Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award: Pay Rates, Classifications, and Obligations

Food and grocery manufacturing alone employs almost 300,000 Australians—and that’s not counting the 23,000 who work in beverage and tobacco manufacturing. All in all, over a quarter of a million Australians rely on the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award for workplace entitlements.

However, for many employers, the big problem with the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award is coverage: Which workers are covered by the Award and which are covered by other similar Awards? It’s down to employers to find out.

That’s why we’re coming to you with a detailed and updated Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award guide. We’ll review everything you need to know about coverage, current minimum rates, overtime penalties, allowances, and leave—and we’ll even include some top compliance tips, too.

The Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award: A Quick Summary for Busy Managers

The Fair Work Commission’s Modern Awards are complex documents. They outline workers’ rights and entitlements for specific industries in Australia—so if you’re an employer in the food, beverage, or tobacco industry, here’s a quick summary:

• The Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award [MA000073] provides industry-specific employee entitlements for employees in those industries. They exist alongside National Employment Standards (NES), which are more general.
• It covers a broad set of critical considerations, including:
  • Award coverage: Who exactly the Award applies to. Employers might assume an administrator working in, say, their food industry company is covered. They’re not—they would likely be covered by the Clerks Award [MA000002].
  • Employee type: The different types of workers covered by the Award. This includes full-time, part-time, and casual employees, as well as apprentices.
  • Employee classification: The different “pay levels” that reflect individual employees’ experience and responsibilities. These range from Level 1 to Level 6.
  • Hours and timing of work: The difference in pay between “ordinary hours” and non-ordinary hours (like overtime), wherein pay is usually more.
• Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award coverage is generally narrower than many employers assume. It mainly covers production, processing, packing, and manufacturing roles, and not other roles related to the food, beverage, and tobacco industries.
• For business owners and managers, the hard part is usually classifying employees at the right level. Always remember: classification and pay are based on duties performed, not job titles.

Award Basics

The clue to the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award [MA000073] is in the name: it covers employees in the manufacturing of these products—not all employees who work in these industries.

Within the document, you’ll find a range of information on various employee entitlements (all of which we’ll cover below). 

The Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award works alongside the National Employment Standards (NES). These provide workers rights for all employees in Australia, including things like leave entitlements. The Modern Awards don’t replace these rights. Instead, they add to them.

Who is covered under the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award?

Since it focuses on manufacturing, the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award is narrower than most people think.

However, it still provides workplace entitlements for a huge number of employees. Some of those covered include:

• Production workers
• Food processors
• Bottled water producers
• Qualified tradespersons

Essentially, it covers those involved in the “preparing, cooking, baking, blending, brewing, fermenting, preserving, filleting, gutting, freezing, refrigerating, decorating, washing, grading, processing, distilling, manufacturing and milling of food, beverage, and tobacco products.” 

The full coverage list can be found on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Who isn’t covered under the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award?

The Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award only covers employees who are involved in manufacturing. So, that excludes:

• Admin workers
• Retail bakery workers
• Mechanics
• Salespersons

The types of employees listed above are covered under different Modern Awards. That might be the Clerks Award [MA000002] for administrators, for example, or the Retail Award [MA000004] for retail bakery workers.

You can find more detailed breakdowns on the Fair Work Ombudsman website.

Coverage self-check: Does the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award apply?

Here’s a quick way to assess whether or not an employee will be covered by the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award. Ask yourself these questions:

• Does your business involve manufacturing, processing, blending, brewing, distilling, fermenting, bottling, canning, packaging, or otherwise producing food, beverages (including wine, beer, or spirits), or tobacco products?
• Does the employee work directly within the manufacturing or processing of your goods? Is the employee’s work hands-on and operational rather than office-based?
• Is the employee specifically excluded from the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award [MA000073] coverage list?
• Is the employee managerial or professional and therefore award-free?
• Is there an enterprise agreement (EA) covering the employee? (If there is, the EA generally applies, subject to the BOOT and award interaction).

If you answered yes, yes, no, no, no, then the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award likely applies. If you didn’t, you should use the Award Finder from the Fair Work Ombudsman to find the correct award for the employee. 

Coming up: Award dates and deadlines you need to know

The Award saw some updates during 2025, such as a minimum rate increase and allowance updates in July. So far, there are no confirmed major updates set for 2026. However, the normal annual wage review will take place in June 2026, and any likely wage increases will become effective from 1 July.

