Australia minimum wage
Federal National Minimum Wage set annually by the Fair Work Commission Expert Panel under s.285 of the Fair Work Act 2009.
| Current value | 26.44 AUD/hour |
|---|---|
| In force from | 2026-07-01 |
| Official source | Fair Work Commission, Annual Wage Review 2026 decision [2026] FWCFB 3500 (2 June 2026), made under Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s.285; given effect by the National Minimum Wage Order 2026 |
| Last verified | 2026-07-20 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
AUD 26.44 per hour, equivalently AUD 1,004.90 per 38-hour week for a full-time adult employee not covered by an award or agreement (the weekly figure is the primary published amount; the hourly rate is the weekly amount divided by 38 and rounded to the cent). Operative from the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2026 - so a pay period straddling 1 July is still paid at the old rate; on 2026-07-20 the 2026 rate is the operative one for essentially all employees. Casual employees on the National Minimum Wage receive the NMW plus the 25% casual loading (AUD 33.05/hour). IMPORTANT ON THE HEADLINE PERCENTAGE: the 2026 decision awarded 4.75% to modern award minimum wages, but the NMW moved from AUD 24.95 to AUD 26.44 - 5.97% - because the Expert Panel simultaneously began a structural phase-out of the C13 classification, adding a further 1.2% to the C13-aligned rate to which the NMW is pegged. Do not read 4.75% off the two NMW levels. A separate lower entry-level floor of AUD 25.74/hour (AUD 978.10/week), aligned to C14, applies for the first 6 months (or less) of employment under awards that carry such a rate. SUB-NATIONAL / AWARD MATRIX: the NMW is the federal statutory floor and covers only the minority of employees who are award- and agreement-free. Most employees are covered by one of ~120 modern awards whose classification minima are HIGHER than the NMW and vary by industry, occupation, classification level, age, junior/apprentice/trainee status and disability (supported wage system); enterprise agreements must pass the Better Off Overall Test against the relevant award. Australian states no longer run separate minimum wage systems - state industrial relations powers were referred to the Commonwealth (all states except WA for non-constitutional-corporation employers, where the WA state system sets its own minimum wage). ACCESS QUIRK: fwc.gov.au and fairwork.gov.au both return HTTP 403/422 to automated fetchers; the decision PDF and the Fair Work Ombudsman confirmation page (https://www.fairwork.gov.au/about-us/workplace-laws/annual-wage-review/annual-wage-review-2026) were read via a plain-text rendering proxy of the official URLs.
Earlier values
| From | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-07-01 | 23.23 | Fair Work Commission, Annual Wage Review 2022-23 decision (2 |
| 2024-07-01 | 24.1 | Fair Work Commission, Annual Wage Review 2023-24 decision (3 |
| 2025-07-01 | 24.95 | Fair Work Commission, Annual Wage Review 2025 decision (3 Ju |
Get it programmatically
curl https://ausref.dev/v1/au/minimum-wage
# $0.001 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://ausref.dev/v1/au/minimum-wage/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://ausref.dev/provenance/au/minimum-wageOther Australia series: policy interest rate · VAT rate · public holidays · inflation rate (CPI) · corporate tax rate · income tax rates