General Retail Industry Award
Covers retail establishments selling or hiring goods and services to final consumers. 8 classifications (L1-L8) with junior rates restricted to L1-L3, both 3-year and 4-year apprentice pathways split pre / post 1 January 2014, and adult-apprentice floor rules. Standard rate is Retail Employee Level 4.
Fully built. Rates, allowances, penalties and any required apprentice / junior rates are all wired to the rate resolver and have been verified against the consolidated award text and the latest pay guide.
Official Fair Work rates. This award’s minimum pay rates are synced directly from the Fair Work Commission’s Modern Awards Pay Database and updated automatically when the Commission changes them - including the annual wage review - so payroll always uses the current legal minimums without a manual update.
What's built
- All 8 cl. 17.1 classifications at the corrected July 2025 figures.
- Junior rates (L1-L3 only) from under-16 (45%) through 20-year-old, with the 20-year >6-months-service step up to 100%.
- Apprentice grids: 4-year pre-2014, 4-year post-2014 with year-12 split, 3-year post-2014 with year-12 split, plus adult-apprentice Year 1 (80% floor) and Year 2+ (L1 floor) per cl. 17.4.
- Higher duties - whole-shift rate when >2 hours at higher classification, pro-rata otherwise (cl. 17.5).
- All cl. 19 allowances including the FT / PT laundry split, two meal-OT bands, cold-work + sub-zero stack, first-aid, liquor licence and Broken Hill.
- Tiered Mon-Sat OT (150% first 3 hours, 200% after) and Sunday / PH at 200% / 250%.
Known limitations
- Table 8 (3-year apprenticeship pre-1 Jan 2014 start) is not seeded - closed cohort. Contact support if you have an in-flight apprentice on that variant.
- Cl. 22.2 public-holiday substitute provision (FT / PT may forgo the 125% extra in exchange for paid time off) is captured as configuration but enforcement is a payroll-time check.
Setup & special instructions
- Junior rates apply only to retail employees Levels 1-3. Don't apply them to Levels 4-8.
- Adult apprentices: cl. 17.4 prescribes a 'greater of' rule - the seeded floor is the 80% / L1 anchor, but the resolver compares against the relevant Table 7 / 9 percentage at payslip time.
- Pre-existing employees who entered a training agreement after ≥6 months FT (or ≥12 months PT / regular casual) keep their pre-apprenticeship rate throughout (cl. 17.4(c)/(d)).
- • Retail
- • General retail
- • Shops
The consolidated award text is the authoritative source. Always confirm specific obligations against the award itself - Mployr's implementation status reflects what we've seeded; it does not replace legal advice.
Want to see this award running on your data?
We can demo a pay run on the general retail award using sample employees in a sandbox tenant - including any of the special-instruction steps above so you can see exactly what your team's day-to-day looks like.
Book a demo