General Retail Industry Award
Covers retail establishments selling or hiring goods and services to final consumers. 8 classifications (L1-L8) with junior rates restricted to L1-L3, both 3-year and 4-year apprentice pathways split pre / post 1 January 2014, and adult-apprentice floor rules. Standard rate is Retail Employee Level 4.
Fully built. Rates, allowances, penalties and any required apprentice / junior rates are all wired to the rate resolver and have been verified against the consolidated award text and the latest pay guide.
What's built
- All 8 cl. 17.1 classifications at the corrected July 2025 figures.
- Junior rates (L1-L3 only) from under-16 (45%) through 20-year-old, with the 20-year >6-months-service step up to 100%.
- Apprentice grids: 4-year pre-2014, 4-year post-2014 with year-12 split, 3-year post-2014 with year-12 split, plus adult-apprentice Year 1 (80% floor) and Year 2+ (L1 floor) per cl. 17.4.
- Higher duties - whole-shift rate when >2 hours at higher classification, pro-rata otherwise (cl. 17.5).
- All cl. 19 allowances including the FT / PT laundry split, two meal-OT bands, cold-work + sub-zero stack, first-aid, liquor licence and Broken Hill.
- Tiered Mon-Sat OT (150% first 3 hours, 200% after) and Sunday / PH at 200% / 250%.
Known limitations
- Table 8 (3-year apprenticeship pre-1 Jan 2014 start) is not seeded - closed cohort. Contact support if you have an in-flight apprentice on that variant.
- Cl. 22.2 public-holiday substitute provision (FT / PT may forgo the 125% extra in exchange for paid time off) is captured as configuration but enforcement is a payroll-time check.
Setup & special instructions
- Junior rates apply only to retail employees Levels 1-3. Don't apply them to Levels 4-8.
- Adult apprentices: cl. 17.4 prescribes a 'greater of' rule - the seeded floor is the 80% / L1 anchor, but the resolver compares against the relevant Table 7 / 9 percentage at payslip time.
- Pre-existing employees who entered a training agreement after ≥6 months FT (or ≥12 months PT / regular casual) keep their pre-apprenticeship rate throughout (cl. 17.4(c)/(d)).
- • Retail
- • General retail
- • Shops
The consolidated award text is the authoritative source. Always confirm specific obligations against the award itself - Mployr's implementation status reflects what we've seeded; it does not replace legal advice.
Want to see this award running on your data?
We can demo a pay run on the general retail award using sample employees in a sandbox tenant - including any of the special-instruction steps above so you can see exactly what your team's day-to-day looks like.
Book a demo