Do Casuals Get Overtime Under SCHADS? And Is Overtime Exempt From Super?

Clause 28.1(b) of the SCHADS Award deals with part-time and casual employees together, and sets out three separate thresholds. Any one of them triggers overtime:

• Weekly / fortnightly (clause 28.1(b)(i)) — all time worked in excess of 38 hours per week or 76 hours per fortnight is overtime: time and a half for the first 2 hours and double time thereafter. On Sundays that overtime is double time; on public holidays, double time and a half. Our reading is that which of the two limits applies depends on how the employee's ordinary hours are arranged, covered below.
• Daily (clause 28.1(b)(ii)) — all time worked which exceeds 10 hours per day or per shift is paid at time and a half for the first 2 hours and double time thereafter, with the same Sunday and public holiday substitutions.
• Sleepover-adjacent (clause 28.1(b)(iii)) — where part of a shift is worked immediately before and part immediately after a sleepover, the daily threshold lifts from 10 hours to 12 hours. This only applies if the employee and employer have agreed to a 12-hour shift structured that way (clause 28.1(b)(iv)), and even then a maximum of 8 ordinary hours may be worked before or after the sleepover period.

Those are the award's multiples. For a casual the 25% loading is paid on top of them; the next section sets out the resulting rates.

Clause 28.1(b)(v) makes the corollary explicit: time worked up to the daily thresholds is not overtime, and is paid at the ordinary rate of pay — including the casual loading for casuals. So a casual working a 9-hour day has not worked overtime on that day, unless they have already passed the weekly or fortnightly limit, because clause 28.1(b)(v) is expressly "subject to" clause 28.1(b)(i). A casual working an 11-hour day has worked one hour of it.

There is also a span-of-hours trigger. Under clause 28.1(b)(vi), all time worked outside the span of hours by part-time and casual day workers is paid at overtime rates.

Clause 28.1(b) states the overtime multiples (time and a half, double time, double time and a half) but does not spell out the casual loading in that clause. The Fair Work Ombudsman's pay guide for the SCHADS Award pays casual overtime as the multiple plus the 25% casual loading from clause 10.4, which is 25% of the base rate (clause 10.4: "In addition, a loading of 25% of that rate will be paid"). The loading is added, not compounded: 150% + 25% = 175%, not 150% × 1.25. The award itself states the same additive pattern outright for casual weekend work (clauses 26.3 and 26.4), public holidays (clause 34.2(c) and (d)) and remote work (clause 25.10(d)(i)).

• Monday to Saturday, first 2 hours — 175% of the base rate
• Monday to Saturday, after the first 2 hours — 225%
• Sunday — 225% (double time plus the loading, the same as the casual Sunday rate in clause 26.4(b))
• Public holiday — 275% (double time and a half plus the loading, as in clause 34.2(d))

For example, the pay guide's figures for a social and community services employee at Level 1, pay point 1 (base rate $27.55 an hour, unchanged since 1 July 2026; home care rates differ) are $48.21, $61.99 and $75.76 for the first, second and public holiday bands, and $61.99 for Sundays. Other classifications follow the same percentages of their own base rate, so look up your classification in the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide for MA000100.

For a casual under clause 28.1(b)(i) and (ii), the first band is always 2 hours, whichever stream the employee works in. The 3-hour band for social and community services employees applies to full-time employees only (clause 28.1(a)(ii)).

This is the single most-asked version of the question. For a casual or part-time employee, clause 28.1(b)(i) sets the limit at 38 hours per week or 76 hours per fortnight, and our reading is that which one applies depends on how the employee's ordinary hours are arranged. The award does not say so in terms, so confirm it for your roster. Clause 25.1(a) provides that ordinary hours are 38 hours per week or an average of 38 hours per week, and lets them be worked in a week, or in a fortnight of 76 hours (clause 25.1(a)(ii)).

• Weekly arrangement — hours worked over 38 in a week are overtime. A 42-hour week has 4 hours of overtime, and a lighter week afterwards does not absorb them.
• Fortnightly arrangement — the limit is 76 hours across the fortnight. A week of 42 hours followed by a week of 32 totals 74, which is not overtime on the 38/76 limit even though one week passed 38, because the hours are averaged over the fortnight. The same 42 + 32 would carry 4 hours of overtime on a weekly arrangement. Hours beyond 76 in the fortnight are overtime.

