Restaurant Award penalty rates in 2026: a casual waiter gets 150% on Sunday, a casual chef gets 175%

Search for the Restaurant Award Sunday rate and the first page you land on says a casual gets 175%. The next one says 150%. Each is right for about half of a cafe roster, because the Restaurant Industry Award (MA000119) does something the Hospitality Award doesn't: it pays casuals two different Sunday rates depending on their classification level, and a table with one casual column can't hold that rule.

Clause 24.2 splits casuals into two columns. Introductory level, Level 1 and Level 2 get 150% of the minimum hourly rate on a Sunday, the same percentage they get on Saturday. Level 3 to Level 6 get 175%. Full-time and part-time staff get 150% at every level, which means your Level 2 casual waiter is on exactly the same Sunday rate as a Level 2 part-timer, $40.62 an hour, while your Level 4 casual chef is on $51.54.

The short version. From the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, a casual on the Restaurant Award earns 150% on Sunday at Introductory level ($38.61), Level 1 ($39.66) and Level 2 ($40.62), and 175% from Level 3 ($48.95) to Level 6 ($56.23). Those percentages already include the 25% casual loading. General information only, not legal or financial advice: check the award and the Fair Work pay guide before you pay anyone.

What clause 24.2 actually says

Table 8 of the award has three rate columns, not two. The percentages apply to the minimum hourly rate for the employee's level in Table 3, and the late-night amounts are flat dollars per hour, not percentages.

Two things fall out of that table. For a casual up to Level 2, Saturday and Sunday pay the same, so your Level 2 waiter has no reason to prefer a Sunday and your Level 3 cook has every reason to. And the lower levels' casual loading quietly disappears on Sunday: a casual Level 2 and a part-time Level 2 both get $40.62. On the Hospitality Award, which covers pubs, hotels and the restaurants inside them, every casual gets 175% on Sunday regardless of level. That is almost certainly where the 175% pages got their number.

Sunday rates by level, in dollars, from 1 July 2026

These are adult rates; juniors and apprentices have their own Schedule B tables. Look at the step between Level 2 and Level 3. On a weekday it's $1.11 an hour. On a Saturday it's $1.34. On a Sunday it's $8.33 an hour, because the percentage changes at the same point as the base rate does. It's the biggest step between any two neighbouring levels in the award, and the one most cafes draw by feel.

Getting a casual's level wrong costs $1.11 an hour on a Tuesday and $8.33 an hour on a Sunday.

What the ranking pages print, and who each one is wrong for

I read two of the pay-rate pages ranking for this question on 15 October 2026. Neither is wrong about the base rates. Both collapse the two casual columns into one.

Overpaying is legal and just costs margin. Underpaying is what puts you in the Fair Work Ombudsman's queue, and since 1 January 2025 an intentional underpayment can be a criminal offence (honest mistakes aren't, which is why what you do once you find out matters). If you've been running the 150% version on a kitchen full of Level 3 and 4 casuals, read what to do when a casual award interpretation turns out to be wrong before payroll closes again.

One cafe Sunday, priced three ways

Four casuals, seven paid hours each, a typical brunch crew: a waiter at Level 2, a kitchen hand at Level 1, a trained cook at Level 3 and a qualified chef at Level 4. Here is the Sunday wage bill at the award's rates and at the two one-number versions.

The 150% version is short by $100.45 every Sunday for two people, which is $5,223 over a year of Sundays before 12% super, interest and penalties. The 175% version spends $93.66 a Sunday the award never asked for. Whether a Sunday pays for itself at all is a break-even question, and both errors move that line.

Where the line falls: the training test, not the job title

Schedule A defines each grade by duties plus whether the person has the appropriate level of training. A food and beverage attendant grade 2 (Level 2) does general waiting, serves drinks, takes money and seats guests without it. Grade 3 (Level 3) does that work with it, waits on both food and liquor, and helps train the lower grades. The award is blunt about front of house: a grade 2 attendant needs a relevant AQF Certificate II to be classified at grade 3, and the old "three months doing the work" route is tied to 31 December 2009 and excludes grade 2 attendants anyway.

• Match duties to a Schedule A grade, not a job title. "Senior waiter" isn't a classification. Serving liquor and waiting tables without training is grade 2; holding the qualification and training the juniors is grade 3.
• Keep the training on file. Appropriate level of training means a relevant qualification or units of competency, or an assessment by a qualified skills assessor. The certificate is the document that turns a 150% Sunday into a 175% one.
• A relevant Certificate III, used on the job, sets a floor of Level 4 (note 1 to clause 18.1), so a qualified chef on casual rates is on $51.54 on Sunday, not $40.62.
• Watch higher duties. Under clause 18.8, two hours or more at a higher classification in a day means that classification's rate for the whole day, so a Level 2 casual who regularly covers Level 3 work on Sundays is worth classifying properly rather than leaving to chance.

Two more details the one-number pages skip

• Penalties don't stack. Clause 24.3: where more than one penalty could apply, the employee gets the higher one, not both. The only thing paid on top is the missed-break penalty under clause 16.6.
• Casuals are engaged for a minimum of two consecutive hours (clause 11.3), including on a public holiday (clause 24.4). One of the ranking pages prints three, which is the part-time daily minimum in clause 10.7, not the casual one.

Where Shiftly fits

The split in clause 24.2 is awkward in a spreadsheet because it depends on two things at once, the day and the level. Shiftly is free workforce management for cafes and restaurants: rostering, timesheets and award interpretation with the Restaurant Industry Award built in, including the Sunday split by level, so it helps you estimate what a Sunday will cost while you're building it rather than when the pay run lands. It's a calculation tool, not payroll, and you're still responsible for classifying people correctly and checking the result.

The other half is the reason it exists. Other tools tell you your Sunday cook just dropped out. Shiftly is the roster that fills itself: an on-demand network of local hospitality workers built into the roster you already run, coming soon and starting in Sydney, so the gap gets offered to nearby people instead of landing on your phone at 7am. Get started with Shiftly.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Sunday penalty rate for a casual under the Restaurant Award in 2026?

It depends on the level. Under clause 24.2 of MA000119, a casual at Introductory level, Level 1 or Level 2 is paid 150% of the minimum hourly rate on Sunday ($38.61, $39.66 and $40.62 from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026). A casual at Level 3 to Level 6 is paid 175% ($48.95 to $56.23). Both percentages include the 25% casual loading.

Is the Restaurant Award Sunday rate the same as the Hospitality Award?

No. Under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award (MA000009) every casual is paid 175% on Sunday whatever their level; under the Restaurant Industry Award only casuals at Level 3 to 6 are. Full-time and part-time staff are on 150% under both. The minimum hourly rates by level are identical across the two awards, so the only Sunday difference is the casual percentage at Introductory to Level 2.

Is my cafe on the Restaurant Award or the Hospitality Award?

Clause 4.2 of MA000119 covers restaurants, cafes, reception centres, night clubs and roadhouses, plus catering run by a restaurant business. It doesn't cover a restaurant operated in or with premises covered by the Hospitality Award (hotels and pubs), the Registered and Licensed Clubs Award or the Fast Food Award. A standalone cafe or restaurant is usually MA000119; the bistro inside a pub is usually MA000009, and the answer changes which Sunday column you're in.