What are ordinary wages?

Ordinary wages are the wages paid to the worker for cleaning work under an award or agreement and include:

  • Award rate of pay 
  • Over award payments 
  • Shiftwork, weekend work and public holiday penalty rates on normal rostered shifts forming ordinary hours of duty (other than overtime) 
  • Annual leave (where taken as leave) 
  • Bereavement leave 
  • Personal/Carer’s leave 
  • Casual loading 
  • Long service leave (where taken as leave) 
  • Sick leave
  • Paid maternity/paternity leave/parental leave (when paid directly by the employer)
  • Public holidays 
  • Workers compensation payments (when made by the employer in the first instance and the employer is then reimbursed by the insurance company) 
  • Jury service 
  • First aid allowance
  • Toilet allowance
  • Refuse Collection allowance
  • Broken Shift allowance

Wages must be a gross figure – before tax and any other deductions including salary sacrificing.

Payments that are not to be included when calculating ordinary wages are:

  • Overtime (for full-time staff), leave loading, lump sum payments for accrued annual leave, sick leave or long service leave paid on termination, payments in lieu of notice
  • Christmas bonuses and ex-gratia payments, travel allowance, payment for materials & equipment, one-off bonuses, meal allowance, protective clothing allowance
  • Workers compensation payments where they are paid directly by the insurance company to the worker and redundancy payments
  • Australian Government Paid Parental Leave Scheme
  • Superannuation
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