Who the Clerks award covers
The Clerks – Private Sector Award 2020 (MA000002) covers private sector employers throughout Australia in respect of employees doing clerical and administrative work within the award's classifications: reception, data entry, word processing, filing, accounts and payroll clerks, office administration, and similar roles.
What makes it different from most awards is that it isn't tied to an industry. A manufacturer, a professional services firm, a logistics business and a retailer can each run their operational workforce under a different industry award – and still apply the Clerks award to the people in their back office. For an organisation with 150 or more employees, it's rarely a question of whether the Clerks award applies, but which employees it applies to.
There are three important boundaries:
Industry awards with their own clerical classifications
Where the award covering your industry includes clerical classifications of its own, those employees are generally covered by that industry award instead. Check the coverage clauses of both before you classify a role.
Enterprise agreements
Employees covered by an enterprise agreement are paid under the agreement, not the award – though the award remains the reference point for the better off overall test.
High-income employees
An employee above the high income threshold with a written guarantee of annual earnings is not covered while the guarantee applies. The threshold is indexed every 1 July, so check the current figure.
Source: fairwork.gov.au – MA000002 summary.
Classification levels
The Clerks award has five classification levels. Employees are classified by the skills, responsibility and duties the role actually requires – not by job title – and the level descriptors run from routine clerical tasks under direct supervision at Level 1 through to roles exercising significant judgement and specialist knowledge at Level 5.
How the levels are structured
- • Level 1 – split into first, second and third year of experience
- • Level 2 – split into first and second year of experience
- • Levels 3, 4 and 5 – a single minimum rate each
- • Junior rates apply to employees under 21, as a percentage of the relevant adult rate
The year-based steps in Levels 1 and 2 are where a lot of quiet underpayment starts. A Level 1 employee moves to the next year's rate after a year in the role, and payroll needs something to trigger that change – an employee who is still on the first-year rate three years later has been underpaid for two of them.
Get the level descriptors from the source
Which duties sit at which level is set out in the award's classification definitions, and minimum rates change every 1 July through the Annual Wage Review – so we're deliberately not reproducing a rate table here that could go stale. Check the current rates on the Fair Work Ombudsman's MA000002 summary or pay guide, and the classification definitions in the award itself, before classifying a role.
The provisions that cause most payroll errors
The Clerks award doesn't have the interacting shift provisions that make SCHADS hard. Its risk is different: because it looks simple, it tends to be set up once and then left alone while roles, hours and salaries change around it.
Ordinary hours and the spread of hours
For day workers, ordinary hours are 38 per week, which can be averaged over a roster cycle. They must fall within the spread of hours:
- • 7.00am to 7.00pm, Monday to Friday
- • 7.00am to 12.30pm on Saturday
Ordinary hours worked on a Saturday attract a penalty rate. Work outside the spread – an early start before 7.00am, a finance close that runs past 7.00pm, or any Sunday work – is generally paid as overtime for day workers. Shiftworkers, such as those in contact centres running extended hours, are covered by separate shiftwork provisions and loadings.
Overtime
For full-time and part-time employees:
- • Monday to Saturday – 150% for the first three hours, 200% after that
- • Sunday – 200%
- • Public holidays – 250%
Casual overtime rates are listed separately in the award and build in the casual loading – check the current award or pay guide rather than applying the full-time percentages to a casual rate. By written agreement, employees can take time off instead of overtime payment; untaken time off has to be paid out at the overtime rate that applied when it was worked.
Annualised wage arrangements
Many clerical and administrative employees in larger organisations are on salaries rather than hourly rates. The Clerks award lets the employer pay an annualised wage in satisfaction of specified award entitlements. The employee doesn't have to agree to the arrangement, but the salary only satisfies the award if the employer meets the notice, record-keeping and reconciliation requirements:
- • Advise the employee in writing of the annualised wage, which award provisions it satisfies, and how it was calculated
- • Keep a record of that calculation, including the outer limit on the penalty and overtime hours the salary is intended to cover
- • Keep records of hours worked, including start and finish times and unpaid breaks
- • A reconciliation against what the employee would have earned under the award, at least every 12 months and when employment ends – with any shortfall paid
The reconciliation is the step most often missed. Our guide to annualised salaries under modern awards covers how it works in practice.
Higher duties and classification drift
An employee who is directed to perform the duties of a higher classification is entitled to the higher rate while they do it, under the award's higher duties provisions. The more common and more expensive problem is gradual: a receptionist takes on accounts payable, an administrator starts running the payroll, and the role now meets a higher level descriptor – but the employee is still paid at the level they were hired on. Classification should be reviewed whenever duties change, not just at hiring.
Part-time, casual and allowances
Part-time employees need an agreed regular pattern of hours in writing, and hours beyond that pattern are generally paid as overtime. Part-time and casual employees are also subject to minimum engagement periods. The award also provides allowances – including for first aid duties, overtime meals and use of a personal vehicle – whose amounts are updated with the Annual Wage Review, so check the current figures in the Fair Work pay guide.
"They're on a good salary, so overtime is covered"
This is the single most common assumption behind Clerks award underpayments. Paying above the award minimum does not, by itself, absorb overtime or penalty entitlements. Unless the salary is covered by a compliant annualised wage arrangement – or a contract set-off clause that genuinely covers the entitlement – the extra hours are still owed. Salaried finance and admin staff working through month-end and year-end closes are where this shows up most.
Source: fairwork.gov.au – MA000002 summary. Check percentages and clause detail against the current award text before relying on them for a specific pay calculation.