So the 42 + 32 example has no single answer; it turns on the arrangement. Check the employee's contract or roster for which one applies, and if nothing records it, settle that before the pay run. (Clause 25.1(a)(iii) also allows a four-week cycle of 152 hours, but clause 28.1(b)(i) names only the weekly and fortnightly limits, so get advice on how a four-week roster is tested.)

The daily threshold stacks independently. A casual can work well under 38 hours in a week, or under 76 in a fortnight, and still be owed overtime because a single day ran past 10 hours; fortnightly averaging does not remove the daily limit. Both tests need to run over every pay period, not just the one that looks riskiest.

Full-time overtime works differently, and the stream matters. Under clause 28.1(a), a full-time employee is paid overtime for all work done in addition to their rostered ordinary hours on any day or shift, and for day workers, work outside the span of hours in clause 25.2(a):

• Disability services, home care and day care employees — time and a half for the first 2 hours, double time thereafter, Monday to Saturday (clause 28.1(a)(i)).
• Social and community services and crisis accommodation employees — time and a half for the first 3 hours, double time thereafter, Monday to Saturday (clause 28.1(a)(ii)).
• Sunday — double time (clause 28.1(a)(iii)).
• Public holiday — double time and a half (clause 28.1(a)(iv)).

That 2-hours-versus-3-hours difference between streams is a real and frequently missed distinction — one more reason the stream a worker sits in is not a paperwork detail.

A trap that produces overpayments as often as underpayments. Overtime rates are in substitution for, and not cumulative upon, other loadings:

• For full-time employees, clause 28.1(a)(v) states overtime rates substitute for the shift premiums in clause 29 (Shiftwork) and the Saturday and Sunday premiums in clause 26.
• For part-time and casual employees, clause 28.1(b)(vii) states overtime rates substitute for the clause 29 shift premiums and are not applicable to ordinary hours worked on a Saturday or Sunday.

So a casual working ordinary hours on a Saturday is paid the Saturday rate, not an overtime rate — the weekend penalty is not overtime. Overtime only enters once one of the clause 28.1(b) thresholds is crossed, and when it does, it replaces the shift premium rather than sitting on top of it. The one component that stays is the casual loading, which the pay guide adds to whichever rate applies, overtime included. This is different from allowances such as the broken shift allowance, which do stack.

Generally yes. Since 1 July 2026 (Payday Super), the super guarantee is 12% of an employee's qualifying earnings (QE). Overtime payments are not ordinary time earnings and so are not qualifying earnings — provided the employee's ordinary hours of work are clearly identified in an award or agreement. That is what the ATO's what payments are qualifying earnings page says, and it is the answer most people are looking for. For most award employees, qualifying earnings are in effect their ordinary time earnings.

You may still see the old ATO ruling on ordinary time earnings, SGR 2009/2, quoted for this. It was withdrawn from 1 July 2026. Its replacement, draft Law Companion Ruling LCR 2026/D1, is still a draft, so the ATO page above is the current statement to rely on.

The exemption is conditional in a way that matters for this industry. If you cannot distinctly identify the overtime amounts, all the hours actually worked are treated as ordinary hours and are qualifying earnings, so super is payable on the lot. That condition is the whole ball game for SCHADS payroll:

• If your timesheets and payslips show overtime as its own line, at its own rate, it is distinctly identifiable and the exemption applies.
• If overtime hours are folded into a single "hours worked" figure at a blended rate, or paid as an untagged top-up, you may not be able to distinguish them — and the safe conclusion is that super is payable across the whole amount.

SCHADS specifies ordinary hours (clause 25.1) and overtime (clause 28.1), which is what makes the separation possible in the first place — but only if your payroll data actually preserves it.

What is not exempt: the ATO page lists base pay for ordinary hours, the casual loading and shift penalties (including public holiday penalties) as qualifying earnings, so they count towards super.

Worth noting separately: this is an overtime answer, not a general allowance answer. The ATO page does not address the SCHADS sleepover allowance (clause 25.7) or the broken shift allowance (clause 20.12), and the ATO has not ruled on them, so do not assume they follow the overtime rule. We set out the reasoning on each side in our sleepover and broken shift allowance super guide, and the Payday Super guide for SCHADS providers covers the new deadlines. Confirm any allowance with the ATO or an adviser.

