2020 Wage Increases and Casual Employees

2020 Wage increase

The Fair Work Commission handed down a decision on Friday 19 June 2020 to increase award wages by 1.75%. The national minimum award wage will increase to $19.84 per hour ($753.80 per week). Due to the impact of Covid-19 on some industries the Commission set 3 different commencement dates for the increase to take effect:

• Group 1 Awards - 1 July 2020

• Group 2 Awards - 1 November 2020

• Group 3 Awards - 1 February 2021

The Awards included in each Group can be found here. Employers need to ensure they are paying their Employees in accordance with these new rates.

Casual employees

As a result of a recent Federal Court decision it has become evident that the Fair Work Commission will enforce the requirement for casual workers to be treated as such. Employers need to ensure that if they are going to have casual workers, those workers don’t have regular and systematic shifts (shifts need to be on demand when needed and not part of a rostering arrangement). To mitigate risk Employers should perform calculations to ensure the 25% loading covers penalty rates and leave entitlements, provide details of this in an agreement with the Employee and ensure the loading is set out separately on the pay slip. In addition, regular and systematic Employees should be offered casual conversion once they have been in the role for a period of 12 months.

What do you need to do?

The end of the financial year is a good time to review pay rates in your business to ensure minimum wages, casual employees and annualised salaries are calculated correctly. It is also a good time to update employment contracts to ensure the clauses reflect any recent changes to legislation.

If you would like specific advice and assistance to manage this within your workplace, please contact your primary consultant or get in touch with us via the Contact Us page.

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