Fast Food Industry Award [MA000003]: Pay rates, allowances and overtime

The Fast Food Industry Award 2020 ensures that roles such as counter staff, cooks, and delivery drivers receive the right pay and entitlements.

This guide covers everything to do with Fast Food Award pay. It includes essentials like minimum pay rates, allowances, overtime, penalty rates, leave, and public holidays.

Note, everything in this article is up to date as of September 2025. Always check the latest version of the Award for the most current details.

Fast Food Industry Award pay

The pay rates in the Fast Food Industry Award are separate from the national minimum wage that the Fair Work Commission (FWC) sets. If you employ people in fast food, you must pay at least these award rates.

• Full-time staff earn the minimum weekly rate for their classification.

• Part-time staff earn at least the minimum hourly rate for their level.

• Casuals earn the same hourly rate plus a 25% casual loading for every hour they work.

With wage theft laws in place, getting pay right has never been more important. Payroll software that can interpret modern awards takes the stress out of compliance. It does this by automatically applying the right rates.

Minimum pay rates

Fast Food Industry Award allowances

In addition to the minimum pay rates, the Fast Food Award includes a few allowances. These exist to cover extra costs your employees might bear while undertaking their roles. Here are some of the main ones:

• Cold work allowance: If an employee works in refrigerated areas or stock freezers, you need to pay them an extra $0.37 per hour. If the work takes place below 0 °C, you must add an extra $0.56 per hour. This makes it $0.93 per hour overall.

• Meal allowance for overtime: If you require overtime of more than one hour without giving 24 hours’ notice and the employee can’t reasonably get home for a meal? Then you need to pay them an extra $16.65. If that overtime goes beyond four hours, you must add another $15.04.

• Clothing and laundry: You need to provide or reimburse special uniforms or protective clothing you require employees to wear. And if employees must wash those uniforms themselves? Then you need to pay $6.25 per week for full-timers or $1.25 per shift for part-time and casual employees.

• Motor vehicle allowance: If an employee uses their own car for work tasks, you need to pay $0.52 per km when they deliver your products. Otherwise, it's $0.98 per km for other work travel.

• Broken Hill (Yancowinna) allowance: If an employee works in the Broken Hill area (County of Yancowinna, NSW)? You need to pay them a weekly allowance of $45.73 on top of their usual wage.

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Fast Food Award superannuation

Super rules mostly come from the Superannuation Guarantee (Administration) Act 1992 and the National Employment Standard (NES). The Fast Food Award just adds some detail about which funds you can use if an employee doesn’t nominate their own.

Here’s what you need to know:

• How much to pay: Super is currently 12% of an employee’s ordinary time earnings (OTE). Most businesses pay it with each pay run. At the latest, you must pay it quarterly.

• Who gets it: All employees aged 18 and over get super. For employees under 18, you only pay super if they work over 30 hours in a week.

• Fund choice: New starters must fill out a Standard Choice Form during the onboarding process. If they don’t pick a fund, check with the ATO for their stapled fund. If they don’t have one, you can pay into one of the award’s default funds.

• Extra contributions: Employees can ask you in writing to send extra contributions (salary sacrifice or post-tax). Once you deduct the money, you must send it to their fund within 28 days of the end of the month.

• During leave or injury: You keep paying super when employees are on paid leave. You also keep paying for up to 52 weeks if they’re away with a work-related injury or illness. This is assuming they’re still employed and receiving workers’ comp or other regular payments.

Fast Food Industry Award overtime

Overtime and penalty rates protect employees when they work beyond their usual hours. According to the Fast Food Award, you must pay overtime when:

• An employee works over 38 ordinary hours in a week (or when averaged over four weeks).

• An employee works over 11 ordinary hours in one day.

• They work outside the spread of ordinary hours for their classification.

• They work on a rostered day off that isn’t substituted or banked.

• Part-time employees get overtime any time they work hours beyond the agreed ordinary hours for that role.

