 hours a year or 60 hours a week at a casual Level 2 rate of A$33.85. Superannuation, workers compensation and payroll tax sit on top of that and reduce the hours further.
Because 60 paid hours a week across a seven day, eight hour trading pattern is 56 trading hours, so the wage budget funds barely more than one paid person on at any moment averaged across the week. Every hour beyond that is either an owner working unpaid or a labour percentage above the benchmark band. Both are common and only one of them shows up in the accounts.
Under the Restaurant Award MA000119 a casual must be engaged and paid for at least 2 consecutive hours on each occasion they attend work, under clause 11.3. A part-time employee must not be rostered fewer than 3 hours or more than 11.5 hours in a day, under clause 10.7(b). So you cannot buy a single hour of cover for a lunch peak, and the part-time minimum is longer than the casual one.
No, and there is no published New Zealand equivalent to work from. New Zealand has no modern award, no casual loading and no award penalty rates, and the adult minimum wage is NZ$23.95 an hour from 1 April 2026. The Restaurant Association of New Zealand's 2025 Hospitality Report puts wage costs at about 40% of hospitality revenue, which is an industry survey figure across hospitality and is not comparable with the ATO's restaurant labour band.
Yes, and by more than most rosters allow for. On the Restaurant Award pay guide from 1 July 2026 a permanent Level 2 food and beverage attendant is A$27.08 an hour ordinary, A$33.85 Saturday and A$40.62 Sunday. A Sunday hour costs 50% more than a weekday hour, so the same wage budget buys a third fewer Sunday hours. A seven day cafe on a flat roster is overspending on Sunday and underspending on Tuesday.