Hospitality's lowest award rates went up 6% on 1 July 2026, not 4.75%

If you sit at the bottom of the Hospitality Award, your pay went up about 6% on 1 July 2026, not the 4.75% every headline reported. Same award, same day, bigger number.

That gap is deliberate. The Fair Work Commission has started phasing out the classification your rate sits on, so the Introductory level and Level 1 got an extra lift on top of the general increase. Level 2 and above got the flat 4.75%. Almost nobody reported the difference, which matters if you checked your payslip against 4.75% and decided it looked about right.

Quick version: from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, the adult Introductory rate under the Hospitality Award (MA000009) is $25.74 an hour and adult Level 1 is $26.44 an hour. Both rose about 6%. Level 2 and above rose 4.75%. Casuals add a 25% loading on top of those base rates. This is general information, not legal or financial advice: the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide for MA000009 is the source of truth for your rate.

What the Commission actually decided

The 2026 Annual Wage Review did two things, not one. The headline was a 4.75% increase to modern award minimum wages from 1 July 2026. Sitting underneath it was a structural change to the two lowest pay points in the entire modern award system, known as the C13 and C14 rates.

C13 is the lowest wage rate that can apply to ongoing employment under any modern award. C14 sits below it and is only permitted as a temporary entry-level rate, capped at six months. The Commission decided to phase C13 out entirely so that C12, the next rate up, becomes the floor, and it is doing that across three annual reviews rather than in one hit.

The pay difference between the C13 level ($948.00 per week) and the C12 level ($982.40 per week) is approximately 3.6 per cent, so that closing this difference may be achieved by increasing the C13 rate by 1.2 per cent at each stage. (Fair Work Commission, Annual Wage Review 2026)

Stage one was therefore 4.75% plus a compounded 1.2%. The C14 rate got the same percentage as C13 so the two keep their existing relativity. The Commission estimated the change affects around 100,000 of Australia's lowest-paid employees.

Why this lands harder in hospitality than most industries

The decision named names. Of the ten modern awards covering the most award-reliant employees in the country, only four have classifications sitting on the C13 rate, and the Hospitality Award is one of them, alongside the Restaurant Award and two others.

In MA000009 terms, the Introductory level sits on C14 and Level 1 sits on C13. Level 2 is the C12 rate, and everything from there up got the flat increase. So if you're a first-job kitchen attendant grade 1, food and beverage attendant grade 1 or guest service grade 1, you're in the group that got more.

One honest consequence: the step from Level 1 to Level 2 is now worth less than it was. Last year that gap was $34.40 a week. It's $24.20 now, and it narrows again at each remaining stage. Being graded correctly still matters far more than the gap, because your level is the number every penalty rate multiplies.

A casual week, before and after

Award minimums are hourly, so the structural lift flows straight through into weekend penalties. Here's a casual Level 1 food and beverage attendant on 25 hours: 15 on weekdays between 7am and 7pm, 5 on Saturday, 5 on Sunday. Casual rates below already include the 25% loading.

That's $52.10 more a week. Run the same roster on a flat 4.75% and it would have paid $914.78, so the structural change on its own is worth about $10.60 a week. Across a year of those hours it's roughly $550, before stages two and three land. Your super is 12% of what you're paid, so it rises with the rate too.

Roughly $550 a year, from a change almost no one reported, going to the workers least likely to go looking for it.

Four things to check on your payslip this week

1. Check when the new rate started. It applies from the first full pay period beginning on or after 1 July 2026, not from 1 July itself. On a Monday to Sunday weekly cycle that was the week starting Monday 6 July 2026. Fortnightly and monthly cycles start later, so work out your own.
2. Check you're not still on Introductory. Schedule A of MA000009 holds you there for up to 3 months while you're trained and assessed, then you move to Level 1 unless you and your employer mutually agree on up to 3 months more training. Six months is the hard ceiling. Longer than that on $25.74 an hour and something needs fixing.
3. Check your age isn't costing you when it shouldn't. Junior percentages run from 50% of the adult rate under 17 up to 100% at 20. But a liquor service employee, meaning someone employed to sell or dispense liquor in a bar, bottle department or shop, must be paid the adult rate regardless of age. So must a junior with a trade qualification.
4. Check the loading and the penalty separately. A casual Level 1 weekday hour is $33.05, which is the $26.44 base plus 25%. Saturday is $39.66, Sunday $46.27. If your payslip shows one flat number for every day of the week, the weekend hours are the ones to query first.

If the numbers don't line up, the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool confirms your exact rate and its MA000009 pay guide lists every classification. Start by confirming which award covers your venue, because a standalone restaurant sits under a different one with its own rates.

It should happen twice more, but it isn't locked in

The Commission said stages two and three may "desirably" be implemented in the next two annual wage reviews, then added that this will ultimately be a matter for future Expert Panels. Read it as a stated intention, not a schedule you can bank on.

If it does run to plan, the Level 1 rate converges on today's Level 2 rate over the next two Julys and Introductory keeps rising with it to hold the same relativity. Either way the lesson stands: don't assume the headline percentage applies to you. Check the actual dollar figure against the pay guide every July.

Where Shiftly comes in

The reason a 6% rise passed unnoticed is that most shift workers never see their award rate written down before they turn up. Shiftly is free workforce management for Australian venues with an on-demand staffing network built in, so the roster fills itself instead of a manager ringing around at 4pm. For you that means nearby venues post their open shifts to the network, you see the venue, the hours and the pay before you accept, and you get paid quickly once the shift is done. The award calculation tools help venues work out the right rate for your level and the day, and you end up with your own record of every shift you've worked, which is exactly what you need when you're checking a payslip against a pay guide. Find shifts on Shiftly.

Frequently asked questions

How much did hospitality award rates go up on 1 July 2026?

Levels 2 to 6 rose 4.75%, matching the general modern award increase. The Introductory level and Level 1 rose about 6%, because they sit on the C14 and C13 rates the Fair Work Commission has begun phasing out. In dollars, adult Level 1 went from $948.00 to $1,004.90 a week ($24.95 to $26.44 an hour), and Introductory went from $922.70 to $978.10 ($24.28 to $25.74 an hour).

What is the C13 classification phase-out?

C13 is the lowest wage rate in the modern award system that can apply to ongoing employment. In the 2026 Annual Wage Review the Commission decided to phase it out across three stages so C12, the next rate up, becomes the floor. Stage one was an extra 1.2% compounded on top of the 4.75% general increase from 1 July 2026, affecting around 100,000 of the lowest-paid employees in Australia.

How long can my employer keep me on the Introductory rate?

Under Schedule A of the Hospitality Award, up to 3 months while you're trained and assessed against the Level 1 competencies, extendable by up to 3 more months only if you and your employer mutually agree further training is needed. Six months is the maximum. It also only applies to someone entering the hospitality industry who doesn't yet demonstrate the Level 1 requirements, so it isn't a default setting for every new starter at a venue.

Am I being paid the right award rate?

Compare three things: your classification level against the duties you actually perform, your hourly rate against the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guide for MA000009, and the date the new rates appeared on your payslip. Casuals should see the 25% loading built into the base rate, plus separate higher rates for Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. If it looks short, ask your employer first, because most gaps turn out to be a wrong classification rather than deliberate underpayment, then contact the Fair Work Ombudsman.