Casuals do get overtime: what covering a gap in-house really costs after 38 hours

Your closer offers to stay until midnight and you say yes, because that's easier than making six phone calls. If she's already hit 38 hours this week, her last four hours cost you $54.16 each, not the $36.80 you had in your head. Same person, same bar, same apron. Different clause.

The short version: casuals absolutely can be owed overtime. Clause 11.2 of the Hospitality Award (MA000009) caps a casual at 12 hours a day and 38 hours a week, or an average of 38 over a roster cycle of up to 4 weeks, and clause 11.4 puts every hour past that onto overtime rates. The twist most operators miss: overtime is calculated on the base rate, so the 25% casual loading drops off and your casual is paid the exact same overtime dollars as a permanent. This is general information, not legal advice.

Yes, casuals get overtime, and the award is blunt about it

Search "can casuals get overtime" and you'll find rostering blogs still telling you no, they get the loading instead. That's wrong for hospitality, and it has been wrong for years. Clause 11.2 says a casual employee "must be engaged to work a maximum of 12 hours per day or per shift, or a maximum of 38 hours per week or, if the casual employee works in accordance with a roster, an average of 38 hours per week over the roster cycle (which may not exceed 4 weeks)". Then clause 11.4 does the rest.

An employer must pay a casual employee at the rates prescribed in clause 28.4 for all time worked in excess of the hours prescribed in clause 11.2.

Two caps, one sentence, no ambiguity. The daily one rarely bites in a venue, because a 13-hour shift is unusual. The weekly one bites constantly, because the person you ask to cover is almost always the person who has already covered twice this week. The reliable casual is, by definition, the one closest to 38 hours.

The part that surprises people: the loading drops off

Overtime under clause 28.4 is a percentage of the ordinary hourly rate, which the award defines as the minimum hourly rate plus any all-purpose allowances. The 25% casual loading is not in there. And penalty rates don't stack on top, because clause 29.1 only applies penalties to hours "that are not required to be paid at the overtime rate". So the moment a casual tips over, the loading and the evening penalty both stop, and a flat overtime multiplier takes over. Here's what that does to a Level 2 food and beverage attendant, whose base rate is $27.08 an hour from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026.

Read the last two columns again. Monday to Sunday, your casual's overtime rate is the identical dollar figure a permanent gets. The loading you pay all week for flexibility buys the worker nothing once they cross the cap. It cuts the other way too: casuals miss the $17.42 overtime meal allowance, because clause 26.4 only covers full-time and part-time employees called in for unplanned overtime of more than 2 hours.

One hour of a Level 2 casual, priced by which rule catches it

Three collisions in that table are worth pinning to the office wall. The first two overtime hours on a weekday cost exactly what an ordinary Saturday hour costs, to the cent. Overtime on a Sunday is only 14% above the ordinary Sunday rate, because 175% and 200% aren't far apart. And on a public holiday the cap costs you nothing at all, since ordinary and overtime both land on 250%. The expensive scenario is the boring one: hour three of a weekday extension, at 60% more than an ordinary weekday hour. If you're not certain which classification level your staff sit on, sort that before any of this is worth costing.

One Friday gap, costed three ways

It's 6pm on a Friday at a Sydney pub over the payroll tax threshold. Someone drops out and you need six hours of cover, 6pm to midnight, Level 2. You have three people you could ring, and the only thing separating them is how many hours they've already worked this week. Wages below are award rates; the loaded column adds 12% super, workers compensation and payroll tax, using the same ledger as what a casual hour actually costs you.

Alex's six hours are 2 at $40.62 then 4 at $54.16. Jordan works 4 ordinary hours to reach 38 at 10pm, then 2 at $40.62. Sam runs the whole shift at ordinary rates. One quirk narrows the gap: the ATO doesn't count overtime as ordinary time earnings, so no super is payable on overtime hours, which is why Alex's loaded uplift is 8% while Sam's is 21%.

