The Restaurant Industry Award sets no dollar laundry allowance at all: clause 21.5 requires an amount agreed with the employee or reimbursement of the real cost, and the only fixed figures sit in the Hospitality Award.
Skai Solutions builds phone agents for Australian and New Zealand venues, which means we read a lot of award clauses on behalf of operators. This page gives you the two clauses, the only three dollar figures that exist, and the reason the uniform most venues actually use attracts nothing from either side.
There is no rate. Clause 21.5 of the Restaurant Industry Award 2020 (MA000119) deals with special clothing, and on laundering it gives the employer two choices and no number. The employer must either pay a weekly laundry allowance "of an amount agreed between the employer and the employee", or reimburse the employee for the cost of laundering any item of special clothing.
That is the whole obligation. Anybody quoting you a fixed restaurant laundry allowance has read a different award. The clause also requires the employer to reimburse the cost of buying special clothing that the employer has not supplied or paid for.
"Special clothing" is doing the heavy lifting in that sentence, and the definition is narrower than most operators assume. It covers any item of clothing the employer requires the employee to wear, including waterproof and other protective clothing, but it expressly excludes shoes, hosiery, socks and any black and white attire, unless that attire is part of a uniform or formal wear.
Two kinds, and both sit in the other award. Clause 26.6 of the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 (MA000009) runs the same two options for employers generally, then names figures for two groups.
| Employer | Award and clause | Laundry amount |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant or cafe on MA000119 | MA000119 cl 21.5(c) | An amount agreed with the employee, or reimbursement of the real cost. No figure in the award. |
| Employer generally on MA000009 | MA000009 cl 26.6(c) | An amount agreed with the employee, or reimbursement of the real cost. No figure in the award. |
| Catering employer on MA000009 | MA000009 cl 26.6(d) | A$6.00 a week full time, A$2.05 for each uniform part time or casual |
| Motel employee on MA000009 | MA000009 cl 26.6(e) | A$2.40 for each uniform, capped at A$7.45 a week |
So the benchmark a restaurant operator is usually looking for, the one to check your own practice against, is A$6.00 a week per full time employee. It is the only weekly hospitality laundry figure either award puts in writing, and it is binding on catering employers rather than on a dining room. If you run a function and catering arm alongside the restaurant, check which classification your staff sit under before you assume it does not apply. Our page on which award covers your restaurant walks that decision, because getting it wrong changes a great deal more than the laundry line.
This is the part that decides the answer for most venues, and it is the part nothing written on laundry allowances says out loud.
Start with the award. Black shirt, black trousers, black apron, no logo. Both clause 21.5 and clause 26.6 exclude black and white attire from the definition of special clothing. So it is not special clothing, so there is nothing to reimburse the purchase of and nothing to pay a laundry allowance for. The employer owes nothing.
Now the employee's side, which is where staff go next. The Australian Taxation Office treats conventional clothing, its words for everyday clothing worn by people regardless of occupation, as not deductible even when the employer requires it. Black trousers are the example it gives. A compulsory uniform is deductible, but only where it is distinctive to the organisation or identifies the products or services the employer provides, and only where a workplace policy enforces it.
Put those together and you get the finding, which is ours and follows from the two sources above. The standard Australian hospitality uniform produces no employer allowance and no employee deduction. Nobody is being short changed and nobody is missing out. The cost of washing it simply sits with the person wearing it, by design, in both instruments.
One logo changes both answers at once. Put the venue's name on the shirt and it becomes special clothing under the award, so the purchase is reimbursable and the laundering must be paid or reimbursed, and it becomes a distinctive compulsory uniform to the ATO, so the employee can claim. That is the single cheapest decision in this whole area and most venues make it for branding reasons without noticing what else it moves.
Less than the argument about it costs. Here is the arithmetic, and it is ours rather than published.
A Level 2 adult full time employee on MA000119 earns A$27.08 an hour from 1 July 2026, from the Fair Work pay guide effective that date. A$6.00 a week is therefore about 13 minutes of that employee's time. Across a ten person full time roster it is A$60 a week, A$3,120 a year, which is roughly a fortnight of one person's wages on a payroll of about A$563,000. Against the lines on our restaurant labour cost percentage page it does not register.
