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Cement, Lime and Quarrying Award Pay Calculator

Work out what a week under the Cement, Lime and Quarrying Award actually pays — the right competency level, shift and public holiday penalties, casual loading and super, calculated the way the award says.

How the Cement, Lime and Quarrying Award is applied

Minimum rates are set per competency level — the calculator uses the Cement and Lime adult rates (clause 16.1), current from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026.
Casuals get a 25% loading on top of the ordinary hourly rate, with a 3-hour minimum engagement per shift.
Any shift touching a Saturday is paid at 150% (175% casual) in Cement and Lime — Quarrying shiftworkers instead step up to 200%/225% after the first 2 hours, which is why the calculator’s Saturday bucket is flagged for review against your actual stream.
Overtime beyond 38 ordinary weekly hours runs 150% for the first 2 hours, then 200% (casuals: 175% then 225%) — Sunday overtime is a flat 200%/225% for all time worked.
Public holidays are paid at 250% (275% casual) for all hours worked, ordinary or ordinary-hours-on-a-holiday — one of the higher public holiday rates among the manufacturing awards.
Superannuation (12%) applies to ordinary-time earnings, including the all-purpose allowances and penalty rates — but not to overtime.

Who the award covers

Manufacture and handling of cement, clinker, flyash, lime and hydrated lime within production establishments
Distribution of cement, lime and related products out of production establishments or from bulk silos
Quarrying operations, as defined in the award’s coverage clause
On-hire employees placed into cement, lime or quarrying work
Group training employees engaged in either industry

General manufacturing outside cement, lime or quarrying, concrete products and premixed concrete manufacturing sit under their own awards — check before you classify.

Which level is your team member?

This award runs two classification ladders side by side — Cement and Lime (7 levels) and Quarrying (6 grades) — so the first step is always confirming which industry the work sits in. The calculator uses the Cement and Lime ladder: classify by the competency the person has actually attained, not the job title on their contract.

Level	Per hour	Per week (38h)	Typical roles	The test
Level 1	$25.74	$978.10	Basic competency trainee (first 6 months)	Undertaking Basic competency training. An employee cannot stay at Level 1 for more than 6 months.
Level 2	$26.71	$1014.80	Yard hand developing Production competency	Has attained Basic competency and is developing Yard competency, or developing one element of Production competency under general supervision.
Level 3	$27.52	$1045.60	Production operator (1 competency element) · Trainee in Bulk Despatch, Packaged Products or Laboratory	Competent in one element of the Production competency, or developing Bulk Despatch, Packaged Products or Laboratory competency.
Level 4	$28.06	$1066.40	Yard-competent operator · Trainee control room operator (small plant)	Competent in two elements of Production competency, or all elements of Yard competency, or developing Control Room Operation in a plant up to 0.5Mt/year.
Level 5	$28.60	$1086.90	Bulk Despatch/Packaged Products/Laboratory operator · Control room operator (small plant)	Competent in 3–4 elements of Production competency, or all elements of Bulk Despatch, Packaged Products or Laboratory competency, or competent in Control Room Operation in a plant up to 0.5Mt/year.
Level 6	$29.45	$1119.10	Control room operator (large plant, general supervision) · Fully competent production operator	Competent in Control Room Operation in a plant producing over 0.5Mt/year under general supervision, or fully competent in Control Room Operation up to 0.5Mt/year, or competent in all elements of Production competency.
Level 7	$30.36	$1153.70	Senior control room operator (large plant, full competency)	Fully competent in Control Room Operation and operating a plant producing more than 0.5 million tonnes of product per year — the award’s top level.

Progression is competency-based throughout: each level names the specific skill (Yard, Production, Bulk Despatch, Control Room Operation) the person must have attained, not time served — though Level 1 is capped at 6 months by definition.
Control Room Operation is the ladder’s spine from Level 4 up — the plant’s output (up to or over 0.5Mt/year) and the amount of supervision required both matter to where someone sits.
Quarrying uses a parallel Grade 1–6 ladder built the same way (Basic Quarry competency, then core competencies) but with different rates — never apply Cement and Lime rates to quarry work or vice versa.
The industry disability allowance is all-purpose and differs by stream ($81.52/week Cement and Lime, $35.31/week Quarrying) — it must be added to the base rate before overtime or penalties are calculated.

