The national minimum wage from 1 July 2026 is $26.44 an hour, or $33.05 for casuals with the 25% loading, set by the Fair Work Commission's 2026 Annual Wage Review. It applies to working holiday makers in full.
Why is the national minimum usually the wrong number to check against?
Because it only applies where no award or enterprise agreement covers the job, and in the industries backpackers work in one almost always does. Hospitality, retail, horticulture, construction, cleaning and aged care all have modern awards with their own minimum rates, above the national minimum before any penalty is added.
So being paid exactly $26.44 in a cafe is not proof of compliance. It is closer to evidence of underpayment, because the Hospitality Industry (General) Award sets its own rates by classification.
How is the figure set, and when does it change?
The Fair Work Commission reviews it once a year, with the increase taking effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July. The 2026 review raised the national minimum by 6% and award minimum rates by 4.75%.
That split matters for a year that has already ended. For 2025-26 the national minimum was $24.95 an hour, or $31.19 casual, and those are the figures your payslips from that year should be measured against.
What does the casual loading actually buy you?
An extra 25% on the base rate, in exchange for no paid annual leave, no paid sick leave and no notice of termination. It is not a bonus and not discretionary, and a casual paid the permanent base rate with no loading is underpaid even if the headline number looks like the minimum.
Check it before anything else on a payslip: the most common single error in backpacker pay, visible in one line. Casual rates for 2026-27 start at $33.05 an hour under the national minimum, and higher again under most awards.
Where do the rates you are actually owed come from?
From your award and your classification within it. Every modern award has several classification levels reflecting experience and responsibility, and two people in the same kitchen can lawfully be on different rates.
- Hospitality Industry (General) Award, covering cafes, restaurants, pubs and hotels
- General Retail Industry Award, covering shops and retail
- Horticulture Award, covering fruit picking, harvest and agricultural work
- Building and Construction General On-site Award, covering construction
- Cleaning Services Award, covering commercial cleaning
Ask which award covers you and which level you sit at. An employer who cannot answer is usually not applying one, which is a more useful finding than any hourly comparison.
What about weekends, nights and public holidays?
In most award covered work, hours outside ordinary time attract penalty rates, and for a casual those stack on top of the loading. Saturday, Sunday, public holiday and late night rates vary by award, and in hospitality and retail they are where a large share of a backpacker's earnings come from.
A casual hospitality worker on a Sunday can legitimately earn close to double the headline national minimum. Our guide to penalty rates in Australia sets out how the loadings combine.
What should you do if the numbers do not add up?
Work out the correct rate first, because a claim built on the national minimum when an award applies will understate what you are owed. Identify the award, find your classification, apply the loading and any penalties, and compare against the payslips week by week.
Keep the evidence as you go. Rosters, payslips and any written confirmation of your classification turn a disagreement into a claim, and the Fair Work Ombudsman handles unresolved complaints. There is no visa based barrier to recovering underpaid wages.
The national floor is rarely your rate.
The national figure is fixed. What you are owed is not, and it turns on facts about your own job.
- Which award covers your employer, since that sets the base rate rather than the national minimum.
- Which classification level you were placed at, which can differ between two people doing similar work.
- Whether you are casual or permanent, which decides the 25% loading.
- Which hours you worked, since weekend, evening and public holiday penalties often exceed the base pay.
- Whether an enterprise agreement applies, which can set rates above the award.
- Whether you are engaged on an ABN, in which case none of this applies to you at all and that is usually the real problem.
Whatever the rate, the tax withheld from those pays reconciles at the end of the financial year, and you can estimate your tax refund from your year to date figures.