Price the job so food lands inside the ATO's published 31 to 43 per cent cost-of-sales band for Australian catering businesses, then add labour at award rates, vehicle and hire, and margin on top of that.
Skai Solutions answers the phone for restaurants, cafes and caterers in Australia and New Zealand, so we see what a function enquiry is worth before anyone quotes it. This page prices a catering job from the only official Australian data there is, shows why a caterer's food cost band is wider than a restaurant's, prices the labour at current award rates, and names the award question that decides the whole labour line.
Start from the only published Australian figure there is. The Australian Taxation Office builds its Small Business Benchmarks from lodged tax returns, and it benchmarks Catering services separately from restaurants. For the 2023-24 data year, cost of sales as a share of turnover runs 31 to 43 per cent for catering businesses turning over A$50,000 to A$200,000, 32 to 41 per cent from A$200,001 to A$600,000, and 31 to 41 per cent above A$600,000. The benchmark page was last updated 16 March 2026 and the same figures are published as a machine-readable file on data.gov.au.
Here is the part worth stopping on, because it changes how you quote. A restaurant's range is 32 to 39 per cent in its lowest turnover band. A caterer's is 31 to 43 per cent. The catering range is wider at every band, and it is wider at the top, not the bottom. Same food, same suppliers, same wages. The spread is the job itself: you buy for a guest count that moves, you cook once with no second service to absorb the error, and leftovers have nowhere to go.
So a single target food cost percentage is the wrong tool for catering. Price each job to land inside the band, then check where the month landed.
| Business type, ATO 2023-24 | Lowest turnover band | Middle band | Top band |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catering services | 31% to 43% | 32% to 41% | 31% to 41% |
| Restaurants | 32% to 39% | 32% to 38% | 31% to 36% |
| Coffee shops | 34% to 42% | 35% to 41% | 33% to 38% |
Handle these honestly, because they are often quoted as targets and they are not. Cost of sales is not food cost alone: it bundles beverage and every other item of stock sold. The figures come from what businesses reported on tax returns, not from an audit. And the ATO says plainly that a business outside a range is not automatically doing anything wrong. Full tables are on the ATO's restaurants benchmark page.
Four lines, in this order. Do not skip to a multiplier.
Worked through, and labelled as Skai Solutions' own arithmetic on stated inputs so you can swap your numbers in. A 60 guest function, food at A$14.50 a head is A$870. Two cooks for six hours and three service staff for five hours is 27 hours. Add A$300 for vehicle, hire and breakages. If you invoice A$55 a head you bill A$3,300, and A$870 of food is 26.4 per cent of it, which is under the ATO band and therefore cheap on food and expensive on something else: in catering that something else is nearly always the labour line.
Catering work is weekends, evenings and public holidays, which is exactly when the award costs most. Under the Restaurant Industry Award MA000119, 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. A casual at Level 2 is on 125 per cent of that, A$33.85. Saturday casual is 150 per cent, A$40.62. A public holiday casual is 250 per cent, A$67.70.
Derived from those rates and labelled as ours: a public holiday adds exactly 125 per cent of the base rate an hour, for permanent and casual alike. At Level 2 that is A$33.85 an hour per person on top. Five staff on a six hour public holiday function is A$1,015.50 of surcharge before you have bought a single ingredient. If your per head price is the same on Boxing Day as it is on a Tuesday, that is where the job went.
One more line people forget: casuals must be engaged and paid for at least two consecutive hours each time they attend. A one hour drop-off is a two hour engagement.
This is the question that decides the labour line, and almost nothing written about catering pricing mentions it. Under MA000119 clause 4.2, the restaurant industry includes catering carried out BY a restaurant business. So if you run a restaurant and cater on the side, your staff stay on the award you already use.
Clause 4.4 then excludes contract caterers whose principal business is catering. Those employers sit under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award MA000009, which names caterers in its own coverage clause.
Both awards pay identical base rates at every level, so the ladder is not the issue. Two things do differ and both land on catering hours. The evening loading starts at 7pm on MA000009 and 10pm on MA000119, so a dedicated caterer pays three loaded hours on a 7pm to 11pm function that a restaurant doing the same job does not: A$8.85 per person per night. And a casual at Introductory to Level 2 is on 150 per cent on Sunday under MA000119 and 175 per cent under MA000009, which at Level 2 is A$6.77 an hour or A$54.16 across an eight hour shift.