Allowances that can apply on top

Base rates and penalties aren’t the whole pay picture. The Cement, Lime and Quarrying Award adds allowances for particular duties and situations — being the designated first aid officer, working overtime without notice, using your own car. They’re small lines individually, but they’re legal entitlements and they add up. The common ones (1 July 2026 amounts):

Industry disability allowance — Cement and lime (all-purpose)$81.52/week

Industry disability allowance — Quarrying (all-purpose)$35.31/week

Leading hand allowance — 1–5 employees (all-purpose)$43.48/week

Leading hand allowance — 6–16 employees (all-purpose)$62.50/week

Leading hand allowance — 17+ employees (all-purpose)$81.52/week

First aid allowance — Cement and lime (all-purpose)$28.26/week

First aid allowance — Quarrying (all-purpose)$20.64/week

Vehicle allowance — own car directed for work use$1.00/km

Meal allowance — overtime 2+ hours past ordinary finish$19.02 per occasion

The calculator below doesn’t include allowances — add the ones that apply to your team on top of the result. The full list lives in the award’s allowances clause.

Break entitlements under the Cement, Lime and Quarrying Award

Breaks are part of the award too — and missed or worked-through breaks usually carry a penalty rate, so they belong in the roster, not just the tea room. Here’s what the Cement, Lime and Quarrying Award requires:

Meal break — no more than 5 ordinary hours without oneUnpaid (the 5 hours can stretch by an hour by agreement)

Meal break — shiftworkersPaid, 30 minutes each shift, counts as time worked

Rest break — each dayPaid, 10 minutes (shiftworkers can combine it with the meal break into one 40-minute paid break)

Required to work through the meal break150% of ordinary time for all work during the break and until a break is taken

The full rules live in clause 15 of the award.

Calculate a week under the Cement, Lime and Quarrying Award

Enter the week as it’s actually rostered. Weekend, evening and public-holiday hours are paid at the award’s penalty rates; anything beyond 38 hours is priced as overtime; super is applied to ordinary-time earnings only.

Classification levelEmployment typeState or territoryWeekday ordinary hoursSaturday shift hoursAny shift, part of which falls on a Saturday (clause 21.3) — Quarrying shiftworkers move to 200%/225% after the first 2 hours, modelled as overtime below.Sunday shift hoursAny shift, part of which falls on a Sunday (clause 21.5)Public holiday hours

Rates current as of 1 July 2026 (adult minimums, MA000055) — first full pay period on or after that date.

This week’s numbers

Nothing is stored or sent — the maths runs on this page.

Are these the exact legal rates?

The level minimums are the adult Cement and Lime rates (clause 16.1), current at 1 July 2026. Quarrying uses a separate Grade 1–6 table at similar but not identical figures — confirm which stream covers your business before you rely on a number. Treat the result as a planning figure, not a payslip.

My quarry uses shiftworkers on Saturdays — is the calculator right?

Not exactly as shown. Cement and Lime shiftworkers get a flat 150%/175% for any Saturday shift, but Quarrying shiftworkers step up to 200%/225% after the first 2 hours. The calculator models the Cement and Lime figure in the Saturday bucket — for a quarrying roster, treat that as the floor and add the second tier by hand.

Does the industry disability allowance change my overtime rate?

Yes — it’s all-purpose, meaning it must be folded into the base rate before overtime and penalty multipliers are applied, not paid as a flat extra on top. The calculator adds it to ordinary-time pay; for overtime hours, add the allowance into the base before you multiply.

Does super apply to the industry allowance?

Yes — all-purpose allowances are part of ordinary-time earnings for super guarantee purposes, so the 12% applies. True overtime remains excluded, exactly as the calculator applies it.

This is a general calculator, not legal advice. It applies the award’s published adult minimums to the hours you enter — it can’t see your enterprise agreement, allowances or individual arrangements, and junior, apprentice and shiftwork rates differ. Always confirm pay against the award, your agreement or your adviser. If you believe something here is materially wrong or out of date, please contact us — we’ll review it promptly.

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