What changes each year – and what to watch
- 1
Annual Wage Review, every 1 July
Minimum rates and monetary allowances increase from the first full pay period on or after 1 July. Rates need updating for every level and year step, junior rates and allowances – and any above-award salaries need checking to confirm they're still above the new minimum.
- 2
High income threshold indexation
The threshold rises each 1 July. A guarantee of annual earnings that sat above the old threshold can fall below the new one, bringing the employee back under the award.
- 3
Working from home
Following the 2023–24 Modern Awards Review, the Fair Work Commission has been considering a working-from-home term for the Clerks award – the first award to be looked at for one. Check the current award text for whether a term has been inserted, and from when, before relying on older guidance.
- 4
Casual employment
Since 26 August 2024, the Fair Work Act's employee choice pathway has replaced the old casual conversion rules, alongside a new statutory definition of casual employment. Casual clerical staff who have worked regular patterns for some time are the ones most likely to be affected.
Common Clerks award underpayment scenarios
Two worked examples, without inventing dollar figures – check current rates on the Fair Work pay guide for the classification.
A salaried accounts officer at month-end
A full-time accounts officer on a salary comfortably above the Level 3 minimum works until 9pm for the last three weekdays of each month, and comes in on the Saturday morning of year-end close. The employer has never set up an annualised wage arrangement under the award – no written advice to the employee, no outer limits, no reconciliation. Each late evening falls outside the 7.00am–7.00pm spread and is overtime; the Saturday hours attract at least the Saturday penalty. Because nothing links the salary to those entitlements – no annualised wage arrangement and no contract set-off clause – the "above award" margin doesn't cover them – and over a year, the shortfall can be larger than the margin itself.
A Level 1 employee who never moved
An administration assistant was hired at Level 1, first year, and has been in the role for three years. Over that time they've taken on supplier invoicing and reconciliations. Two errors stack up: they should have moved through the Level 1 year steps on each anniversary, and their current duties may now meet the Level 2 descriptor. Correcting it means back-paying the year steps they missed and reassessing their classification against the award definitions.
Interpreting the Clerks award in payroll software
The Clerks award is rarely the only award a large employer runs. The same payroll typically has to apply it to the back office while applying a manufacturing, retail, social services or other industry award – or an enterprise agreement – to everyone else, often across several entities. A system that handles the operational award well but treats clerical staff as "just salaried" is where the provisions above get missed.
How Affinity handles the Clerks award
Affinity's award interpretation parses the Clerks award itself into rules – classification levels and year steps, the spread of hours, Saturday penalties and overtime – and runs them alongside your other awards and agreements on the same platform, so clerical pay is calculated the same way in every pay run instead of being left to a salary field.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Clerks award?
The Clerks – Private Sector Award 2020 (MA000002) sets minimum pay and conditions for clerical and administrative employees in Australia's private sector – reception, data entry, accounts, payroll, office administration and similar roles – across almost every industry.
Who does the Clerks award cover?
Private sector employers throughout Australia with employees doing clerical or administrative work that falls within the award's classifications. The main exception is where another modern award covering the employer's industry has its own clerical classifications – those employees are generally covered by that industry award instead. Employees covered by an enterprise agreement, and high-income employees with a written guarantee of annual earnings, are also outside the award's coverage.
How many levels are in the Clerks award?
Five. Level 1 is split into first, second and third year of experience, and Level 2 into first and second year, so a Level 1 or Level 2 employee's minimum rate increases with time in the role. Levels 3 to 5 are single rates, with classification based on the skills, responsibility and duties required.
What are ordinary hours under the Clerks award?
For day workers, ordinary hours are 38 per week (which can be averaged), worked between 7.00am and 7.00pm Monday to Friday and 7.00am and 12.30pm on Saturday. Ordinary hours on a Saturday attract a penalty rate, and work outside the spread of hours is generally paid as overtime. Shiftworkers have separate provisions.
What are the overtime rates in the Clerks award?
For full-time and part-time employees, overtime Monday to Saturday is paid at 150% for the first three hours and 200% after that; overtime on a Sunday is 200% and on a public holiday 250%. Casual overtime rates are set out separately in the award and include the casual loading, so check the current award or Fair Work pay guide for those.
Can Clerks award employees be paid an annualised salary?
Yes. The award includes an annualised wage arrangements clause, but it comes with conditions. The employer can set up the arrangement without the employee's agreement, but must advise the employee in writing of the annualised wage, which award provisions it covers and how it was calculated, keep a record of that calculation including the outer limit on penalty and overtime hours, keep records of hours worked and reconcile the salary against award entitlements at least every 12 months – paying any shortfall.
What are common Clerks award underpayment mistakes?
The recurring ones are a role that has outgrown its classification level, missed yearly progression within Levels 1 and 2, salaried office staff working unpaid overtime on the assumption that an above-award salary covers it, annualised salaries that are never reconciled, and Saturday or early-morning work paid at ordinary rates instead of the penalty or overtime rate.
How does Affinity's award interpretation help with the Clerks award?
Affinity's award interpretation parses the Clerks award itself into rules – classification levels, the spread of hours, Saturday penalties and overtime – so clerical pay is calculated the same way every pay run, alongside the industry awards and enterprise agreements covering the rest of your workforce.
Next step
This guide is part of Affinity's award-guide series, alongside our guide to the SCHADS award. If your organisation runs several awards and agreements at once, see how Affinity supports professional services payroll and other sectors, or talk to us about your specific award mix.