Payroll compliance audit — confidential
Harbourview Café
Prepared by Award Compliance · Sydney NSW dataset · Sample edition
Headline finding
$11,460
in underpayment across 13 weeks — 15.1% of gross wages.
185 of 325 shifts (57%) and 8 of 8 employees were affected. At this run rate, the annualised exposure is approximately $45,800. Every employee was paid a flat rate above the weekday minimum; the underpayment comes entirely from what a flat rate ignores — penalties, public holidays and overtime.
- Audit period
- 13 weeks (1 Apr – 30 Jun)
- Award
- Hospitality Industry (General) Award — MA000009
- Employees reviewed
- 8 of 8
- Shifts reviewed
- 325
- Gross wages in period
- $75,842
Findings by mechanism
Public holiday loading
22 shifts
$4,452
Casual and permanent staff paid their usual flat rate on public holidays (casual Level 2 award rate on a public holiday: $64.63/hr).
Sunday penalty
48 shifts
$3,555
Flat weekday rate paid on Sundays. Casual Level 2 Sunday rate is $45.24/hr — a flat $32.00 leaves ~$79 short per 6-hour shift.
Saturday penalty
52 shifts
$1,997
Saturday loading not applied to casual staff paid a flat rate.
Overtime (indicative)
18 weeks-employee
$1,339
Full-time cook regularly rostered 42.5 h/week at a flat rate; hours beyond 38 attract 150% then 200%.
Below base rate
45 shifts
$117
Marginal gap on weekday shifts (31 cents/hr on the flat rate vs the casual weekday minimum).
Note the last line. The base-rate check — the one an owner can do by hand against a pay guide — represents 1% of the total exposure. The four mechanisms above it, the ones no one checks manually, represent the other 99%.
Root causes — three, not a hundred
1. One flat rate for every day of the week
Staff are paid a “good rate” ($32.00/hr) that beats the weekday minimum by a comfortable margin — and misses the Saturday, Sunday and public holiday minimums by a wide one. The rate is generous on the days that don’t matter and short on the days that do.
2. The Easter / Anzac cluster
Four public holidays fell inside six weeks. A casual Level 2 on a public holiday must be paid $64.63/hr; everyone worked those days at their usual rate. This single cluster accounts for $4,452 — 39% of the total finding.
3. Overtime treated like salaried work
The full-time cook works 42.5 hours most weeks at a flat rate. Under the award, hours 38–40 attract 150% and hours beyond that 200%. Willingness to work the hours doesn’t change the rate they must be paid at.
One detail worth noticing: the part-time employee who was paid correctly all quarter still appears once — Easter Monday, $181 short. Compliance is a shift-by-shift property, not a person-by-person one.
Recommended actions, in order
- 1.Fix the public holiday configuration in your payroll software before the next holiday (largest single mechanism).
- 2.Introduce day-based rates for casual staff (weekday / Saturday / Sunday) instead of one flat rate.
- 3.Move the full-time cook to award-compliant overtime, or restructure the roster below 38 hours.
- 4.Decide on back-payment with your accountant. Voluntary correction is what distinguishes an honest mistake from a criminal one.
- 5.Re-check after 1 July — every award rate changes at the Annual Wage Review.
Method & limitations (printed in every report)
Findings are based on the data supplied and on rates verified against the consolidated award text at awards.fairwork.gov.au. Evening (7pm–midnight) and night work (midnight–7am) loading, and overtime for both casual and permanent employees, are included as roster-based estimates. This analysis does not model junior rates by age and the alcohol-service rule, apprentice or junior-office rates, allowances, annualised salary arrangements, or an independent state-by-state public holiday calendar — where these apply, the true exposure is likely higher, not lower. This report states that discrepancies were, or were not, identified in the data supplied; it is not a declaration of compliance, and it is not legal, accounting or tax advice.