The finding is in the last column. Jordan and Sam cost the same to within 22 cents an hour, so bringing in an outside worker is not the expensive option. Alex is $58 dearer for the same six hours, and at $53.62 an hour loaded, the easiest phone call in the building costs more than the $52 flat rate one Sydney agency publishes. You can genuinely pay an agency margin and come out ahead of your own closer.

The cheapest cover is rarely the person nearest the taps. It's the person furthest from 38 hours.

Four ways to make the cap cost less

1. Publish a roster and use the cycle. Clause 11.2(b) lets the 38 be an average over a roster cycle of up to 4 weeks, so a 44-hour week can sit against a 32-hour week without triggering a cent of overtime. The catch is real: the averaging only applies where the casual works in accordance with a roster. Ring people ad hoc and you're back to a hard 38 every week.
2. Split overtime across two days. Clause 28.3 says overtime worked on any day stands alone from any other day, so the first-2-hours rate resets daily. Four overtime hours on one Friday costs $189.56. Two on Thursday and two on Friday costs $162.48. Identical hours, $27.08 less.
3. Check the running weekly total before you send the text, not after. Nobody decides to spend an extra $58 on cover. They decide to send one message to the person who always says yes, and find out at pay run. The number that should be in front of you at 6pm is hours-to-date, not availability.
4. Widen the pool rather than deepening it. Overtime is what a short list of names looks like on a Friday. Five more people with hours in hand is worth more than five more hours from the same three.

Two honest caveats. Overtime has to be reasonable under clause 28.1, and a casual can decline hours that aren't, which is worth reading alongside the right to disconnect before you lean on the same person a fourth time. And none of this makes running the shift short the smart move, because a gap you never fill still costs more than any of the three options above. Check your own award too if you're a restaurant or cafe under MA000119, where the numbers differ.

Where Shiftly fits

Every dollar of that overtime premium comes from the same place: at 6pm you could only see who was already on the floor. Shiftly is free workforce management for Australian venues, rostering plus award-aware timesheets that help you check what a shift should cost before you pay it, with an on-demand staffing network built into the same roster. It's the roster that fills itself: your own casuals see the open shift first, and if nobody local has hours in hand, nearby vetted hospitality workers see the venue, the hours and the pay before they accept. That turns the 6pm decision from "who is standing here" into "who has hours left", which is the only variable that was ever moving the price. Get started with Shiftly.

Frequently asked questions

Can casual employees get overtime in Australia?

Under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020, yes. Clause 11.4 requires an employer to pay a casual at overtime rates for all time worked beyond the caps in clause 11.2, which are 12 hours a day or shift and 38 hours a week (or an average of 38 over a roster cycle of up to 4 weeks). Casual overtime entitlements vary between awards, so check the one covering your venue.

Does the 25% casual loading get added on top of overtime rates?

No. Overtime under clause 28.4 is a percentage of the ordinary hourly rate, which the award defines as the minimum hourly rate plus all-purpose allowances, with no casual loading in it. That's why a Level 2 casual and a Level 2 permanent are both paid $40.62 for the first 2 hours of weekday overtime and $54.16 after that. Penalty rates don't stack either, because clause 29.1 excludes hours paid at the overtime rate.

Is it cheaper to extend a shift or call in another casual?

It depends entirely on hours already worked, not on who is closest. Extending someone already at 38 hours puts every extra hour on overtime, and six hours of that costs a Sydney pub about $321 loaded. The same six hours filled by someone with hours in hand costs about $263. If both people are well under the cap, extending the existing shift is usually cheaper, because you skip a second minimum engagement.

Do I pay super on a casual's overtime hours?

No, provided the ordinary hours are clearly identified. The ATO treats overtime payments as outside ordinary time earnings, and from 1 July 2026 they're also outside qualifying earnings under Payday Super. Casual loading and shift penalties are a different story: both count, so super is payable on them at the full 12%.