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Joinery Award Pay Calculator

Work out what a week under the Joinery and Building Trades Award actually pays — the right classification level, Saturday and Sunday overtime, casual loading and super, calculated the way the award says.

How the Joinery Award is applied

Minimum rates are set per classification level — the calculator uses the clause 19.1 rates, current from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026.
Casuals get a 25% loading on the ordinary hourly rate, and every multiplier above already includes it where the award specifies inclusive casual rates (clause 11.4).
Unlike retail or hospitality awards, there is no weekend penalty rate on ordinary hours here — Saturday and Sunday work is overtime under clause 24.3, paid at 150% for the first 2 hours and 200% after that (Sunday is 200% throughout), because ordinary hours are rostered Monday to Friday only.
Overtime beyond 38 ordinary weekly hours on a weekday follows the same 150%-then-200% structure, with a minimum 3-hour engagement for Saturday overtime and 4 hours for Sunday.
Superannuation (12%) applies to ordinary-time earnings — including the all-purpose leading hand, industry and tool allowances — but not to overtime.
The tool allowance and industry allowance are all-purpose (clause 21.2): they count toward penalty and overtime loadings and annual leave pay, so leaving them out of the base rate is a common under-payment employers don’t notice until an audit.

Who the award covers

Joinery work, shopfitting and prefabricated building
Stonemasonry, and glass and glazing contracting or work
Carpenters, joiners, signwriters, painters, stonemasons and plasterers
Carvers and letter cutters working to trade standards
Labour hire staff placed into joinery and building trades businesses

On-site construction work sits under the Building and Construction General On-site Award 2020, vehicle body building and repair under the Vehicle Manufacturing, Repair, Services and Retail Award 2020, and raw-glass manufacturing is excluded outright — check coverage before you classify.

Which level is your team member?

The Joinery and Building Trades Award has one classification ladder with seven levels, running from general hand through to the most senior trade grade. Level 5 is the tradesperson benchmark — holding a trade certificate or equivalent — and it also sets the base that apprentice pay is calculated from. Most factory and site joinery teams sit at Levels 1, 3 or 5; Levels 6 and 7 are for advanced trade work done under general or limited supervision.

Level	Per hour	Per week (38h)	Typical roles	The test
Level 1	$25.74	$978.10	General hand · Factory hand	Entry level: routine, repetitive manual duties under direct supervision, general labouring and cleaning from written or verbal instructions. Reclassified to Level 2 within 3 months.
Level 2	$26.44	$1004.90	Assembler B	Completed training or 3 months’ experience at Level 1. Exercises limited discretion, basic fault-finding, repetitive fixing of pre-made components and basic glass handling.
Level 3	$27.08	$1029.10	Assembler A · Primer · Machinist grade 2 · Dispatch worker/glass vehicle driver	Production of standard components, operation of machinery, mobile-equipment work (e.g. forklifts), basic inventory control and assisting tradespersons.
Level 4	$27.97	$1062.90	Senior production/factory employee working to complex procedures	Works from more complex standards with limited supervision, exercises discretion and basic fault-finding, works from basic plans and sketches, operates licensed materials-handling equipment.
Level 5 (Tradesperson)	$29.45	$1119.10	Carpenter and/or joiner · Stonemason · Prefab tradesperson · Painter · Plasterer · Glazier · Glass cutter	The trade level: holds a trade certificate or equivalent, applies quality-control techniques, selects materials, operates machinery to trade standards. The award’s benchmark rate — apprentice pay is set as a percentage of this level.
Level 6	$30.38	$1154.30	Letter cutter · Joiner special class · Joiner-setter out · Prefab setter · Signwriter · Specialist glass cutter	Above trade level under general supervision: reads and calculates from production drawings or plans, operates complex machinery, applies relevant legislation.
Level 7	$31.30	$1189.40	Carver	The most senior trade level: high-precision trade skills across materials, guides and trains other tradespeople, works under limited supervision.

