Pastoral Award
Covers the pastoral industry - broadacre crops, livestock, piggery operations, poultry farming, and shearing. 19 classifications across three operational streams (Farm and Livestock Hand 8 levels, Piggery Attendant 7 levels, Poultry Farm Worker 4 levels) plus separate shearing-operations rules in Part 9. Standard rate is Farm and Livestock Hand Level 2.
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 19 cl. 32.1 / 37.1 / 47.1 classifications at the July 2025 figures.
- Junior rates at the same scale across all three streams: under-16 (50%) through 19-year-old (90%), 20+ as adult.
- With-keep deduction ($159.34/week) - overtime and PH rates calculated on the ordinary hourly rate BEFORE the deduction (cl. 35.4).
- Hours-of-work setup - FT 38h/week averaged over a 4-week period; PT 3-hour minimum (2 hours for dairy operator under-18 secondary student); casual 3-hour minimum (2 hours for the same dairy carve-out).
- Casual loading 25% per cl. 11.3.
Known limitations
- Shearing operations (Part 9 - piece-rate / composite categories for shearers, crutchers and woolpressers) are not yet seeded.
- Station-cooks have separate hours-of-work and overtime provisions per cl. 34.3 - confirm setup if you employ station cooks.
Setup & special instructions
- Each employee must be assigned a stream - Farm and Livestock Hand, Piggery Attendant, or Poultry Farm Worker - to drive the right rate table and stream-specific provisions.
- Dairy-operator carve-out: secondary students 18 or under may be engaged for as little as 2 hours per shift / engagement (cl. 10.7, 11.5(b)).
- If you provide keep, the $159.34/week deduction comes off total wages but overtime / PH calculations stay on the pre-deduction rate.
- • Pastoral
- • Farm and livestock
- • Piggery
- • Poultry
- • Shearing
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 pastoral 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