MA000009 also carries a fixed uniform allowance for catering employers at clause 26.6(d): A$6.00 a week for a full timer and A$2.05 for each uniform for part time and casual staff. MA000119 sets no dollar figure at all, which our page on the laundry allowance in the restaurant award goes through. Check your own case with Fair Work rather than taking a page's word for it.
Different sum, and usually a better one. Your kitchen, equipment and insurance are already paid for by the dining room, so a catering job only has to carry its own food, its own labour and its own transport, not a share of the rent. That is why a restaurant can quote a function below a dedicated caterer and still make more on it.
The trap is the opposite one: pricing a function at dining room margins while it eats a Saturday prep shift that the dining room needed. Price the job against what the kitchen would have earned on those hours, not against your food cost alone. Our pages on restaurant prime cost and restaurant labour cost percentage have the two ratios to check it against.
Say no when the guest count is still moving three days out and the client will not accept a confirmation deadline, when the venue has no power, water or vehicle access you have seen yourself, when the date lands on a public holiday and the client expects weekday pricing, and when the job needs equipment you would have to hire for one booking with no second job to spread it over.
And one honest concession, because a pricing page that only says yes is not worth reading: if catering is under about one job a month for you, it is not a line of business, it is a favour with a tax file number attached. Price it as a favour or stop offering it.
It is usually not the quote. It is the enquiry you never answered. A function enquiry is the most valuable call a hospitality business takes, and it arrives in the middle of a service when nobody can reach the phone. Skai Solutions answers that call, captures the date, the head count, the dietary requirements and the budget, and leaves it in your inbox before the caller has rung the next venue on their list. Setup takes five days.
If you want the arithmetic on what an unanswered phone is worth before you look at that, our page on the cheapest way to answer a restaurant phone runs the options in order of cost, and what an AI receptionist is and does explains the category.
How much should I charge for catering?
Price the job so food lands inside the ATO's published Catering services cost-of-sales band, which for the 2023-24 data year is 31 to 43 per cent of turnover for businesses under A$200,000 and 32 to 41 per cent from A$200,001 to A$600,000. Build the quote as food, then labour at award rates, then vehicle, hire and breakages, then margin. A single multiplier applied to food cost will underprice any job with weekend or public holiday hours in it.
What is a normal food cost percentage for a caterer?
There is no single number, and the ATO data is the reason. A caterer's cost-of-sales range is 31 to 43 per cent in the lowest turnover band against 32 to 39 per cent for a restaurant. The catering range is wider at every band because the guest count moves, you cook once with no second service to absorb an error, and there is nowhere to sell leftovers. Price per job and check the month, rather than chasing one percentage.
How much do you charge per head for catering in Australia?
Per head pricing only works once you have costed the labour, because catering hours are weekend and evening hours. On Skai Solutions' own worked example, a 60 guest function with A$14.50 of food a head, 27 staff hours and A$300 of vehicle and hire costs invoiced at A$55 a head puts food at 26.4 per cent of the bill, which is under the ATO band and usually means the labour line has been underpriced rather than the food overpriced.
Which award covers catering staff?
It depends on whose catering it is. MA000119 clause 4.2 covers catering carried out by a restaurant business, so a restaurant catering on the side keeps the award it already uses. Clause 4.4 excludes contract caterers whose principal business is catering, and those employers sit under MA000009, which names caterers in its coverage clause. Check your own case with Fair Work.
Does it cost more to cater a function after 7pm?
If you are a contract caterer, yes. The evening loading starts at 7pm under MA000009 and 10pm under MA000119, so a dedicated caterer pays three loaded hours on a 7pm to 11pm function that a restaurant doing the same job does not. That is A$8.85 per person per night at the current loading.
What do I charge for catering on a public holiday?
More, and the amount is calculable. A public holiday adds exactly 125 per cent of the base hourly rate per hour, for permanent and casual staff alike. At Level 2 that is A$33.85 an hour per person on top of the normal rate, so five staff on a six hour function is A$1,015.50 of surcharge before any food is bought. That is Skai Solutions' arithmetic from the published award rates.
Should a restaurant charge the same for catering as for dining in?
No, and usually it should charge less per head and still make more. Your kitchen, equipment and insurance are already carried by the dining room, so the catering job only has to cover its own food, labour and transport. The real test is whether the prep hours it takes would have earned more in the dining room that day.