Level 1 is a genuine entry grade — repetitive manual and labouring duties under direct supervision — and the award itself expects reclassification to Level 2 within 3 months.
Level 5 is the trade line: it requires a trade certificate, Tradesperson’s Rights Certificate or an equivalent competency assessment. Don’t place an unqualified worker here even if the duties look similar.
Levels 6 and 7 are about the complexity of the work and the level of supervision, not seniority alone — reading and working from production drawings and plans, operating complex machinery, or (Level 7) providing guidance to other tradespeople.
Apprentices and trainees are excluded from the clause 19.1 adult rates entirely (clause 19.4) — their pay is a percentage of the Level 5 rate under a separate apprentice schedule, so don’t run an apprentice through the adult classification table.

Allowances that can apply on top

Base rates and penalties aren’t the whole pay picture. The Joinery 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 allowance — joinery, shopfitting, stonemasonry or outside work (all-purpose)$41.94/week

Tool allowance — trade classifications supplying and maintaining own tools (all-purpose; varies by trade)$9.89–$41.22/week

Leading hand allowance — in charge of other employees (all-purpose)$26.86/week (1) · $58.96 (2–5) · $75.48 (6–10) · $100.40 (11+)

First aid allowance — appointed first aid officer with current qualification$22.26/week

Confined space allowance$1.18/hour

Meal allowance — overtime of 1.5 hours or more without notice$19.74

Glazier disability allowance — other than factory glazing$1.12/hour

Annual leave loading17.5% on paid annual leave

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 Joinery 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 Joinery Award requires:

Meal breakAn unpaid meal break of at least 30 minutes each day — taken between the 4th and 6th hour of work for day workers (after the 5th hour for shiftworkers).

Working through a meal breakPaid at 200% of the ordinary hourly rate for all work during the break, and until a meal break is taken.

Morning rest periodA paid 10-minute rest between 9.30am and 11.30am each day. Glass and glazing workers get a second 10-minute rest in the afternoon.

Continuous shiftwork cribOn 3 continuous 8-hour shifts a day: a paid 20-minute crib break instead of the other rest periods.

From the award’s breaks clause (clause 18). An employer and employee can agree to different meal-break timing — verify the current award text before relying on it.

Calculate a week under the Joinery 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 — first 2 hours (overtime)Clause 24.3(a)(i): the first 2 hours of Saturday work are overtime at 150% (175% casual, loading inclusive per clause 11.4).Saturday — after 2 hours or after 12 noon (overtime)Clause 24.3(a)(ii): all Saturday work after 12 noon, and Saturday overtime beyond the first 2 hours, is paid at 200% (225% casual).Sunday (overtime)Clause 24.3(b): all Sunday work is overtime at 200% of the ordinary hourly rate (225% casual).Public holiday hoursClause 24.4(a): a minimum of 4 hours’ work at 250% of the ordinary hourly rate (275% casual).

Rates current as of 1 July 2026 (adult minimums, MA000029) — 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 classification minimums are the adult rates from clause 19.1, current at 1 July 2026. Apprentice, trainee and supported-wage rates are set separately as a percentage of the Level 5 trade rate — they’re excluded from this table entirely. Treat the result as a planning number and confirm against the award or your payroll adviser.

Why is there no Saturday penalty rate option like other awards?

Because this award doesn’t roster ordinary hours on weekends at all — Monday to Friday is the ordinary-hours week. Any Saturday or Sunday work is overtime under clause 24.3, paid at overtime multipliers (150%/200% Saturday, 200% Sunday) rather than a flat weekend penalty on top of ordinary pay.

What’s the difference between Level 5 and Level 6?

Level 5 is the trade benchmark — a qualified tradesperson applying standard trade skills. Level 6 sits above it: reading and calculating from production drawings or plans, operating a wider range of complex machinery, and applying relevant legislation, all under general rather than close supervision.

Does super apply to the tool and industry allowances?

Yes for ordinary-time purposes — both are all-purpose allowances under clause 21.2, so they’re folded into the rate used for penalties, loadings and leave, and the 12% super guarantee applies to that ordinary-time figure. True overtime pay is excluded from super. The calculator applies exactly that split.

What about portable long service leave?

Joinery and building trades work on construction sites sits inside the same portable long service leave schemes as the broader building industry — every state and territory runs one. It’s levied on the value of the building work, not wages (for example, NSW charges 0.25% and Queensland 0.575% of project cost, usually paid by the builder or principal contractor), so it doesn’t appear as a per-worker line in this calculator. Workers still accrue leave that follows them between employers — check the relevant state scheme for registration and entitlement details.

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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