Disclaimer: This article is Urhere's plain-language interpretation of how this award is applied in the urhere platform. It is provided as general information only and is not legal advice. Award entitlements can change and can depend on your specific circumstances. You should refer to the current award on the Fair Work Ombudsman website and seek your own professional or legal advice before relying on it.

The General Retail Industry Award covers most employees who work in retail — shops selling goods to the public. In urhere it comes as six ready-to-use pay templates, covering three trading patterns (standard retail, newsagency/early trading, and late trading), each with a full-time/part-time and a casual version. Choose the template that matches how the business trades and how the employee is engaged.

How rates work in urhere: each employee has a base hourly rate that matches their classification level (Levels 1–8). The pay templates below apply penalties and overtime as a percentage of that base rate. For casual employees, the 25% casual loading is already included in their base rate, so the casual percentages already sit on top of that loaded rate. All examples use a base rate of $30.00/hour purely to illustrate the maths.

Which template? The three trading patterns differ only in the span of ordinary hours (the times of day that count as ordinary rather than overtime): - Standard retail — ordinary hours Monday–Friday 7:00am–9:00pm. - Newsagency / early trading — ordinary hours start earlier: Monday–Saturday from 5:00am, Sunday from 5:00am. - Late trading — ordinary hours run later: Monday–Saturday to 11:00pm, Sunday 9:00am–11:00pm.

Overtime: Monday–Saturday 150% for the first 3 hours (after 9 hours in a day, or 38 hours in a week), then 200%. Sunday overtime 200%; public holiday overtime 250%.

Minimum shift length: 3 hours.

Broken rest between shifts: if the gap between two shifts is less than 12 hours, the affected hours are paid at 200%.

Overtime: Monday–Saturday 140% for the first 3 hours, then 180%. Sunday 180%; public holiday 220%. Minimum shift length: 3 hours.

Ordinary hours start earlier than standard retail (from 5:00am). The penalty percentages are the same as standard retail; the difference is that early-morning hours count as ordinary rather than overtime.

Work outside the ordinary span is overtime (for example, before 5:00am or after 9:00pm), paid at 150% rising to 200%. Daily/weekly overtime, the 3-hour minimum and the between-shift break rule work the same as standard retail. The casual version applies the same casual percentages shown above (Saturday 120%, Sunday 140%, public holiday 200%).

Ordinary hours run later than standard retail (to 11:00pm). Late trading is only used where it has been agreed with staff.

Work outside the ordinary span (for example after 11:00pm, or Sunday before 9:00am) is overtime, paid at 150%–200%. Daily/weekly overtime, the 3-hour minimum and the between-shift break rule work the same as standard retail. The casual version applies the same casual percentages (Saturday 120%, Sunday 140%, public holiday 200%).

Rates current as at 1 July 2026. Penalty and overtime percentages follow the Fair Work MA000004 pay guide.