Live Performance Award
Covers theatrical, musical, operatic, dance, circus, comedy and stage productions. Three main employee categories - Production and Support Staff (across 4 sub-sectors: touring sound / lighting, crewing, factory sound / lighting, and other), Performers, and Musicians. Standard rate is Production Level 4. Touring sound / lighting carries higher rates with the 17.5% touring loading baked in.
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
- Production and Support Staff - Levels 1-8 plus Technical Manager, in both non-touring and touring sound / lighting variants.
- Performer classifications - C1G1, C1G2, C2, Supernumerary (on tour / not on tour), Opera Principal, plus the new Striptease Artists Part 7 classifications (bar / waiting and performer).
- Musician classifications - Conductor-Leader (corrected to weekly $1,561.00), Musician, Musician accompanying artists, Principal Musician, Vocalist, plus Repetiteurs.
- 17 performer / dancer wage-related allowances per cl. 32.2 / Schedule B.1 - Nude, ASM, Tour driver, TV / radio ad, four understudy weekly tiers, four understudy per-performance tiers, Dance Captain, Deputy / Rehearsal Director, Company dancer supervising classes, Wardrobe and make-up.
- 11 musician allowances per cl. 41.2 - Doubling 14.5% / 9.5%, Supply of music, Soloist, Setup time, Specialty +66.7%, Televised, Radio broadcast, Simulcast, AV recording, Audio recording.
- Production Part 8 allowances (Transmission, Tool weekly / daily) and 7 general travel allowances (cl. 14.3) - Airport, Accommodation tiers, Incidentals daily / weekly, Meals.
- Touring sound / lighting 17.5% loading, crewing 11pm-6am 52.5% loading, Sunday 4-hour minimum, child performer rates (45% / 55% under 14 / 16), audition paid after 3 in 28 days, sector-specific rest periods.
Known limitations
- Per-event / per-call / %-of-weekly-wage / composite '$X/hr + $Y/day' rates require the extended `award_rates` schema added by migration 2026_04_30_120000 - confirm that migration has run in your environment.
Setup & special instructions
- Each employee must be assigned a category - production_*, performer or musician - and a production sub-sector if production. Touring sound / lighting employees use a separate higher rate set with the 17.5% loading already baked in.
- Cleaners - between 6am and 7am - pay 120% rather than the higher non-cleaner rate.
- Casual loading IS paid on overtime in this award (per the audit) - opposite to many other awards.
- Conductor-Leader and the named musician classifications were previously stored as fabricated hourly × 38; they're now stored at the correct weekly figures from cl. 11.1 Level 15 with the by-the-call hourly retained as base_hourly_rate.
- • Live performance
- • Theatre
- • Opera
- • Dance
- • Musicians
- • Production crew
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 live performance 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