On 31 March 2026, the Fair Work Commission (Commission) issued a provisional decision that will fundamentally reshape how employers remunerate younger workers, phasing out junior rates of pay for employees aged 18 years and older. The phase out will impact the General Retail Industry Award 2020, the Fast Food Industry Award 2010 and the Pharmacy Industry Award 2020 from 1 December 2026, with other modern awards expected to follow.
The Commission’s view is that age-based pay discounting for adult employees can no longer be justified. Rather than an immediate abolition of junior rates, the phase-out will be incremental. From December 2026, affected employees will receive a five percentage point increase to their applicable rate every six months until they reach the full adult rate. Critically, this incremental increase will only commence once an employee has completed six months of continuous service with the same employer.
This means a 20-year-old retail worker currently paid at 90% of the adult rate would move to 95% after six months of service, and then to 100% six months later. The trajectory is clear that within a relatively short window, all employees over 18 years of age and who are covered by these awards, will be entitled to the full adult minimum rate.
We have outlined, in the below table, how the incremental increases will apply over time:
The six-month service threshold creates two dynamics that employers need to...
The government has debunked social media posts wherein it was claimed that there were casualties during the students’ protest in Delhi. The Fact Check Unit of the Press Information Bureau has term...