Determining Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award [MA000073] Requirements

Almost all of the 122 Modern Awards in Australia follow a similar structure: they establish coverage and then go on to separate employees into employee types (such as full-time or casual) and classifications (which are called ‘levels’).

This process helps narrow down individual employees so employers can pay them accurately. The Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award is a comprehensive document, but classification is easy when you know the relevant background information.

This should help you understand the structure of the award:

Employment types

The Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award outlines four main employee types who are covered. They are:

• Full-time employees: Those who work at least 38 ordinary hours a week. Any employee not specifically contracted as a part-time or casual employee is automatically considered full-time.
• Part-time employees: Those who work less than 38 ordinary hours a week but who have regular shift patterns. They get the same entitlements as full-time employees, only on a pro-rata basis (which means they make the same per-hour but less overall because they work fewer hours).
• Casual employees: Those with no guarantee of ongoing work; they’re usually employed “as and when needed.” Casual employees get a minimum hourly rate plus 25% casual loading, which is an extra payment to compensate for lack of leave entitlements.
• Apprentices: Apprentices are covered by the Award the same way that part- and full-time employees are.

Classifications and levels

Every employee, regardless of employment type, is categorised into a specific level. This level reflects the worker’s level of experience as well as their actual duties and responsibilities. This was established as a fairer way to establish minimum rates rather than simply using job titles.

In the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award 2020, classifications are as follows:

This list isn’t comprehensive. For the sake of brevity, we’ve summarised the descriptions of each level. You can read through the full list on the official Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award document; just head to “Schedule B – Classification Structure and Definitions.”

Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award Pay Rates and Entitlements

In this section, we’re going to break down the current employee entitlements in the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award 2020. This info is updated for 2026. We’ll cover minimum hourly base rates, overtime penalties, break rules, allowances, and leave entitlements for all six Award levels.

Minimum base rates

Here are the current minimum hourly rates of pay for each Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award employee:

For junior employees who aren’t apprentices:

For apprentices, minimum rates depend on the apprentice stage:

Overtime rules and rates

Overtime is defined as any hours worked outside of ordinary hours, which are hours agreed upon in one’s contract. For full-time employees, for example, that would be any hours worked beyond 38 hours a week.

You’ll notice this table is split into “continuous shiftworkers” and “non-continuous shiftworkers”:

• Continuous shiftworkers: These are employees who work in rotating 24/7 shifts.
• Non-continuous shiftworkers: These are employees who work regular Monday-Friday daywork shifts with weekends off.

Here are the current overtime rates:

There are many overtime rules that dictate when and how you can give overtime. For example:

• Overtime workers get a 20-minute rest break every 4 hours.
• Saturday, Sunday, and public holiday overtime workers must get paid their full hourly rate for their first rest break.

Head over to Part 5 – Overtime and Shiftwork Rates on the official Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award 2020 for more examples.

Breaks and allowances

Break rules are relatively straightforward in this Award. The main one is:

• All employees are entitled to a meal break after 5 hours of work.

However, if workers have to work though meal breaks, they’re entitled to:

• 150% of hourly rate until break.
• 200% of hourly rate until break during ordinary hours on Saturday or Sunday.

Various employees are also entitled to certain allowances. These are extra payments for expenses and particularly difficult circumstances. They include: 

Read more about allowances under the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award in section 20 of the Award.

Leave entitlements

Leave isn’t actually governed by the specific award but by the National Employment Standards (NES). This means leave rules are more or less the same for all workers:

How to Determine the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award Coverage

Busy manufacturing managers need a quick way to place employees in the right classification. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be a slog—with this method, you can easily determine how much every employee should be paid.

Let’s explore a real-world example to see how it’s done.

Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award [MA000073]: A Practical, Real-World Example

A regional beverage manufacturer making non-alcoholic drinks employs 27-year-old Sophie as a full-time Production Operator.

Sophie:

1. Works on the bottling line operating machinery and performing quality checks.
2. Has some decision-making competency.
3. Doesn’t supervise others.
4. Holds an Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) Certificate 1 in Food Processing.

Sophie is therefore a full-time Level 3 employee. Her minimum rate for ordinary hours is $25.85. She’s a continuous shiftworker, so her ordinary overtime rate is 200%.

Common Scenarios and Compliance Tips

Here are some common hurdles that crop up when applying the Tobacco, Food, and Beverage Award. Find out how to avoid them—and the hefty penalties that come with non-compliance.