Yes. Casual employees are covered by the super guarantee on the same basis as full-time and part-time staff, at 12% of qualifying earnings, and the 25% casual loading counts towards it. The ATO's work out if you have to pay super page says employees are eligible whether they are full time, part time or casual, and that for employees aged 18 or over there is no minimum number of hours before super is payable. The ATO's super guarantee employer obligations course adds that there is no minimum amount an employee must earn. (The old $450-a-month threshold was removed from 1 July 2022.) Employees under 18 are covered if they work more than 30 hours in a week.

The super is paid by the employer into the worker's super fund, not into their bank account with their wages.

Generally no, where the casual's ordinary hours are clearly identified. Take a casual on a weekly arrangement who works 42 hours: super is calculated on the pay for the 38 ordinary hours, including the casual loading and any weekend or public holiday penalty on those hours, and not on the 4 overtime hours.

• If overtime cannot be identified in your payroll, all hours worked count as ordinary hours and super is payable on all of them.
• Casual loading and penalties on ordinary hours are always part of what super is calculated on.
• The loading inside the overtime rate is not separately addressed by the ATO page, which treats overtime payments as a whole. If you need certainty on that component, ask the ATO or your adviser.
• Timing: under Payday Super, the contribution on the qualifying part of each pay must reach the fund within 7 business days after payday (20 business days for a new employee's first contribution or the first contribution to a new fund).

Sleepovers change the daily overtime threshold, and this is where the biggest calculation errors live. The default is 10 hours (clause 28.1(b)(ii)). Where a part-time or casual worker performs part of a shift immediately before and part immediately after a sleepover, clause 28.1(b)(iii) lifts the threshold to 12 hours — but only under the conditions in clause 28.1(b)(iv):

• The employee and employer must have agreed the employee will perform a 12-hour shift structured with work before and after the sleepover.
• A maximum of 8 ordinary hours may be worked before or after the sleepover period.

Without that agreement, the threshold stays at 10 hours and the shift will generate overtime sooner than a provider assuming the 12-hour rule expects. Note too that the work before and after the sleepover is treated as part of the same shift — it is not two separate engagements you can total independently. For the surrounding rules see our 2026 sleepover changes guide and the sleepover rules reference.

Run these five questions over your last pay run:

1. Do you test the daily threshold at all? Many payroll setups only test weekly hours. A casual with an 11-hour day inside a 30-hour week is owed overtime that a weekly-only test will never surface.
2. Are you testing the right weekly or fortnightly limit? It is 38 hours a week if the employee's ordinary hours are set weekly, and 76 hours a fortnight if they are averaged over a fortnight (clauses 25.1(a) and 28.1(b)(i)). The wrong one either misses overtime or pays overtime that is not owed.
3. Does casual overtime include the 25% loading? The pay guide rates are 175%, 225% and 275% of the base rate, not the 150%, 200% and 250% an ordinary-hours employee gets.
4. Is overtime a distinct line in payroll? If not, you have a qualifying earnings problem as well as an award problem.
5. Do you have written agreements for 12-hour sleepover-adjacent shifts? Without them the threshold is 10 hours, not 12.

CrossVault's Timesheet Validator checks each employee's daily hours against the 10-hour limit and their overtime against the weekly or fortnightly limit, choosing 38 or 76 hours from the pay cycle in the timesheet. It does not hold your agreements, so for the sleepover-adjacent 12-hour threshold it raises a warning asking whether a written agreement exists. It checks hours and award rules; it does not calculate or check super.

If you are casual and you worked more than your weekly or fortnightly limit (38 hours in a week, or 76 in a fortnight if your hours are averaged over a fortnight), or more than 10 hours in a single day, some of those hours should be paid at an overtime rate rather than your ordinary casual rate. On the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide that is 175% of your base rate for the first 2 overtime hours Monday to Saturday, 225% after that and on Sundays, and 275% on public holidays, as set out above. Clause 28.1(b)(v) keeps the 25% loading on the hours below the thresholds. What should not happen is overtime hours disappearing into a single blended figure at your ordinary rate — it should appear as its own line. Upload a payslip to our free payslip check and it will compare your base rate, ordinary hours, penalties and allowances against the current SCHADS pay guide. It does not verify overtime lines or super, so check those against the rates above and your super fund's statement.