Storage Services and Wholesale Award: Pay Rates, Classifications, and Obligations

The challenge is that warehouse work appears under several modern awards. Coverage can depend on your industry, the employee’s actual duties, the environment in which the work is performed, and whether another award contains a more appropriate classification. Once coverage is established, payroll also needs to handle service-based rate steps, weekend work, shift penalties, overtime, cold-temperature allowances, and minimum engagements correctly.

This guide explains how the Storage Services and Wholesale Award works, including who it covers, how its 2 classification streams operate, and which pay, rostering, break, allowance, leave, and record-keeping rules employers need to apply.

Award Basics

The MA000084.html”>Storage Services and Wholesale Award 2020 is an industry award with the code MA000084. It sets minimum rates and conditions for covered employees in the storage services and wholesale industry, including rules for classifications, hours, rosters, breaks, shiftwork, overtime, weekend work, allowances, accident pay, annual leave, consultation, termination, and redundancy.

The Award operates alongside the Fair Work Act 2009 and the National Employment Standards (NES). The NES provides minimum entitlements such as annual leave, personal/carer’s leave, parental leave, family and domestic violence leave, public holidays, notice, and redundancy. An Award term cannot exclude an NES entitlement.

The Fair Work Commission sets and varies modern awards. The Fair Work Ombudsman helps employers and employees understand and apply them. The current consolidated Award incorporates amendments up to and including 1 July 2026.

The rates in this guide come from the current Storage Services and Wholesale Award Pay Guide, published on 24 June 2026. They apply from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026 and reflect the 2026 minimum-wage increase. Award rates are legal minimums. An employment contract or enterprise agreement can provide more generous pay and conditions.

Who’s covered under the Storage Services and Wholesale Award?

Businesses covered

The Award can cover a national-system employer in the storage services and wholesale industry. Clause 4 defines that industry broadly. It includes the receiving, handling, storing, freezing, refrigerating, bottling, packing, preparation for sale, sorting, loading, dispatch, delivery, or wholesale sale of produce, goods, or merchandise. Connected, incidental, and ancillary activities can also fall within the definition.

Examples of businesses worth checking include:

• General warehouses and distribution centres
• Wholesale goods, produce, or merchandise businesses
• Cold stores, refrigerated warehouses, and freezer facilities
• Third-party storage and fulfilment operations
• Steel distribution sites
• Businesses that bottle, pack, sort, prepare, load, or dispatch goods as part of a covered storage or wholesale operation

Coverage still requires a role-by-role assessment. A business may employ people covered by different awards. The Award says that when an employer is covered by more than one award, the employee is covered by the classification most appropriate to the work performed and the environment in which the work is normally performed.

The Award can also cover an employer supplying labour on an on-hire basis to the storage services and wholesale industry, together with covered on-hire employees while they perform that work. Group training businesses and hosted trainees can also be covered when clause 4.5 applies.

Employees covered

Covered employees must perform work that fits a classification in Schedule A. The 2 streams are:

• Storeworker grades 1 to 4, including warehouse, stores, materials-handling, inventory, dispatch, supervision, and specified steel distribution duties
• Wholesale employee levels 1 to 4, covering wholesale sale preparation, packing, display, dispatch, delivery, customer assistance, equipment operation, team leadership, supervision, stock control, and buying or ordering duties at the relevant level

Common job titles can include storeworker, warehouse employee, picker or packer, wholesale employee, forklift operator, ride-on equipment operator, storeperson, dispatch employee, inventory employee, steel distribution employee, and warehouse team leader. A title is only a starting point. Compare the person’s regular duties, skills, licences, responsibility, and work environment with Schedule A.

Who isn’t covered under the Storage Services and Wholesale Award?

The Award does not cover an employee to the extent that the employer is covered by another modern award containing classifications for the relevant storage or wholesale functions. It also expressly excludes work covered by the Road Transport and Distribution Award 2020.

Other coverage checks can include:

• A warehouse employee at a retail establishment may fall under the General Retail Industry Award if the retail coverage and classification rules are satisfied.
• A clerical employee who mainly performs office administration may be covered by the Clerks – Private Sector Award.
• A driver performing road transport distribution work may need to be assessed under the Road Transport and Distribution Award.
• Employees covered by a modern enterprise award, enterprise instrument, State reference public-sector award, or State reference public-sector transitional award are excluded as set out in clause 4.6.
• Employees excluded from modern award coverage by the Fair Work Act are outside this Award.

