Wages and entitlements

Rights to wages and entitlements

If you are an employee, you have a right to be paid wages and other entitlements. Most employees working in NSW are covered by the National Employment Standards. If you are employed by the NSW government, local council, or the NSW state government owned corporation, national employment laws may not apply to you. If national employment laws do not cover you, you should get legal advice.

Your right to wages and certain entitlements will usually be determined by a combi​nation of the National Employment Standards, your contract of employment and any award or enterprise agreement that applies to you.

There may be other instruments that affect what you are paid or entitled to, made under legislation before the Fair Work Act 2009 commenced. If you think a different instrument covers your pay and entitlements, you should contact the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94, go to the Fair Work Ombudsman website or get legal advice.

National Employment Standards

The National Employment Standards (NES), which come from the Fair Work Act 2009, are a set of minimum entitlements that apply to all national system employees.

Most employees working in NSW are covered by the national system. If you work in the NSW public service, for a local council, or a state owned corporation, you should get legal advice about your entitlements.

The NES includes entitlements such as:

• annual leave 
• long service leave
• parental leave
• personal carer's leave
• compassionate leave 
• family and domestic violence leave
• community service leave
• flexible working arrangements
• notice of termination 
• redundancy.

Long service leave is also affected by NSW laws.

For more information about the NES, see National Employment Standards on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Your award, enterprise agreement or contract of employment also gives you certain rights to wages and entitlements, however they cannot be less than the minimum entitlements in the NES. 

Awards

An award is a legal document which provides the minimum terms and conditions of employment for all employees who work in a particular industry or profession.

You can find out if an award applies to your employment on the Fair Work Ombudsman website. 

Enterprise agreements

Enterprise agreements are agreements between an employer and all employees who work for that employer. An enterprise agreement needs to be approved by the Fair Work Commission.

Enterprise agreements provide information about the terms and conditions of employment and replace any award that may have applied to employees at that workplace.

The minimum wage in an enterprise agreement cannot be less than the minimum wage in the relevant award.

You can search for an enterprise agreement using the Fair Work Commission website.  It can help if you know the name of the agreement or the agreement ID number.

Employment contract

When you agree to work for an employer, the agreement between you and your employer is called a contract of employment.

Your employment contract could be a formal written contract or a letter of offer. Your employment contract could also be made verbally. For example, through conversations you have had with your employer, either face to face or over the telephone.

An employment contract should cover your entitlements and the conditions of your employment. Whether or not the contract is in writing, other details can form part of your contract, such as:

• what was said when you were employed
• what has happened while you have been employed
• what is the normal practice in your industry.

An employment contract cannot exclude terms and conditions in an award or enterprise agreement.

If you are not sure what the terms of your contract of employment are, you should get legal advice.

When you start a new job, your employer must give you a copy of the Fair Work Information Statement before or soon after you start working. The Fair Work Information Statement has important information about your workplace rights and entitlements. If you are a casual employee, your employer must also give you the Casual Employment Information Statement. 

For more information, see Fair Work Information Statement on the Fair Work Ombudsman website. 

My entitlements

Your rights may be covered by one or more of the following:

• the National Employment Standards (NES)
• an award
• enterprise agreement 
• employment contract
• legislation.

Under the National Employment Standards, employees may also be entitled to a Fair Work Information Statement, flexible working arrangements and paid public holidays.

The Fair Work​ ​Ombudsman has an online Pay and Conditions ​Tool (PACT) which can calculate what wages apply to your award and can also provide​ other useful info​rmation such as leave entitlements.  For more information, go to the PACT website.

If your employer hasn’t paid you all your entitlements, see What if my entitlements are not paid?

Wages

When you work for an employer, you are entitled to be paid for that work. That payment is referred to as wages. The wages you are entitled to will depend on the minimum wage, your contract of employment, your award or enterprise agreement. Your employer must pay you regularly.

In many cases, if you work more than standard hours, you are entitled to be paid extra, sometimes at an hourly rate greater than your normal hourly rate. This is called overtime.

If you work on weekends, public holidays or hours outside the normal work hours, you may be entitled to be paid at a greater hourly rate as well. These rates are called penalty rates.

You may also be entitled to allowances for meals, tools, clothing and working in extreme conditions. Generally, these entitlements are paid with your wages. 

You may be entitled to commissions or bonuses when you reach certain set targets in relation to your job. For example, you may receive a bonus for getting a set number of jobs done in a 12-month period. You may be entitled to a commission for every unit of your employer's product that you sell. Some employees who receive commissions are also entitled to a minimum wage.

Your entitlement to commissions or bonuses will usually depend on your contract of employment, award or enterprise agreement. These entitlements may be paid with your wages or at a specified time.

For more information, see Wages.

Leave

An employee may be entitled to some of the following types of leave:

• annual leave
• personal/carer's and compassionate leave
• family and domestic violence leave
• community service leave
• parental leave
• long service leave.

The national employment standards, an award, enterprise agreement, contract of employment and the employee's employment status will determine what leave they are entitled to.

For more information, see Leave.

Superannuation

Superannuation is money set aside for your retirement. Your employer is required by Commonwealth legislation to pay a compulsory superannuation contribution of 11.5% of your wages to the Australian Taxation Office. Your employer should pay superannuation to your superannuation fund at least once every three months.

For more information, see Superannuation.

Right to disconnect

From 26 August 2024, employees have a right to refuse to monitor, read or respond to emails or phone calls outside of their working hours unless the refusal is unreasonable.  

An employee’s refusal may be considered as unreasonable because of: 

• the reason for the contact 
• how the contact is made and how disruptive it is to the employee 
• how much they are paid for being available 
• their role in the business and level of responsibility 
• personal circumstances, including family or caring responsibilities.  

This change applies to all awards. The right to disconnect for small businesses will apply from 26 August 2025. 

The Fair Work Commission can deal with disputes about a right to disconnect. 

For more information, see Right to disconnect on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.  

Casual conversion

Under the National Employment Standards, a casual employee can change to become a full-time or part-time permanent employee under the employee choice pathway.

If you were employed before 26 August 2024, you or your employer have until 26 February 2025 (or until 26 August 2025 for a small business) to make a written offer for a casual conversion within 21 days after your 12 month anniversary, if you:

• have worked a regular pattern of hours on an ongoing basis for the last six months
• can continue working these hours without significant changes.

If your employer has not made an offer or has refused your request for a casual conversion they will need to provide a reason.

If you were employed after 26 August 2024, you can give written notice to your employer to change to permanent employment under the employee choice pathway if you: 

• have been employed for at least six months (or 12 months by small business)
• no longer meet the requirements of the casual employee definition.

For more information, see Becoming a permanent employee on the Fair Work Ombudsman website. 

If you need help to resolve a dispute with your employer about casual conversion, you will need to follow the process for dealing with disputes set out in:

• your award or agreement, or
• your employment contact, if you are not covered by an award or agreement.

If, after you have followed this process, you have not resolved your dispute with your employer, you may be able to apply to the Fair Work Commission to resolve the dispute

For more information, see Casual to permanent status on the Fair Work Commission website.

Unpaid entitlements

If you believe you have not been paid your entitlements, you should talk to your employer.

If your employer still won’t pay, you can ask the Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) for assistance. The FWO can investigate complaints against employers and in some cases take further action.

If you are not able to come to agreement with your employer, you may need to start a court case to recover your unpaid wages and/or entitlements.

For more information, see in What if my entitlements are not paid?