A general overview of the Miscellaneous Award [MA000104]

The Miscellaneous Award 2020 acts as a safety net for employees whose roles don’t fit neatly under another modern award. 

For employers, the Miscellaneous Award often causes confusion. Its broad coverage makes it easy to assume it’s a ‘catch-all’ with lighter rules. In reality, it comes with strict rules surrounding pay, hours, overtime, allowances, superannuation, and leave. And Fair Work enforces these rules in the same way it enforces any other award.

We put together this easy-to-understand overview of the Miscellaneous Award. You’ll find out who it covers, how employment types and rostering work, what minimum pay rates apply, and where employers commonly trip up. Where topics get detailed, we link out to our deeper guides.

Miscellaneous Award coverage

As mentioned, the Miscellaneous Award typically covers employees whose roles don’t fit squarely into another modern award. 

Who’s covered

Who isn’t covered

❌ Employees covered by another modern award

If a role fits under an industry or occupation-specific award, that award applies instead.

❌ Employees covered by an enterprise agreement

Enterprise agreements override modern awards.

❌Professional and managerial employees

Roles such as accountants, HR professionals, and IT specialists usually fall outside the award’s scope.

❌ Public sector employees

State-based awards or agreements typically cover these employees.

Employment types under the Miscellaneous Award

The Miscellaneous Award recognises three employment types:

• Full-time: Employees engaged to work an average of 38 hours per week, on an ongoing basis.

• Part-time: Employees who work less than 38 hours per week on a regular and agreed pattern of hours, with entitlements provided on a pro-rata basis.

• Casual: Employees engaged without a firm advance commitment to ongoing work. Casual employees receive a 25% casual loading instead of paid leave entitlements.

Rippling simplifies Miscellaneous Award compliance

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Miscellaneous Award ordinary hours

The Miscellaneous Award outlines clear rules about ordinary hours of work for full-time, part-time, and casual employees.

For full-time and part-time employees, ordinary hours must:

• be worked on a regular basis, with fixed starting and finishing times

• be spread over a maximum of six days per week

• average no more than 38 hours per week for full-time employees (part-time employees work fewer hours, as agreed)

On top of this, the award limits how those hours can be spread:

• An employee can’t be required to work ordinary hours on more than 20 days in any 28-day period.

• Ordinary hours can’t exceed 10 hours in a single day or shift, unless the employee agrees. In this case, the maximum increases to 12 hours.

Once you set starting and finishing times, you can only change them:

• by agreement at any time, or

• with at least seven days’ notice

These rules exist to give employees predictability around when they work and to prevent ordinary hours from creeping into unreasonable patterns.

Rostering under the Miscellaneous Award

Rostering under the Miscellaneous Award focuses on certainty, notice, and reasonable boundaries.

You must roster full-time and part-time employees with fixed start and finish times. You must also give at least seven days’ notice of any changes. This is unless the employee agrees to a shorter timeframe. This gives employees a reasonable ability to plan their time outside work.

The award also allows flexibility where both parties agree. You and your employees can adjust work arrangements by mutual agreement. And employees can request flexible working arrangements for personal reasons. You must consider these requests reasonably.

Employees who work more than five hours in a shift have a right to a 30-minute unpaid meal break. You must factor this break into rosters. 

Using scheduling software that understands the Miscellaneous Award can make this much easier. It can build notice periods, break rules, and ordinary hour limits into your rosters, so you don’t need to rely on manual checks.

Finally, roster planning needs to sit alongside the right to disconnect. Even where hours are lawful under the award, you should avoid rostering practices or after-hours contact that intrude on an employee’s reasonable personal time, unless genuinely necessary. Clear rosters, predictable hours, and sensible boundaries all help support that right in practice.

Miscellaneous Award pay rates

The Miscellaneous Award sets minimum pay rates for its employees. These rates are based on the employee’s classification level, which reflects the skill, responsibility, and complexity of the role. You must apply the correct classification and pay at least the minimum rate for all the ordinary hours they work. 