An enterprise agreement can apply instead of the Award’s operative terms, although the Award may still matter when the agreement is made or tested. A high salary also does not remove Award coverage by itself. Where an employer relies on a salary, an enterprise agreement, or a guarantee of annual earnings, check the legal requirements and the employee’s circumstances carefully.

Classifications and Levels

The Award uses separate Storeworker and Wholesale employee streams. The pay rates align at corresponding grades and levels, while the classification definitions remain different. Select the stream and level that describe the employee’s actual work.

Storage Services and Wholesale Award levels explained

The following table summarises Schedule A. It is a recognition guide, so employers should read the full classification definitions before deciding.

Service steps and progression

Storeworker grade 1 and Wholesale employee level 1 have 3 minimum-rate steps: on commencement, after 3 months, and after 12 months. Payroll should move an employee through those service steps when the thresholds are reached.

Service does not automatically move an employee into grade or level 2, 3, or 4. Those classifications depend on the skills and duties in Schedule A. An employee who already performs higher-level work should receive the corresponding classification and rate, even if they are new to the business.

Review classifications when duties, equipment licences, decision-making responsibility, supervisory work, stock-control responsibility, or operational scope changes. Recording the chosen classification and the reasons for it is a sensible payroll control, even where the Award does not prescribe a particular classification-notice form.

Higher duties

Clause 15.3 contains different higher-duty rules for weekly and casual employees.

For a weekly employee who temporarily performs work at a higher classification:

• Up to 3 hours in one day is paid at the higher rate for the higher-level time, with a minimum payment of one hour.
• More than 3 hours in one day attracts a full day’s pay at the higher rate.
• More than 20 hours in one week attracts a full week’s pay at the higher rate.

For a casual performing 2 or more classifications on the same day or shift at the employer’s direction, the applicable hourly rate is based on the classification occupying the largest proportion of the day or shift. The employee must possess and use the skills required for that classification.

Employment types

Full-time employees

A full-time employee is engaged by the week to work an average of 38 ordinary hours per week over 4 weeks. Full-time employees receive the applicable weekly minimum rate and NES leave entitlements.

Part-time employees

A part-time employee works fewer than 38 ordinary hours per week with reasonably predictable hours. They receive pay and conditions equivalent to a full-time employee doing the same kind of work on a pro-rata basis.

At engagement, the employer and employee must agree in writing on the regular pattern of work, including:

• Hours worked each day
• Days worked each week
• Actual start and finish times each day

Every agreed variation must also be recorded in writing. Each part-time shift has a minimum of 3 consecutive hours. Time worked beyond the mutually arranged hours is overtime under clause 21.

Casual employees

A casual employee is guaranteed at least 4 hours’ engagement for every start. For each ordinary hour, the employee receives the classification’s minimum hourly rate plus a 25% casual loading.

The NES provides an employee choice pathway for eligible casuals who believe they no longer meet the casual definition. The service threshold is generally 6 months, or 12 months for employees of a small-business employer. Other eligibility, notice, response, and refusal rules apply, so check the Fair Work Ombudsman’s casual employment guidance.

Pay Rates and Entitlements

Minimum base rates

The following adult minimum rates apply from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026. Equivalent Storeworker and Wholesale classifications share the same rate, although their classification tests differ.

The weekly rate applies to a full-time employee. Hourly, casual, junior, shift, weekend, public-holiday, and overtime figures should be checked against the current Pay Guide before payroll is finalised.

For ordinary hours, a casual receives 125% of the minimum hourly rate. For example, a grade/level 2 casual’s ordinary weekday rate is $34.96 per hour: $27.97 x 125% = $34.9625, rounded to $34.96 in the Pay Guide.

Junior, trainee, and special rates

Junior percentages apply to the relevant Storeworker grade 1 or Wholesale employee level 1 weekly rate:

The Pay Guide states that a trade-qualified junior must receive the appropriate adult rate. Because the grade/level 1 rate changes after 3 and 12 months, the junior dollar amount changes with the applicable service step.

