Public Holiday Pay Rates in Australia: A State Guide

Public holiday pay rates in Australia are set by the Fair Work Act's National Employment Standards (NES) as a baseline, then topped up by whichever modern award or enterprise agreement covers your job. There's no single national number — a retail casual in Parramatta and a clerical worker in Brisbane can be on very different penalty rates for working the same public holiday. This guide covers how the system works, what changes by employee type, and where to check the actual figure for your role.

How much extra do you get paid?

The NES gives every full-time and part-time employee the right to be absent on a public holiday without losing pay for the ordinary hours they'd normally have worked. If you're asked to work instead, your award or agreement sets a penalty rate — usually a percentage of your base hourly rate, often somewhere between 150% and 250% depending on the industry. That percentage is the total you're paid for each hour worked, not an amount added on top of your base: a 225% rate means 2.25 times your ordinary hourly rate for those hours, not 100% plus 225%. Retail and hospitality awards tend to sit at the higher end; office-based awards are often lower. Read your own award — the spread is wide.

Employee type	If you don't work the holiday	If you do work the holiday
Full-time	Paid your normal base rate for the hours you'd have worked	Your award's public holiday penalty rate for the hours worked — the quoted percentage (e.g. 225%) is the whole hourly payment, not an extra amount on top of your base
Part-time	Same as full-time, but only for rostered hours on that day	Same penalty rate as full-time, pro-rated to hours worked
Casual	Not paid — casuals have no entitlement to paid absence	Penalty rate that usually already factors in the 25% casual loading, so the multiplier is typically higher than the full-time/part-time rate

Check your award through the Fair Work Ombudsman before assuming a figure — the exact percentage is the one detail this guide can't hardcode, because it's award-specific and updated periodically.

Do rates differ by state, or by award?

This is the part people get backwards. For most private-sector employees, the national workplace relations system applies — your penalty rate comes from your industry's modern award, not from the state you live in. A retail worker in NSW and a retail worker in QLD, both covered by the General Retail Industry Award, are on the same public holiday penalty rate. What genuinely differs by state is which days count as public holidays and, in a couple of cases, who a specific holiday even applies to.

Two examples make this concrete. NSW's Bank Holiday (Monday 3 August 2026) is restricted to the banking and financial sector — most NSW employees work that day as normal, with no public holiday pay attached, because it isn't a public holiday for them. Queensland's Ekka public holiday (Wednesday 12 August 2026) is restricted to the City of Brisbane council area — neighbouring south-east councils such as Logan, Moreton Bay and Redland hold their show holiday on Monday 10 August instead, and a QLD worker in Cairns or Townsville has a different show day again. The difference is entitlement to the day at all, not a different pay percentage.

Western Australia is the one place where the state distinction is more than dates: some WA private-sector employers who aren't constitutional corporations remain under the WA state industrial relations system rather than the national one, so their public holiday entitlements can genuinely follow a separate set of rules. If you're in WA and unsure which system covers you, check with Fair Work or your employer directly.

What if the public holiday falls on your normal day off?

If a public holiday lands on a day you weren't rostered to work anyway — a part-timer who never works Wednesdays, for instance, when a public holiday falls on a Wednesday — you generally don't get an extra day off or extra pay for it, because there were no ordinary hours to be paid for on that date. Full-time and part-time employees are only compensated for the hours they'd have actually worked; the NES doesn't create a banked day in lieu just because the calendar date coincided with a holiday.

The exception is when a state adds a substitute public holiday because the original date fell on a weekend. Anzac Day 2026 falls on Saturday 25 April; NSW declared an additional public holiday on Monday 27 April, so NSW employees who'd normally work that Monday get the public holiday entitlements on that date instead. Not every state adds an Anzac Day substitute, so this again comes back to checking your state's calendar rather than assuming. See how substitute public holidays work for the full state-by-state breakdown.

Do you get paid if you don't work on a public holiday?

Full-time and part-time employees: yes, provided the public holiday fell on a day you'd normally be rostered — you're paid your base rate for those hours as if you'd worked, under the NES absence entitlement. Casual employees: no, unless they're actually engaged to work that day, since casual pay only covers hours worked. This is the single biggest source of confusion in this whole topic — "public holiday pay" means two different things depending on whether you're being paid to be absent, or paid a penalty rate to work.

Upcoming public holidays worth checking your payslip against

Because penalty rates only apply on the gazetted date, it helps to know exactly which days are coming up. Christmas Day 2026 falls on Friday 25 December and Boxing Day on Saturday 26 December. Boxing Day stays a public holiday even though it lands on the weekend, and because of that both NSW and Queensland add an extra public holiday on Monday 28 December — so public holiday penalty rates can attach on both the Saturday and the Monday for employees who work them.

Holiday	NSW 2026	QLD 2026
Australia Day	Monday 26 January	Monday 26 January
Good Friday	Friday 3 April	Friday 3 April
Easter Monday	Monday 6 April	Monday 6 April
Anzac Day (+ substitute)	Sat 25 Apr + Mon 27 Apr	Saturday 25 April (no QLD substitute)
King's Birthday	Monday 8 June	Monday 5 October
Labour Day	Monday 5 October	Monday 4 May
Christmas / Boxing Day (+ substitute)	Fri 25 Dec, Sat 26 Dec + Mon 28 Dec	Fri 25 Dec, Sat 26 Dec + Mon 28 Dec

See the full list, including restricted and regional holidays, on the NSW public holidays and QLD public holidays pages, or browse every state from the public holidays hub. If you're working out what a shift on one of these dates should cost your business, or what a stretch of leave either side of one will use up, the Working Days Calculator and Leave Planner both account for the actual gazetted and substitute dates.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the public holiday penalty rate in Australia and how much extra do you get paid?

There's no single national rate — your penalty rate for working a public holiday comes from your modern award or enterprise agreement, and commonly falls somewhere between 150% and 250% of your base rate depending on the industry. Check your specific award through the Fair Work Ombudsman rather than assuming a figure, since it varies significantly between sectors like retail, hospitality and clerical work.

Do public holiday pay rates differ by state and by award?

Mostly by award, not by state — the national workplace relations system sets penalty rates per industry, so the same award pays the same rate regardless of which state you're in. What differs by state is which days are gazetted as public holidays, and in a few cases (like NSW's Bank Holiday or QLD's Ekka) which employees a particular holiday even applies to. WA has some employers still under a separate state system, which is the main genuine state-based exception.

What is the difference between full-time, part-time and casual public holiday pay?

Full-time and part-time employees are paid their normal base rate if they don't work a public holiday that fell on a rostered day, and their award's penalty rate for the hours worked if they do — the quoted percentage (e.g. 225%) is the total hourly payment, not base pay plus that amount. Casuals aren't paid at all for a public holiday they don't work, since they have no ordinary hours entitlement — but when they do work one, their penalty rate typically already includes the 25% casual loading, making it higher than the equivalent full-time or part-time rate.

What happens to your pay if a public holiday falls on your normal day off?

If you weren't rostered to work that day anyway, you generally don't get extra pay or a day in lieu — the NES only compensates for hours you'd actually have worked. The exception is a substitute public holiday, which some states declare when the original date falls on a weekend; the substitute date then carries full public holiday entitlements for anyone rostered on it.

Do you get paid if you don't work on a public holiday?

If you're full-time or part-time and the public holiday fell on a day you'd normally work, yes — you're paid your base rate as if you'd worked, under the Fair Work NES. If you're casual, no, because casual pay only covers hours actually worked, and there's no rostered shift to be paid for.