Which farm you pick on decides more about your year than which fruit you pick. How a grower pays, what they put in writing, and whether the days are reported set what you earn and whether your 88 days stand up later.
What does picking actually pay?
Pay comes in two forms. An hourly rate must be at or above the award minimum for your classification, with 25% casual loading on top for casual workers. A piece rate pays per bin, bucket, tray or kilogram.
Since the 2022 award change, a piece rate agreement must be set so that an average competent picker earns at least the casual hourly minimum. Farms advertising a few dollars a bucket that works out to a fraction of the minimum are unlawful. Our guide to piece rates covers how the guarantee is meant to operate.
Where and when is the work?
The harvest calendar moves around the continent through the year, so following it is a viable way to complete the 88 days quickly.
- Mangoes: Northern Territory and north Queensland, September to January
- Bananas: Queensland year round, peaking December to May
- Strawberries: Queensland April to October, Victoria and Tasmania in summer
- Apples: Tasmania, Victoria, NSW and WA, February to May
- Citrus: Riverina, Sunraysia and South Australia, May to October
- Stone fruit: Victoria, NSW and South Australia, November to March
- Wine grapes: South Australia, Victoria and NSW, January to April
Regions fill up, and the farms with the worst pay practices are the ones still hiring late.
What makes a day count toward the 88?
Four conditions, all of which must hold. The work must be in a designated regional postcode, in an eligible industry, paid rather than volunteered, and documented well enough to prove.
Days are counted as calendar days worked, not hours, so a short day counts the same as a long one provided it was paid. Documentation is where claims fail: Home Affairs relies on payslips, employer letters and ATO reported income, and cash work generates none of them.
That is the reason to refuse cash on a farm, ahead of the tax reason: an unreported eight weeks is eight weeks you cannot prove.
Are you an employee or a contractor?
Most fruit pickers should be employees, with tax withheld, 12% superannuation paid, and the award applying. Some farms put pickers on an ABN instead, which removes the super obligation and the employee minimum guarantee, shifts the whole tax bill onto you, and usually removes workers compensation cover.
Classification is decided by the facts of the work, not the paperwork. If the farm decides when you start, where you pick and how, supplies the equipment, and you cannot send someone else in your place, you are an employee whatever the contract says. Our guide to employee versus contractor status sets out the test.
What should you keep, and why?
Farm records serve both the ATO and Home Affairs. Keeping them as you go beats reconstructing them later.
- Every payslip from every farm and labour hire company
- Bank statements showing the wages arriving
- A simple diary: date, farm, hours
- Photographs of yourself at the worksite
- Receipts for boots, gloves and sun protection
The diary is the one people skip and later need. A season across four farms blurs within months.
What can a picker claim at tax time?
Deductions are small individually and add up across a season. All the ordinary work related kind: you bought it, it earned your income, nobody reimbursed you, and you kept the record.
- Sun protection: hats, sunscreen and long sleeved shirts
- Work boots and protective footwear
- Gloves
- Your own picking equipment, where you supplied it
- A share of vehicle running costs for moving between farms during a working day
- The work share of phone costs
Accommodation deducted from your pay is a different question. On farm charges can be lawful, but only within limits and where properly agreed. Inflated charges are a recognised underpayment pattern.
What separates a good farm from a bad one?
The Fair Work Ombudsman has run repeated national campaigns in horticulture and keeps finding the same behaviours.
- Piece rates set below the minimum guarantee, with no top up on slow days
- Inflated accommodation charges deducted from wages
- Wages withheld until the 88 days are complete, then the count disputed
- No payslips issued
- Only part of the wages reported to the ATO
- ABN classification used to avoid super and workers compensation
One of these is a warning. Three is a farm to leave, and leaving early is usually cheaper than staying to argue.
How do labour hire arrangements change things?
A labour hire company employs you and places you on a farm, so your employer is the agency, not the grower, even though the grower directs your day. The agency owes the award rate, the payslips and the 12% super, and appears on your income statement.
That matters when something goes wrong, because the farm will point at the agency and the agency at the farm. Labour hire licensing schemes operate in several states, and a legitimate operator will answer immediately when asked whether it is licensed.
What decides how your season turns out?
Three facts, and none of them is how fast you pick: whether the pay is hourly or piece rate and whether that agreement is in writing, whether you are employed or on an ABN, and whether the days are being reported.
Tracking your own kilos and hours for the first week converts a vague sense of being underpaid into a number. If the effective hourly rate lands below the casual minimum, the farm owes the difference, and recovery through the Fair Work Ombudsman is free. The wages, the super and the tax return all follow from what was actually reported, so they are worth sorting out before you leave the region.