Note: Employees who work overtime must have a minimum 10-hour break between the end of overtime and the start of their next shift. If they don’t get this break, you need to pay them at double time until they can take it.

Overtime pay example

Sarah is a full-time fast food employee who earns $30 an hour. One week she works an extra six hours: two hours on Tuesday and four hours on Saturday.

• Tuesday (first 2 hours of overtime): 2 × $30 × 1.5 = $90

• Saturday (4 hours overtime): 4 × $30 × 2 = $240

Sarah earns $330 in overtime on top of her usual pay for that week.

Time off instead of overtime pay

The Fast Food Industry Award lets employers and employees agree to time off in lieu (TOIL) instead of paying overtime.

• How it works: For each hour of overtime worked, the employee takes an hour off later.

• Agreement: Both sides must agree in writing. The agreement must record the overtime hours, how the time off will be taken, and that the employee can ask for payment instead.

• Deadline: Employees must use TOIL within six months of working the overtime. They must take it at a time agreed upon with you.

• Records: You must keep a copy of every TOIL agreement.

Fast Food Award penalty rates

Penalty rates kick in when employees work outside their ordinary hours, but the time doesn’t count as overtime. These higher rates make sure your employees get extra pay for the disruption of working outside standard hours.

Penalty rates

Note: Casual percentage includes casual loading.

Fast Food Industry Award leave

Most leave rights come from the NES. The Fast Food Award adds some rules about loading, shutdowns, and managing excessive balances.

Annual leave

• Entitlement: Full-time employees get four weeks of paid annual leave each year. Part-time staff build up the same amount of leave, but on a pro rata basis. Casuals don’t get annual leave (they get casual loading instead).

• Leave loading: Add 17.5% on top of an employee’s minimum rate while they’re on annual leave or the weekend penalty they would have earned. You pay whichever is higher.

• Advance leave: You and an employee can agree in writing for them to take annual leave before it’s accrued. If they leave the business before accruing it, you can deduct the balance from their termination pay.

• Cashing out: You can cash out up to two weeks of an employee's annual leave in a 12-month period, but only by written agreement. The employee must keep at least four weeks of annual leave in their balance.

• Excessive leave: More than eight weeks of annual leave counts as excessive. If you can’t agree with the employee on reducing it, you can direct leave. However, the employee must keep at least six weeks accrued. And you can’t direct more than four weeks in a 12-month period. Employees with excessive leave can also require you to grant some of it under strict rules.

• Termination: You must pay out all unused annual leave, including leave loading, when employment ends.

Other types of leave

• Sick leave/personal carer’s leave: Full-time employees get 10 days of paid sick leave each year, also called personal carer’s leave. Part-time staff also get this, but on a pro rata basis. Casuals don’t get paid sick leave. They can take up to 48 hours of unpaid carer’s leave per occasion to look after an immediate family or household member, though.

• Compassionate leave: Employees can take two days per occasion if a close family or household member dies or suffers a life-threatening illness or injury. Full-time and part-time staff get paid compassionate leave; casuals take it unpaid.

• Parental leave: Full-time, part-time, and regular casuals with at least 12 months’ service can take up to 12 months of unpaid parental leave. They also have the option of requesting another 12 months.

• Community service leave: Employees can take leave for eligible community service like jury duty or emergency service. Full-time and part-time employees get paid for the first 10 days of jury duty. All other community service leave is unpaid.

• Family and domestic violence leave: All employees (including casuals) get 10 days of paid family and domestic violence leave each year.

Public holidays

• Entitlement: Full-time and part-time employees get a paid day off if a public holiday falls on their normal workday. Casuals only get paid if they actually work on the public holiday.

• Penalty rates: If employees work on a public holiday, you must pay them at 225% of their minimum hourly rate. Casuals get 250%. You also need to pay them for at least four hours, even if the shift is shorter.

