How to check you are being paid correctly

Go to the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool. Answer the questions about your industry and role and it will identify the award that covers you and the classification level within it.

Classification matters as much as the award. Awards set several levels based on skill, responsibility and qualifications, and being classified one level too low is one of the most common forms of underpayment because it is invisible on a payslip — the arithmetic is correct, the input is wrong.

Read the classification descriptions in the award rather than accepting the employer's label. If your actual duties match a higher level, you should be paid at that level regardless of your job title.

Some employees are covered by an enterprise agreement instead of an award. Agreements must leave employees better off overall than the award, and they are published on the Fair Work Commission's register — you are entitled to a copy.

The base hourly rate is only part of it. Awards commonly add penalty rates for evenings, weekends and public holidays; overtime rates after a threshold of daily or weekly hours; shift loadings; and allowances for tools, laundry, travel, first aid, meals and vehicle use.

Casual employees receive a casual loading — at least 25 per cent under most awards — in place of paid annual leave and personal leave. A casual paid the same hourly rate as a permanent employee is being underpaid.

Junior rates apply to employees under 21 in many awards, as a percentage of the adult rate. Apprentice and trainee rates are set separately.

Public holidays differ by state, and working one usually attracts a substantial penalty rate. Check the Fair Work public holidays page for your state rather than assuming a national list.

Employers must give you a payslip within one working day of paying you, in electronic or hard copy. It must show the employer and employee name, the ABN, the pay period, the date of payment, gross and net pay, any loadings, allowances, bonuses or penalty rates paid separately, deductions, and superannuation contributions including the fund.

For hourly employees it must also show the hourly rate and the number of hours worked at that rate. If your payslip shows only a lump sum with no hours or rate, it does not comply, and that alone is worth raising.

Check the superannuation line. It should be 12 per cent of your ordinary time earnings from 1 July 2025, and it should be going to the fund you nominated. Cross-check against your fund statement or your myGov super account, because a payslip showing an accrued amount is not proof it was actually paid.

Deductions must be authorised in writing and principally for your benefit. Deductions for till shortages, breakages, walkouts or 'training' are almost always unlawful.

Raise it in writing first. Set out the period, the amount you believe you are owed, and how you calculated it, and attach the Pay and Conditions Tool output. Many underpayments are genuine errors and are fixed at this stage.

Keep your own records regardless — a diary of hours, rosters, photographs of the timesheet, and copies of every payslip. Employers must keep records for seven years, but if they have not, a tribunal can accept your records instead, and the absence of employer records tends to count against the employer rather than you.

If the employer does not fix it, contact the Fair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94. It can require records, mediate, and take enforcement action, and its assistance is free. Underpayment claims can generally reach back six years.

Unpaid superannuation is a separate matter handled by the ATO rather than Fair Work — lodge an unpaid super enquiry there.

Adverse action against you for asking about your pay — cutting shifts, dismissal, demotion — is unlawful under the general protections provisions, and there is a 21-day time limit to apply to the Fair Work Commission if you are dismissed.