clovaGetting paid
Casual or Part-Time: Which Pays More Over a Year?
Casual usually pays more per hour. Whether it pays more over a year depends on shifts worked, leave and your award.
By MarnixPublished Sources
The casual job pays $37.50 an hour and the part-time one pays $30, for the same work in the same shop. On the offer, that looks like an easy choice.
The two rates are paying for different things, though. Part of the casual rate is money for the weeks you won't be paid, and the part-time rate keeps paying through them. Putting a whole year of each side by side shows which one ends up ahead, and what it depends on.
What the casual loading pays for
A casual job has no firm commitment to ongoing work: your employer offers shifts when they need you, and you can accept or turn them down. A part-time job has regular hours, fewer than 38 a week, and comes with paid leave.
Because casuals miss out on paid leave, they're paid extra to make up for it. This casual loading is generally 25% on top of the minimum hourly rate, and the casual rates in awards and job ads usually include it already. Here's what each kind of job gets under the minimum rules for most employees in Australia:
| Casual | Part-time | |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly rate | Base rate plus a loading, generally 25% | Base rate |
| Annual leave | None paid | 4 weeks a year, paid |
| Sick and carer's leave | Unpaid carer's leave only | Paid, in proportion to your hours |
| A public holiday you don't work | Unpaid | Paid, if it falls on one of your usual days |
| Hours | Offered shift by shift | Agreed in advance, usually the same each week |
| If the job ends | No notice or redundancy pay | Notice; redundancy pay if eligible |
Both get employer super at 12% of the earnings that count for super, and the casual loading counts, so a casual's super grows with the loading. Your award or agreement can add to any line in that table, so the award rates guide is the place to check what yours says.
A year of each, side by side
Sam, who's made up, has been offered both versions of the same retail job: 20 hours a week as a casual at $37.50 an hour, or as a part-timer at $30. Either way, Sam plans to take 4 weeks off across the year.
As a part-timer, those 4 weeks are paid annual leave. Many awards also add leave loading of 17.5% to the pay for leave, and Sam's does. As a casual, the same 4 weeks simply have no pay.
Over the year, the casual job comes out about $4,380 ahead before tax, even after paying nothing for the month off. The 25% loading is bigger than the paid leave it stands in for, as long as Sam works every shift in those 48 weeks.
Paid sick leave and unworked public holidays on Sam's usual workdays favour part-time. At $187.50 for a five-hour shift, it takes about 24 missed shifts to close that gap.
The hours decide it
The bigger risk for a casual is the hours themselves. A casual roster can shrink in a quiet month with no notice, and nothing in the rate makes up for shifts that aren't offered. A part-timer has agreed hours, with changes governed by their award or agreement.
Working back from Sam's numbers gives the point where the two years match.
Alongside the hourly rate, ask how many hours casuals have actually been getting. Someone who already works there, or a few months of the roster, will tell you more than the job ad. If the hours swing a lot from week to week, the casual pay planner shows what a lighter fortnight leaves you.
What the yearly total doesn't show
A bigger total isn't the only thing that matters in a year. Paid sick leave means a week of flu doesn't also become a week without pay. Steady hours help with bills; notice and any redundancy entitlement help if the job ends.
Casual work has its own advantages. You can turn down a shift for an exam, a trip or a second job, which is why casual work often fits around study. Neither kind of job is the better one for everyone; it comes down to which risk you'd rather carry.
Paying yourself the leave as a casual
As a casual, part of every pay is really money for the weeks you won't work. Setting it aside as it comes in means a week off, or a week when you're sick, isn't a week with nothing coming in.
Sam's 4 weeks off would have paid $3,000 at casual rates. Putting $125 aside from each of the 24 fortnightly pays across the 48 working weeks covers it, and Sam still comes out ahead of the part-time year. Our guide to budgeting on a casual income shows how to plan the rest of a pay that changes.
Clova can track a goal for time off, with an amount planned from each pay.
Asking to become permanent
Regular hours as a casual can be a reason to ask for a change. Once you've been in the job 6 months, or 12 months with a small business, you can give your employer written notice that you'd like to become part-time or full-time, if your job no longer fits the casual definition. Your employer can refuse only for certain reasons, and Fair Work's page on becoming a permanent employee explains them. You can also agree a change with your employer at any time.
Before asking, it's worth running your own numbers the way Sam's are run above. With steady hours, permanent work trades the loading for paid weeks off and pay that doesn't stop when you're sick.
Whichever you choose, the number to plan around is the pay that actually lands, not the hourly rate on the offer. Take-home pay explains how that's worked out, and from there you can give each pay its jobs.
A note from us
A higher hourly rate is easy to compare and a year of pay is not, which is why the casual offer so often looks like the obvious one. We are building Clova, a budgeting app that shows what each pay has to cover, including a goal for weeks without shifts.