The employee's side is smaller again. The ATO accepts A$1 a load where the load contains only work clothing and 50c a load where work clothing is mixed with personal items. Two work only loads a week is A$104 a year. Written evidence is not required for laundry claims up to A$150, provided total work related expenses stay under A$300. So for almost every uniformed hospitality worker in the country, the entire laundry claim sits inside the receipt free zone, and the paperwork everyone worries about never applies.
Two cautions the ATO states and operators get wrong when staff ask. Receiving an allowance does not create a deduction: the employee can claim only what was actually spent, not the amount of the allowance. And the allowance is assessable income the employee has to declare.
Only if you did the paperwork on day one, and this is the clause worth acting on today. Clause 21.5(d) lets the employer require the employee to sign a receipt listing each item of special clothing and its value at the start of employment. Clause 21.5(e) then lets the employer deduct from final wages the value as stated on that receipt, allowing for fair wear and tear, for any item not returned. The equivalent sits at clause 26.6(g) of the hospitality award.
Read it in order. The deduction right hangs off the receipt. No signed receipt at commencement means no stated value, which means nothing to deduct against, whatever the shirts cost you. A venue losing two branded jackets a quarter is losing real money on a form that takes a minute at induction and almost nobody uses. Staff turnover is where that money goes, and our page on restaurant staff turnover has the rest of that number.
The clause also protects the employee: no deduction where the item was damaged, lost or stolen other than through the employee's own fault.
Four moves, cheapest first.
If none of those work because the real problem is that your wage bill has moved past what the roster can carry, the laundry line is not where to look. Start with the award rates themselves and with how casual loading changes the hourly cost.
We are not a payroll adviser and this is a reading of two award clauses and one ATO page, all linked above, on 6 October 2026. Award clause numbering changes between variations, enterprise agreements can displace the award entirely, and a classification question is worth asking Fair Work rather than guessing. If an employee disputes an allowance, the Fair Work Pay and Conditions Tool answers it for your exact circumstances and this page does not.
Only this, and it is the honest version. The allowance is a fixed cost that does not move with trade. The line that does move is revenue, and the cheapest revenue in a venue is the booking that rings during service while every pair of hands is busy. Skai Solutions answers on the first ring, takes the booking and sends it through, so the hour nobody could reach the phone is not also the hour you lost next Friday's covers. Setup takes five days.
If your phone mostly carries suppliers and the occasional wrong number, a basic message taking plan is the right buy and it is not us. If it carries bookings while you are on the pass, read what an AI receptionist for a restaurant actually does and judge it against what a missed Saturday costs you.
What is the laundry allowance in the Restaurant Industry Award?
There is no fixed rate. Clause 21.5(c) of MA000119 requires the employer to pay a weekly laundry allowance of an amount agreed between the employer and the employee, or to reimburse the employee for the actual cost of laundering special clothing.
How much is the hospitality laundry allowance a week?
A$6.00 a week for a full time employee and A$2.05 for each uniform for a part time or casual employee, under clause 26.6(d) of the Hospitality Industry (General) Award, and that figure binds catering employers. Motel employees are A$2.40 for each uniform capped at A$7.45 a week under clause 26.6(e).
Do I have to pay a laundry allowance for black and white clothing?
No. Both awards exclude shoes, hosiery, socks and any black and white attire from the definition of special clothing, unless the attire is part of a uniform or formal wear. A plain black shirt and black trousers with no logo attracts neither reimbursement nor a laundry allowance.
Can an employee claim laundry on their tax return without receipts?
The ATO accepts A$1 a load for a load containing only work clothing and 50c a load for a mixed load, and written evidence is not required for laundry claims up to A$150 where total work related expenses stay under A$300. Conventional clothing such as black trousers cannot be claimed at all, even when the employer requires it.
Is a laundry allowance taxable?
The ATO states that an allowance is assessable income the employee must declare, and that receiving it does not by itself create a deduction: the employee can only claim what was actually spent.
Can I deduct the cost of a uniform a staff member did not hand back?
Only where you took a signed receipt listing the clothing and its value at the start of employment. Clause 21.5(d) and (e) of MA000119 let you deduct the receipted value allowing for fair wear and tear, but not where the item was damaged, lost or stolen other than through the employee's fault.