National Minumum Wage

Updated March 30 2019 - Australia's revised national minimum wage (NMW) was implemented on July 1 2018.

The national minimum wage is reviewed each financial year by an Expert Panel of the Fair Work Commission under the terms of the Fair Work Act 2009. Whereas most employees are covered by enterprise agreements or modern awards, the NMW revision directly affects those Australian employees who are reliant on minimum rates of pay.

The National Minimum Wage Order 2018 included the following:

• National minimum wage - of $719.20 per week, calculated on the basis of a week of 38 ordinary hours, or $18.93 per hour.
• Casual loading - of 25 per cent.
• Special national minimum wage 1 - for employees with disability which does not affect their productivity: of $719.20 per week, calculated on the basis of a week of 38 ordinary hours, or $18.93 per hour in the case of an adult, (and who is not a junior employee, or an apprentice, or an employee to whom a training arrangement applies).
• Special national minimum wage 2 - for employees with disability who are unable to perform the range of duties to the competence level required of an employee within the class of work for which the employee is engaged because of the effects of disability on their productive capacity, and who meet the impairment criteria for receipt of a Disability Support Pension (and who is not a junior employee, or an apprentice, or an employee to whom a training arrangement applies): a base rate of pay set in accordance with Schedule A to the National Minimum Wage Order.
• Special national minimum wage 3 - for junior employees: to be based on a percentage of the national minimum wage.
• Special national minimum wage 4 - for apprentices: to be based on the provisions in the Miscellaneous Award 2010 (clause 14) for apprentices (some transitional provisions apply see National Minimum Wage Order).
• Special national minimum wage 5 - for trainees: to be based on the provisions set out in the Miscellaneous Award 2010 (Schedule E) for employees to whom training arrangements apply.