The Award incorporates the National Training Wage schedule from the Miscellaneous Award 2020 for employees undertaking eligible traineeships. The Supported Wage System in Schedule D can apply to an eligible employee with a disability that affects productive capacity. Both systems require specific eligibility, assessment, documentation, and rate calculations. Use the current Award, Pay Guide, and PACT for the individual employee rather than applying an improvised discount to the adult rate.

The Award does not contain a general apprentice wage schedule. If a worker is engaged as an apprentice, confirm which award and training arrangement govern the employment before using this guide’s rates.

Ordinary hours and rostering

For day workers, ordinary hours are up to 38 per week averaged over 4 weeks. The standard spread is 7:00 am to 5:30 pm, Monday to Friday.

The employer can arrange ordinary hours on 4 or 5 days, normally up to 8 hours per day, excluding meal breaks. An individual or majority agreement can allow up to 10 ordinary hours in a day. Agreement can also allow ordinary hours on Saturday or Sunday.

The standard spread may move up to one hour earlier or later through an agreement with an individual employee, a majority at the workplace, or a majority in a discrete section. Different sections or employees can have different agreements. Keep these facilitative agreements in writing as required by clause 7.

An employer must give one week’s notice before changing starting and finishing times in an establishment. Where an RDO system provides one rostered day off in each 4-week cycle, the employee receives no more than 13 RDOs in 12 months and must receive at least 4 weeks’ notice of the weekday on which the RDO falls. The Award allows agreed substitutions and limited emergency substitutions.

Employees can elect to use make-up time with employer consent. The agreement should be recorded each time. A shiftworker’s made-up hours attract the shift penalty that would have applied to the hours taken off.

Penalty rates for weekends and public holidays

Weekend ordinary hours require the relevant agreement under the hours provisions. The following table shows the ordinary-hours percentages. Casual percentages include the 25 percentage-point casual loading.

An employee required to work on a public holiday must receive at least 4 hours’ work or 4 hours’ pay at the applicable rate. Ordinary time on Saturday and all time on Sunday have their own rules, including minimum payments for non-adjoining overtime explained below.

The NES also gives employees the right to be absent on a public holiday. An employer can request work where the request is reasonable, and an employee can refuse where the request is unreasonable or their refusal is reasonable. Public holidays can be substituted by agreement under clause 29.

Shiftwork

Shiftwork applies according to the Award’s shift definitions:

• Early morning shift: starts between 2:00 am and 7:00 am.
• Afternoon shift: finishes after 6:00 pm and at or before midnight.
• Night shift: finishes after midnight and at or before 8:30 am.

Day-shift employees cannot be required to work afternoon shift without their specific agreement. Afternoon shift is staffed by employees engaged for it or volunteers, and the Award prohibits discrimination against an employee for declining to volunteer for a particular shift.

The weekend and public-holiday percentages substitute for the ordinary shift penalty. They are not added together.

Shift ordinary hours average 38 per week and cannot exceed 152 in a work cycle. The Award sets daily and cycle limits, with an agreement process for up to 10 ordinary hours per shift and weekend ordinary hours.

Employers must roster shifts at least 48 hours in advance and show each shift’s start and finish time. A set time can be changed by agreement. Where circumstances outside the employer’s control require a change, the employer can alter it with 24 hours’ notice.

Overtime rules and rates

Overtime is payable for work in excess of or outside the ordinary hours prescribed by the Award. For part-time employees, it also applies to time beyond the agreed regular pattern.

The casual overtime percentages for Monday to Saturday add the 25 percentage-point loading to the permanent overtime percentage. The Pay Guide shows Sunday overtime at 200% and public-holiday overtime at 250% for casuals, so an employer should not add a further casual loading to those figures.

Each day or shift stands alone for overtime calculations. An employee required to perform non-adjoining overtime on Saturday must receive at least 3 hours’ work or 3 hours’ pay at 150%. On Sunday, the corresponding minimum is 4 hours at 200%. Overtime immediately before or after ordinary hours is excluded from those minimum-engagement rules.

Where reasonably practicable, schedule at least 10 consecutive hours off between successive workdays after overtime. If the break is shorter, the employee is released until they have had 10 hours off without losing ordinary pay. An employee instructed to resume or continue without the full break receives 200% as a full-time or part-time employee, or 225% as a casual, until released.

