SCHADS Penalty Rates Explained: Table and Examples

SCHADS penalty rates are easier to review when the calculation begins with the worker’s classification, employment type and actual shift. A Saturday rate, night loading and overtime rate are different rules. Adding every percentage that sounds relevant can overstate pay, while applying one flat daily rate can miss an entitlement.

This guide uses the SCHADS Award, MA000100, checked on 12 October 2026. Confirm award coverage and any enterprise agreement before using the table. The table describes ordinary hours; overtime and special arrangements require separate review. Dollar examples use a fictional $40 ordinary hourly rate to make the arithmetic visible. They do not state a current minimum wage for any classification, and should not be used to classify or pay an employee without checking the applicable rate.

Clauses 26 and 34 provide the ordinary Saturday, Sunday and public-holiday rates below. Percentages are total rates relative to the applicable ordinary base rate. The casual column already includes casual loading; adding another twenty-five percent would count it twice.

The table does not turn overtime into ordinary hours, establish whether a particular day is the relevant public holiday, or resolve award coverage. Check the employee’s work location, calendar and applicable arrangements. Permanent includes covered full-time and part-time employees for this table.

Keep the base rate, employment type, paid hours and rule applied visible in the calculation. A total without those inputs is difficult to review when a roster is corrected after the pay run.

Under clause 29.2, an afternoon shift finishes after 8 pm and at or before midnight Monday to Friday. A night shift finishes after midnight or starts before 6 am Monday to Friday. Clause 29.3 provides loadings of 12.5% and 15% respectively, subject to the award conditions.

These definitions concern the ordinary shift, rather than separate clock-hour bands. For an ordinary weekday shift from 4 pm to 1 am, the finish after midnight makes it a night shift. The applicable loading is not limited to the hour after midnight. Check the full shift definition and any relevant special arrangements.

Weekend premiums replace shift premiums for those ordinary hours under the award’s substitution provisions. Do not automatically add afternoon or night loading on top of an ordinary weekend rate. Work immediately before and after a sleepover also has specific loading treatment following the June 2026 changes; inspect those portions separately.

For full-time employees, overtime can arise from work beyond rostered ordinary hours or outside the dayworker span, not just from passing thirty-eight hours in a calendar week. Ordinary-hours averaging and the actual roster matter. Check the employee’s arrangement before deciding which hours are ordinary.

For full-time home-care employees working overtime Monday to Saturday, clause 28 provides 150% for the first two hours and 200% afterwards. Social-and-community-services and crisis accommodation provisions use a different first-hours threshold (time and a half for the first three hours). Sunday overtime is 200% and public-holiday overtime 250%, subject to the applicable clause.

Part-time and casual overtime has its own thresholds, including weekly or fortnightly totals and daily or shift limits. Special agreed sleepover arrangements can affect the ordinary-hours limit. Do not import the full-time home-care example into every employment type. Where overtime applies, check the substitution provisions instead of stacking the ordinary weekend or shift premium onto it.

Assume a fictional full-time home-care employee has a hypothetical $40 ordinary base rate and works eight ordinary Saturday hours followed by three overtime hours. Assume the roster and award conditions support that allocation and no other entitlement changes it.

Ordinary work is 8 × $40 × 1.5 = $480. The first two overtime hours are 2 × $40 × 1.5 = $120. The third overtime hour is 1 × $40 × 2 = $80. These wage components total $680. Do not add the ordinary Saturday premium again to the overtime components.

If the employer required and authorised twenty kilometres of own-vehicle travel during duties within the temporary allowance period, reimbursement is 20 × $1.05 = $21, producing illustrated components of $701. Tax, superannuation and other possible entitlements are excluded. Review the actual classification rate and work pattern before using any calculated total.

A penalty rate does not cover every allowance. Review own-vehicle use, first-aid responsibilities, broken shifts and sleepovers where relevant. Each has its own conditions and evidence. A mileage claim should identify authorised use during duties and kilometres; a sleepover record should distinguish the allowance from active work.

The temporary own-vehicle rate in clause 20.7(aa) is $1.05 per kilometre from 1 September 2026 to 28 February 2027. The award states $1.01 for the surrounding periods specified in clause 20.7(a). Store an end date for the temporary rate so a future pay run does not continue it indefinitely.

Broken-shift allowances are separate from the weekend, public-holiday or overtime treatment of work periods. Sleepover work is paid under its specific overtime and minimum-payment provisions. Review the current award rather than assuming that a single overnight allowance settles the whole shift.

Clause 10.5 requires covered part-time and casual home-care employees to receive at least two hours’ payment for each relevant shift or work period in a broken shift. Social-and-community-services work other than disability services has a three-hour minimum under that clause.

If actual work is shorter, the minimum payment may require a payroll adjustment at the appropriate rate. That adjustment does not mean the worker delivered the extra time to a participant. Keep payroll entitlements separate from client service records and funding claims.

Review the sequence before calculating a top-up. Paid travel or further work may form part of the same work period. A break inside the minimum-payment period can count as worked time under clause 25.6(c). Do not label it unpaid and then pay another minimum elsewhere without checking the true pattern. Keep the reason for any adjustment available to the reviewer.

Statura’s SCHADS payroll software page describes classification-based shift costing, minimum-engagement checks and payroll-ready exports. Evaluate the workflow with a corrected shift that contains ordinary time, overtime and a separate allowance. Ask the reviewer to explain each component from its source record.

Check whether employment type, classification, effective rate and relevant shift details remain visible. Confirm how adjustments are reviewed and how an approved export relates to the worked-time record. Software supports the employer’s review; it does not determine lawful coverage from a job title alone or replace an enterprise-agreement assessment.

For additional context, read the payroll compliance guide and rostering guide. A payroll-ready roster still needs reconciliation to actual work. Correcting an allowance must not silently change a participant’s delivered-service record.

Check coverage, classification, employment type, actual work periods, ordinary-hours arrangement, overtime triggers, shift definitions, public-holiday treatment and separate allowances. Confirm that casual loading and weekend premiums have not been counted twice. Review minimum payments for the relevant work periods.

Keep the award version and effective dates with the procedure. When a shift changes, recalculate the affected components and record why. If the worker’s classification is corrected, assess the period affected rather than updating only the next roster.

Where the facts or applicable agreement remain uncertain, seek the appropriate employment advice before approval. The purpose of a penalty-rate table is to make the ordinary-rate comparison easier to read. It cannot resolve every shift pattern, and it should never replace the clause-level review that explains the employee’s actual entitlement.