Hospitality Award (HIGA)

The Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020 — HIGA — is the modern award covering much of Australian hospitality: hotels, pubs, casinos, caterers, and many cafés and function venues. (Some standalone restaurants and cafés sit under the separate Restaurant Industry Award instead, so check coverage before assuming.)

The rules that shape hospitality rosters

Penalty rates for evenings, weekends and public holidays, with late-night work attracting additional loadings.
Classifications and junior rates that set each person's base, from kitchen hands to duty managers.
Ordinary hours and averaging: 38 weekly hours averaged across a roster cycle, with limits on daily hours and gaps between shifts.
Breaks: meal breaks keyed to shift length — and a higher rate that kicks in if a due break isn't given on time.
Split shifts: permitted for the lunch-and-dinner rhythm of the industry, with allowances attached.
Annualised salaries and loaded rates: HIGA includes specific mechanisms for rolling entitlements into a single salary or hourly rate, each with strict conditions and reconciliation duties.

Why coverage and detail matter

Hospitality's penalties move with award reviews, and the industry's irregular hours make manual tracking fragile. The combination of the right award, current rates from the Fair Work Ombudsman, and honest time records is what keeps a venue's pay clean through a busy season.

Hospitality Industry (General) Award 2020, maintained by the Fair Work Commission — coverage checks and current rates via the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Tommy keeps hospitality rosters, swaps and time clock records in one place, so the irregular hours the HIGA prices so carefully are accurately captured.

Related terms

Put a number on it: the free true shift cost calculator shows what a shift really costs once every premium and on-cost is applied.