Time off instead of overtime pay

An employer and employee can agree in writing to time off instead of payment for a particular amount of overtime. A separate agreement is needed for each overtime amount. The time off is hour for hour, must be taken within 6 months, and must occur at an agreed time.

If the employee requests payment, the employer pays the original overtime rate in the next pay period. The same payment requirement applies when the time is not taken within 6 months. Keep each agreement as an employee record and avoid undue influence or pressure.

Call-back

An employee called back after leaving work for the day receives a minimum of 4 hours’ pay at the appropriate rate for each call-back from Monday to Friday.

For a call-back after noon on Saturday, the minimum is 4 hours at 200%. On Sunday, the first call-back attracts at least 4 hours at 200%; subsequent Sunday call-backs receive 200% for the actual time worked.

Breaks

Employees cannot be required to work longer than 5 hours without a meal break. The meal break lasts at least 30 minutes and no more than one hour. A meal break immediately before or during overtime cannot exceed one hour.

Every employee is also entitled to a paid 10-minute rest break each morning and afternoon. The employer fixes the timing, but the break cannot fall within one hour of the normal start or finish of work or within one hour on either side of a meal break. Paid rest breaks count as time worked.

Warehouse and freezer work can create fatigue and safety risks, so the roster should show when breaks can realistically be taken. Record any interrupted or missed break and assess the resulting hours under the Award and work health and safety requirements.

Allowances and reimbursements

The Award’s allowances apply only when their trigger is met. Current monetary amounts apply from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026.

If the employer asks an employee to obtain first aid qualifications, approved books, manuals, and other approved out-of-pocket course expenses are reimbursed once the employee obtains the qualification.

Pay records and pay slips must separately identify allowances where the Fair Work Regulations require it. Operationally, freezer-time records, first-aid appointments, overtime notices, meal circumstances, travel directions, receipts, and uniform arrangements help payroll establish whether each trigger was met.

Accident pay

Clause 18 provides an Award-specific accident-pay entitlement. When an employee suffers an injury and receives weekly compensation under the applicable workers’ compensation law, the employer pays the difference between that compensation and the employee’s Award weekly wage for their normal classification. The maximum period is 26 weeks from the date of injury, subject to the detailed rules.

Over-award payments, shift penalties, and overtime are excluded from the comparison. For a casual, the calculation uses average weekly ordinary hours over the previous 12 months, or the shorter employment period if the employee has worked for less than 12 months. The casual loading is included.

Accident pay does not apply during paid annual leave, long service leave, or a paid public holiday. Reduced-hours return-to-work payments, lump-sum redemptions, damages, and termination can affect the entitlement, so use clause 18 with the applicable workers’ compensation scheme when a claim arises.

Leave entitlements

Most leave comes from the NES, with Award-specific rules for annual leave and public holidays.

For a temporary shutdown, the employer generally gives one month’s written notice, or a shorter period agreed with the majority of affected employees. The employer can direct an employee in writing to use accrued paid annual leave where the direction is reasonable. Unpaid leave or annual leave in advance requires the relevant written agreement.

An excessive annual-leave accrual is more than 8 weeks, or more than 10 weeks for an Award-defined shiftworker. The employer and employee must first genuinely try to agree on reducing it before using the Award’s direction or employee-notice process.

The Award also permits annual leave in advance and cashing out through separate written agreements. Cashing out cannot leave less than 4 weeks accrued, and no more than 2 weeks can be cashed out in any 12-month period.

Salaries and individual flexibility

The Award does not contain a standard annualised-wage arrangement clause. Paying a salary does not make the employee award-free or remove minimum-rate, overtime, penalty, allowance, and record obligations.

If a salary is intended to satisfy identified Award entitlements, document the arrangement carefully and test the employee’s actual hours and conditions against the Award. Pay any shortfall. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s annualised wages and salaries guidance explains the distinction between Award annualised-wage clauses and contractual salary arrangements.

Clause 5 also allows an individual flexibility agreement covering specified arrangements for work, overtime, penalties, allowances, or annual leave loading. The agreement must meet genuine needs, be voluntary and written, identify each varied term, explain how the employee is better off overall, and be signed. Give the employee a copy and keep it as a time and wages record.