1. Winery labels a worker who still performs hands-on production work a “Cellar Supervisor”

Key checks:

• Check whether the role is genuinely supervisory or mainly production-based; classify by actual duties, not job title.
• Check whether they supervise others on a regular and ongoing basis—if so, the leading hand allowance may apply.
• Apply higher-duties pay for any periods in which they supervise others beyond their normal duties.
• Make sure weekend and overtime penalties are applied.

2. Food manufacturer employs office staff on the same payroll as factory workers

Key checks:

• Don’t assume one award applies across the whole business.
• Confirm award coverage separately for each role. Production workers are covered by the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award, but admin staff are covered by the Clerks–Private Sector Award.
• Apply correct minimum rates, classifications, and hours rules per award and level.

3. Employee works weekdays but occasionally helps out on Saturdays

Key checks:

• Don’t treat Saturday work as “ordinary hours” by default.
• Check if overtime is triggered by the day of the week worked, not just hours worked.
• Apply Saturday penalty rates, even if total weekly hours are under 38 hours.
• Make sure any time-off-in-lieu arrangements comply with the Award.
• Keep accurate time records for occasional weekend work.

Common Employer Mistakes to Avoid

Watch out for these mistakes when fulfilling your employer obligations, each of which can slow down your operations and even result in fines:

• Assuming the award covers everyone in your business: Your employees may be in the food, beverage, or tobacco manufacturing industry, but that doesn’t automatically mean they’re covered by the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award. Admin and sales staff, for instance, aren’t covered. Use the Award Finder to accurately classify each individual employee.
• Misclassifying employees: Even when employees are covered by the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award, it’s easy to classify them into the wrong level. To avoid underpayment claims, make sure you carefully review each worker’s actual duties and classify accordingly.
• Getting shift penalties wrong: Many employers mistakenly treat afternoon and night shifts the same as daywork. This leads to incorrect overtime penalties. Remember that shift rules are highly specific in this award!
• Assuming overtime only applies after 38 hours: While overtime penalties do apply for work carried out over contracted hours, they also apply on other occasions, like Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays, too.
• Missing allowances: The Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Award has a great many allowances—things like cold storage, freezer work, and special clothing are extremely common. Take the time to map roles to their respective allowance triggers in advance so you always know how much to pay.

Glossary

Here are some Modern Award-specific terms you may not be familiar with:

Ordinary hours

These are hours worked per each contract. For instance, full-time employees work 38 hours per week and part-time workers work fewer than 38 hours per week.

Better off overall test (BOOT)

A test employers use to determine which agreement would pay the employee more overall: the modern award or an enterprise agreement.

Enterprise agreement

This is when a business and its employees agree upon their own minimum rates and entitlements outside of the modern award. Its terms override the terms of the award. 

Entitlements

The minimum pay rates, break lengths, expense allowances, and other conditions an employer must provide their employees by law.

Time-off-in-lieu (TOIL)

Also known as ‘time off instead of instead of overtime’ (TOIL), this is where an employee and their employer agree the employee can take time off instead of being paid overtime pay.

Resources and Links

You might find these official resources useful for further reading into the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award 2020:

• Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award 2020: The official Fair Work Ombudsman Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award in full.
• Food and Beverage Manufacturing Award [MA000073]: A brief summary of who is and isn’t covered by this Modern Award from the Fair Work Ombudsman.
• Downloadable FBT Award Pay Guide: A downloadable PDF summary of the current minimum pay rates from the Fair Work Commission.

FAQs

Find out more about the Tobacco, Food, and Beverage Award through these frequently asked questions:

What is the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award in Australia?

The Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award is a document created by the Fair Work Commission. It outlines the employee entitlements that apply to specific types of workers in those industries. This can include minimum hourly rates and overtime penalties, for example. 

What is the Manufacturing Award?

The Manufacturing Award is one of the 122 Modern Awards in Australia. It defines minimum workplace conditions and employee entitlements for workers in various manufacturing roles.

It’s not the same as the Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Manufacturing Award, which only covers employees directly involved in manufacturing of specific food, beverage, and tobacco products. The Manufacturing Award is a broader document that applies to many miscellaneous manufacturing employees.

What is the minimum rate for food and beverage workers in Australia?

For food and beverage manufacturers, which refers to workers involved in production, minimum hourly rates range from $24.28 to $29.00, depending on your experience. Rates are different for office-based staff and salespersons, however, as their work falls under a different Award.