Employment
What the award said you should have been paid, week by week
An annual salary can be perfectly legal and still fall short of the award once penalty rates, overtime and allowances are counted. The only way to know is to rebuild the award week by week, which is exactly what nobody does.
A salary is not a defence. The award is the floor, week by week.
Being paid an annual salary above the National Minimum Wage of $1,004.90 a week does not mean you have been paid correctly. A modern award sets a classification rate, a 25% casual loading, evening and weekend penalty rates, public holiday rates, overtime rates and allowances — and compliance is tested by comparing what the award required in each pay period against what was actually paid in that period. A salary that covers the award comfortably in a quiet month can fall well short in one with a run of weekend shifts.
The shortfall then compounds in three directions at once. Superannuation at 12% is owed on the underpaid amount as well. Interest runs at 8.35%. And the recovery window is six years, so a small weekly gap is a large number by the time anybody looks at it.
Since 1 January 2025, intentional underpayment is a criminal offence. Civil penalties reach $546,000 for a body corporate and $5,460,000 for a serious contravention.
Which makes an accidental shortfall something an employer wants to find before somebody else does.
What it works out
- The award rebuilt, week by week. Classification rate, loading, penalties, public holidays, overtime and allowances, applied to the actual pattern of hours rather than to an average.
- The comparison against what was paid, period by period, which is how compliance is actually tested — not annualised.
- Superannuation on the shortfall at 12%, plus the super guarantee charge components where the contribution was late.
- Interest at 8.35%, and the six years recovery window applied to the date range.
- Every route the money can be recovered through, priced. Direct approach, Fair Work Ombudsman, the small claims procedure with its $100,000 cap, and a general application — each with its cost and its timeframe.
What the full report adds
- The whole period, line by line. Every pay period in the claim with the award requirement, the amount paid and the difference — which is the document a recovery actually runs on.
- Both sides of an annualised salary arrangement. Whether the set-off was valid, whether the reconciliation was done, and what the shortfall is if it was not.
- The employer's exposure, not just the employee's. The same calculation run as a self-audit, against the penalty regime, which is why the report is bought by both.
- Every employee and every period, as many times as you like. One payment, no expiry.
What it will not do
It does not determine which modern award covers you or what classification you fall into — those are the two questions that decide everything else, and getting them wrong makes the rest of the arithmetic irrelevant. The Fair Work Ombudsman answers them for free, and this report is built to be read alongside that answer. It is not legal advice, and a real claim is decided by the Fair Work Commission or a court on evidence.
Everything here runs on the 1 July 2026 award rates, following the 4.75% annual wage review increase.
What people ask before they run it
How far back can I claim underpaid wages in Australia?
Six years. Section 544 of the Fair Work Act stops a court ordering compensation for an underpayment that arose more than six years before the claim is filed, and the window rolls forward one day every day, so the oldest week drops out of reach without anybody doing anything. Unpaid superannuation is different: the super guarantee charge has no time limit at all, so super can be pursued through the ATO for periods the wage claim can no longer touch.
Does my annual salary cover penalty rates and overtime?
Only if the arrangement meets the award's annualised wage clause, and only up to the outer limits written into it. The salary has to be reconciled against what the award would have paid over the year, the hours have to be recorded, and any hours beyond the outer limits are paid on top of the salary rather than absorbed by it. A salary that clears the annual total can still have failed in individual weeks, which is where most large claims come from.
How much is a typical award underpayment worth?
It depends entirely on the hours and the award, which is why this calculator asks for both rather than quoting an average. What decides the size is how many of the hours attracted a penalty rate: a weekday-only job paid slightly under the classification rate produces a small figure, while evening, weekend and public holiday hours paid at one flat rate produce a large one. The free result gives the weekly gap and a band for the whole period on the 1 July 2026 award rates rates.
Is underpaying staff a criminal offence now?
Intentional underpayment has been a criminal offence for conduct on or after 1 January 2025, under section 327A of the Fair Work Act. The maximum fine is the greater of three times the underpayment and $9,100,000 for a company, and an individual also faces up to 10 years imprisonment. A genuine mistake is not the offence — intent has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt — but the civil penalties that apply to a mistake reach $546,000 for a company that is not a small business.
Do you give legal advice?
No. This is an information service: it applies the published award rates to the hours you enter and shows what they produce, with every working visible. It ranks recovery routes on one stated arithmetic measure — the most each one can reach on your own figures — and does not recommend one. Whether a claim is worth making, and what a court would actually order, are not in that measure.
Everything on Award Back Pay
The estimate is free, and it is a real one.
Rebuilds what an Australian modern award required week by week — classification rate, casual loading, evening and weekend penalty rates, public holidays, overtime and allowances — compares it against what was actually paid, adds superannuation on the shortfall and interest, applies the six year recovery window, and prices every route the difference can be recovered through.
Start the Back Pay calculator