For example:

• You would pay a full-time Level 2 adult employee at least $25.85 per hour (or $982.40 per week for a 38-hour week).

• You would pay a 17-year-old Level 2 employee 57.8% of the adult rate. Based on the Level 2 rate above, this equals $14.95 per hour.

• You would pay a first-year adult apprentice (21+) $22.50 per hour (or $854.72 per week). This reflects 80% of the Level 3 adult classification rate, as required under the Miscellaneous Award.

Casual employees receive the applicable minimum rate plus a 25% casual loading. Trainees and employees under the Supported Wage System follow separate pay rules under the award.

You must pay wages at least monthly, issue compliant payslips, and pay any outstanding wages within seven days when employment ends.

Using payroll software that interprets modern awards can help apply the correct classifications, rates, and loadings automatically. This can significantly reduce the risk of underpayment as roles or rates change.

Allowances under the Miscellaneous Award

The Miscellaneous Award requires you to pay allowances when employees perform specific duties or incur work-related expenses. You must pay these allowances on top of the employee’s base award rate when the conditions apply.

For example, if you appoint an employee with the appropriate qualifications to perform first aid duties, you must pay a first aid allowance of $21.37 per week. This is in addition to their minimum pay rate.

The award also includes other allowances, such as:

• leading hand allowance for employees who supervise others

• meal allowances when employees work overtime

• vehicle allowances when employees use their own vehicles for work purposes

Miscellaneous Award superannuation

Superannuation rules under the Miscellaneous Award come from federal law, not the award itself. You must pay ‌12% of an employee’s ordinary time earnings (OTE) as superannuation, per the current superannuation guarantee. 

You must pay super for employees who are 18 or over, or under 18 and working more than 30 hours per week. This applies to full-time, part-time, and casual employees. Employees can choose their own super fund, or you must use your default fund if they don’t. Super generally continues during paid leave where OTE applies.

Note: On 1 July 2026, payday super kicks in. This means you will need to pay super at the same time as wages instead of quarterly. This makes accurate payroll timing and up-to-date systems even more important.

Miscellaneous Award overtime and penalty rates

Under the Miscellaneous Award, you must pay higher rates when an employee works beyond their ordinary hours or at times that disrupt their usual schedule. These higher rates recognise the inconvenience of working extra hours, weekends or public holidays.

Miscellaneous Award leave entitlements and public holidays

The Miscellaneous Award follows the National Employment Standards (NES) for leave and public holidays. These rules set clear minimums so employees can take time off when they need it, and employers know exactly what they must provide.

See how Rippling helps with Miscellaneous Award leave, superannuation, and more.

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Key considerations for the Miscellaneous Award

The Miscellaneous Award covers a wide range of roles that don’t sit under more specific modern awards. That broad scope can create confusion, which is where many compliance issues start.

Simplify Miscellaneous Award compliance with Rippling

The Miscellaneous Award can be hard to manage because of its broad coverage and the way pay, hours, leave, and classifications interact. Small changes, like a role shifting slightly, an employee progressing, or rates updating in July, can create compliance gaps if your systems don’t talk to each other.

Rippling helps by bringing HR, Payroll, IT, and Finance together in one all-in-one workforce management platform, built on a single source of truth. When employee details change, those updates flow straight through to payroll, time and attendance, and leave, without double handling or manual work.

Because Rippling understands modern awards, including the Miscellaneous Award, it helps apply the right pay rates, track ordinary hours and overtime, manage leave correctly, and keep super calculations aligned with current rules. That reduces the risk of underpayments and makes it easier to stay compliant as your workforce changes.

Instead of stitching together separate tools and spreadsheets, Rippling keeps workforce data connected in one place. That gives you clearer visibility, fewer errors, and more confidence that you’re meeting your obligations under the Miscellaneous Award.

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