• Substitution: You and an employee can agree in writing to swap a public holiday (or part-day holiday) for another day.

• Requests to work: You can ask someone to work on a public holiday if the request is reasonable. The employee can refuse if they have reasonable grounds.

• Recognised days: Public holidays include national days like Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Easter, and Anzac Day, plus state and territory-specific holidays. When a holiday falls on a weekend, a substitute weekday normally applies.

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Fast Food Award payment management tips

Nuances of the Fast Food Award

The Fast Food Industry Award has a few quirks that often catch employers off guard. Understanding these nuances helps you budget correctly, roster staff fairly, and avoid compliance issues.

Get Fast Food Industry Award pay right with Rippling

The Fast Food Industry Award has no shortage of rules. From late-night loadings to weekend penalties, casual loadings, allowances, and super, there’s a lot to get right. If you try to manage it all manually, it can be a recipe for errors and underpayments.

Rippling takes the stress out of it. The platform understands the award and applies the right rates automatically. This is true whether an employee's working a late Friday close, a Sunday lunch rush, or a public holiday shift. You don’t have to struggle with numbers or second-guess spreadsheets.

Rippling also takes care of all the extras, from super to annual leave loading and final payouts when staff move on (which happens often in the fast food industry).

Because Rippling is an all-in-one HR, payroll, and IT software built on a single source of truth, everything connects. Time tracking and approved leave requests flow straight into payroll. Changes to hours update across the system. And updates to the Fast Food Award apply automatically.

All you do is review, approve, and pay. No more late nights in the back office balancing rosters and pay slips.

Fast Food Award pay FAQs

What rest break and meal break must I provide?

For a shift of four hours or more, you must give one paid 10-minute rest break. For a shift of five hours or more, you must give a meal break of 30–60 minutes, which is unpaid. If a shift goes over nine hours, the employee must also get a second rest break and sometimes a second unpaid meal break.

You must schedule breaks properly. You can’t put them in the first or last hour of a shift. And you can’t run them back-to-back.

Do unpaid meal breaks count as time worked?

No, unpaid meal breaks don’t count as time worked. That means they don’t contribute to hours when calculating ordinary time, overtime, or maximum hours. Rest breaks, on the other hand, are paid and do count as time worked.

What are the minimum entitlements for ordinary hours worked Monday to Friday?

Full-time employees under the Fast Food Award work an average of 38 ordinary hours per week, which you can average over a period of up to four weeks. You can roster ordinary hours across the week, but if they fall Monday to Friday, they must be within the spread set by the Award and cannot exceed 11 ordinary hours in a single day.

Any time beyond this count triggers overtime.

When do I have to pay relevant weekend penalty rates?

You must pay relevant weekend penalty rates for ordinary hours worked on Saturdays and Sundays. Saturday work attracts 125% for full-timers and part-timers, and 150% for casuals. Sunday rates differ by classification: Level 1 employees get 125% (150% if casual), while Level 2 and Level 3 employees get 150% (175% if casual).

How and when should I pay an employee their week’s wages?

You must pay employees either weekly or fortnightly, and once you set a pay cycle, you must stick to it. The award allows you to pay wages by cash, cheque, or electronic funds transfer (EFT) into the employee’s nominated bank account.

For full-time staff, check that their weekly pay is at least equal to their week’s wages under the award. That’s 38 hours multiplied by their minimum hourly rate (plus any applicable loadings). For part-time and casual staff, calculate their pay using the Award’s minimum hourly rates. Then, add the correct penalty rates or loadings for the hours they worked.

How do I ensure fair treatment and compliance with record requirements?

You must pay at least the minimum wage rates set by the Award and the National Employment Standards to ensure fair treatment. You also need to keep a written record of hours worked, classifications, penalty rates applied, and break times.

Keep an eye on continuous service, as it affects entitlements like annual leave accrual and redundancy. If you’re ever unsure, check the guidance from the Fair Work Ombudsman.