What is the Horticulture Award and how does it apply to farm work on a working holiday visa?

Farm work is one of the most underpaid industries in Australia. The Fair Work Ombudsman has run multiple national campaigns into horticulture underpayment, with consistent findings that most workers are paid below the award minimum.

What does the Horticulture Award cover?

The award covers:

• Fruit picking and harvesting
• Vegetable picking and harvesting
• Pruning, planting, weeding, and other vine and tree work
• Packing fruit and vegetables in farm-based sheds
• General farm labour where the principal activity is horticulture
• Mushroom growing and harvesting
• Flower growing and cutting

The award does not cover broadacre cropping (wheat, barley), livestock work (cattle, sheep), or aquaculture, which are covered by separate awards.

What is the minimum hourly rate guarantee?

The most important protection in the Horticulture Award for working holiday makers is the minimum hourly rate guarantee. Even where the worker is paid on a piece rate basis (paid per bin, per bucket, or per tray picked), the worker must be paid at least the equivalent of the minimum hourly rate for the time worked.

If your piece rate earnings for a day work out to less than the minimum hourly rate multiplied by your hours worked, the employer must top up the difference. Many farms do not pay this top-up, which is the most common underpayment pattern in horticulture.

See our article on piece rates in farm work for the detail on how this protection is meant to operate.

What classifications apply?

The Horticulture Award has five main classifications:

• Level 1: new employees during their first three months, no prior farm work experience
• Level 2: workers who have completed three months or have prior experience
• Level 3: skilled workers performing tasks requiring specialised knowledge
• Level 4: tractor operators, chemical applicators, and supervisors of small teams
• Level 5: leading hands and skilled supervisors

Most working holiday makers fall into Level 1 or Level 2. The classification does not depend on what the employer says it is; it depends on the actual work being performed.

What penalty rates apply?

The Horticulture Award has more limited penalty rates than the Hospitality Award, reflecting the seasonal nature of the work. The main penalty entitlements are:

• Casual loading: 25% on top of the base hourly rate
• Public holidays: a higher rate applies (or the day off without loss of pay for permanent employees)
• Overtime: above 38 hours per week or 304 hours per 8-week cycle, overtime rates apply
• Saturday and Sunday: in some classifications, a weekend loading applies

Working holiday makers often assume farm work has no penalty rates at all, which leads them to accept flat rates that breach the award.

What allowances apply?

The award includes allowances for:

• Travel between job sites: if required to move between farms during a working day
• Tool allowance: where the employer requires the worker to provide their own tools
• Living away from home allowance: in some circumstances
• Wet weather allowance: where work continues in heavy rain
• Cold storage allowance: for work in refrigerated areas

These are paid on top of the base rate. They are routinely missed in farm payslips.

How does the 88-day regional work requirement interact?

To qualify for a second year working holiday visa, you must complete 88 days of "specified work" in a regional area. Most farm work counts. The key tax and wage rules:

• Every day of farm work counts as a "day" regardless of how many hours you worked
• The work must be paid in line with the Horticulture Award (or another applicable award)
• Volunteer work generally does not count for the second visa (with limited exceptions for disaster recovery)
• The work must be reported to the ATO under Single Touch Payroll
• Your payslips serve as the immigration evidence

If you have done farm work that was paid under the award and properly reported to the ATO, the visa evidence is automatic. If the work was cash-in-hand or not properly reported, the visa evidence is much harder to establish, and Home Affairs may refuse the second visa.

How does this affect your tax position?

Underpayment against the Horticulture Award means:

• Wages reported to the ATO are lower than they should have been
• Super contributions are calculated on the lower (incorrect) wages
• Your DASP payment is smaller than it should be

When we lodge through our tax agent portal, we review your payslips against the Horticulture Award rates and identify underpayments. Recovering the underpayment is handled through Fair Work; the tax and super consequences are handled through our service.

How does our service support farm workers?

For working holiday makers in horticulture, our team:

• Cross-checks payslips against the Horticulture Award rates for your classification
• Identifies whether piece rate earnings met the minimum hourly rate guarantee
• Reconciles ATO-reported income against what should have been paid
• Identifies unpaid super on correctly-calculated wages
• Lodges the tax return using the correct income figures
• Identifies any work-related deductions specific to farm work (tools, protective gear, vehicle running costs for moving between farms)

Farm work is where the largest gaps between reported and correct wages typically exist. Get in touch with our team before you leave Australia to make sure your farm work earnings have been correctly accounted for.