SCHADS Award Penalty Rates Explained

Weekend penalty rates under the SCHADS Award are:

• Saturday: 150% (time and a half) for full-time and part-time employees. Casuals receive 175% (150% + 25% casual loading)
• Sunday: 200% (double time) for full-time and part-time employees. Casuals receive 225% (200% + 25% casual loading)

These rates apply to all ordinary hours worked on the respective days. They are not additional — they replace the ordinary rate. A worker paid $30/hour base who works Saturday gets $45/hour, not $30 + $15.

Shift workers under SCHADS attract additional penalties for unsociable hours:

• Evening shift (finishing after 8pm but before midnight): 112.5% of the ordinary rate
• Night shift (finishing after midnight but before 8am): 115% of the ordinary rate
• Permanent night shift (where the worker is not rotated): 130% of the ordinary rate

The trap: these shift penalties do not compound with weekend penalties. A worker on a Saturday night shift gets the Saturday rate (150%) or the night shift rate (115%) — whichever is higher, not both added together.

Overtime under the SCHADS Award is triggered in two ways:

• Daily: hours worked beyond 10 in a single day (or beyond 8 hours for day workers not on a roster pattern)
• Weekly: hours worked beyond 38 in a week for full-time employees

The overtime rates are:

• First 2 hours: 150% (time and a half)
• After 2 hours: 200% (double time)

For part-time employees, overtime applies when they work beyond their agreed hours (and the employer has requested the additional work), or beyond 38 hours in a week, or beyond 10 hours in a day.

Public holidays attract the highest penalty rates in the SCHADS Award:

• Full-time and part-time: 250% for hours worked
• Casual: 275% for hours worked (250% + 25% casual loading)

Employees who are not required to work on a public holiday are entitled to be paid their ordinary rate for the day (for full-time and part-time workers who would normally work that day).

A common error: applying the public holiday rate to an entire shift that spans midnight. Only the hours actually falling on the public holiday attract the 250% rate. Hours before midnight are paid at the ordinary or evening rate.

The SCHADS Award has a clear hierarchy when multiple penalties could apply:

1. Penalties do not compound — you never add Saturday rate + overtime rate together
2. The higher rate applies — if overtime falls on a Saturday, the worker gets the higher of the overtime rate or the Saturday rate for each hour
3. Public holidays override — the public holiday rate (250%) is higher than all other penalties except double-time overtime (200% first 2 hours, then 200%) — so in practice the public holiday rate applies for most situations
4. Allowances stack — unlike penalty rates, allowances (broken shift, travel, on-call) are paid in addition to whatever penalty rate applies

Getting this interaction wrong is one of the most common payroll errors. Systems that simply add penalties together will overpay; systems that only apply one type of penalty will underpay.

Consider a full-time Level 2 disability support worker (base rate $32.19/hr) who works the following shift on a Saturday:

• Start: 2pm Saturday
• Finish: 1am Sunday

The correct calculation:

• 2pm–12am Saturday (10 hours): Saturday rate = $32.19 × 150% = $48.29/hr
• 12am–1am Sunday (1 hour): Sunday rate = $32.19 × 200% = $64.38/hr

But wait — the worker has also done 11 hours total, exceeding the 10-hour daily overtime threshold. The 11th hour (12am–1am) is already at 200% (Sunday rate), which equals the overtime rate — so no additional overtime applies for that hour.

If the shift had been entirely on Saturday (2pm–1am = 11 hours), the first 10 hours would be at 150% (Saturday) and the 11th hour would be at 200% (overtime double time, which is higher than the Saturday rate).