Restaurant Industry Award
Covers restaurants, cafés, coffee shops, takeaway food outlets and catering services where the primary purpose is the preparation and serving of food and beverages. 7 classifications (Introductory + L1-L6, standard rate Level 4 - Cook grade 3 tradesperson). Cooking-trade apprentices only - no waiting trade like MA000009, no adult-apprentice rules.
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 7 cl. 18.1 classifications at the corrected July 2025 figures.
- Junior rates per cl. 18.2 - under-17 (50%), 17 (60%), 18 (70%), 19 (85%), 20 (100%) - calculated rate rounded to the nearest $0.10.
- Cooking-trade apprentices only - both time-based (Table 5) and competency-based (Table 6) tracks at 55 / 65 / 80 / 95%.
- Penalty rates including the cl. 24.4 PH minimum payments - FT/PT 4 hours, casual 2 hours.
- Casual Sunday rate is LEVEL-DEPENDENT - L1-L2 casual = 150% (no premium over FT/PT); L3-L6 casual = 175%.
- Saturday OT tiered - first 2h at 175%, after 2h at 200%.
- PH substitute provision at 125% with paid time off (cl. 24.4(d)) and the Christmas-on-weekend clause (125% + substitute day off when Christmas falls on a weekend and isn't a PH).
Known limitations
No outstanding gaps at this revision - re-verify on the next Fair Work pay-guide release.
Setup & special instructions
- Casual Sunday rate depends on classification level - L1 / L2 casuals get 150% (same as FT/PT); L3-L6 casuals get 175%. The resolver consults the employee's classification when computing casual Sunday rates.
- There is no first-aid allowance and no motor-vehicle allowance - neither exists in MA000119.
- There are no waiting-trade apprentices in this award (unlike MA000009 Hospitality) - only cooking trade. There are also no adult-apprentice rules.
- Mon-Fri after-hours penalties use 100% + dollar-per-hour supplements (Table 8), not multipliers - confirm your payroll engine handles supplements correctly.
- • Restaurants
- • Cafés
- • Coffee shops
- • Catering
- • Takeaway food
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 restaurant industry 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