How To Determine Storage Services and Wholesale Award Coverage

• Start with the employer’s industry

Describe what the business actually does. Compare its activities with clause 4.2, including storage, wholesale sale, packing, refrigeration, dispatch, and connected activities. A business name or warehouse address is not enough.

• Examine the employee’s regular duties

List the tasks the employee performs, the equipment they operate, licences they use, decisions they make, people they supervise, records they control, and the environment in which they normally work. Assess the substance of the role.

• Compare the duties with Schedule A

Choose between the Storeworker and Wholesale employee streams, then identify the grade or level matching the duties and skills. Check the grade/level 1 service step separately from the classification level.

• Check other awards and instruments

Consider whether another award has a more appropriate classification, especially the Road Transport and Distribution, General Retail Industry, or Clerks – Private Sector Awards. Check for an enterprise agreement, modern enterprise award, public-sector instrument, or other exclusion.

• Verify the result and keep your reasoning

Use the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Award summary, Pay and Conditions Tool, and the consolidated Award. Keep a dated coverage and classification record. Seek qualified advice where the competing coverage rules remain uncertain.

Storage Services and Wholesale Award: A practical example

Assume a coverage assessment confirms that Maya is a casual Storeworker grade 2 at a covered cold-storage business. She has the required skills and performs grade 2 duties. By agreement, she works 4 ordinary hours on Saturday and spends the whole period in a freezer at -20°C.

Her grade 2 minimum hourly rate is $27.97. Casual Saturday ordinary hours are 175% of that minimum rate:

$27.97 x 175% = $48.9475, rounded to $48.95 per hour

For 4 hours:

4 x $48.95 = $195.80

At -20°C, the applicable cold-temperature allowance is $1.69 per hour or part:

4 x $1.69 = $6.76

The minimum total for the shift is:

$195.80 + $6.76 = $202.56

The 4-hour shift also meets the casual minimum engagement. Payroll should record the Saturday ordinary-hours agreement, actual start and finish times, classification, freezer period, and cold allowance. Super may also be payable on qualifying earnings under the current rules.

Employer Obligations, Common Mistakes, and Record-Keeping Tips

Employer obligations

An employer applying this Award should:

• Confirm coverage against the business activities, employee duties, classifications, and competing awards.
• Select the correct stream, grade or level, and grade/level 1 service step.
• Record each part-time employee’s agreed days, hours, and start and finish times, together with every variation.
• Honour the 3-hour part-time and 4-hour casual minimum engagements.
• Apply weekend, public-holiday, shift, overtime, call-back, and short-rest rates to the correct base.
• Provide meal and paid rest breaks at the required times.
• Pay allowances and reimbursements when their individual triggers are met.
• Apply annual leave loading and accident pay where required.
• Consult employees about major change and proposed changes to regular rosters or ordinary hours.
• Pay wages weekly or fortnightly and make final Award and NES payments within the required timeframe.
• Keep the Award and NES available on a convenient noticeboard or through accessible electronic means.

Common mistakes to avoid

Frequent risk areas include:

• Assuming every warehouse worker uses this Award without checking the employer’s industry and competing awards.
• Treating Storeworker and Wholesale classifications as interchangeable because corresponding levels share pay rates.
• Leaving a grade/level 1 employee on the commencement rate after 3 or 12 months.
• Classifying a licensed forklift operator or supervisor at entry level without comparing Schedule A.
• Scheduling a part-time employee outside agreed hours and paying ordinary time instead of overtime.
• Rostering a casual for fewer than 4 hours or a part-time employee for fewer than 3 consecutive hours.
• Adding percentages together when a composite or substitution rate applies.
• Forgetting that casual Sunday and public-holiday overtime differ from casual ordinary-hour percentages in the Pay Guide.
• Missing cold-temperature allowances for partial hours in freezer work.
• Paying 17.5% annual leave loading without comparing it with the weekend or shift penalties the employee would have received.
• Treating a salary as proof that all Award entitlements have been satisfied.

Record-keeping tips

Employers must keep employee records for 7 years and issue a pay slip within one working day of payment. Records must be accurate, legible, in English, and readily accessible to a Fair Work Inspector. Pay slips need the information required by the Fair Work Regulations.

For this Award, retain:

• Coverage and classification assessments
• Employment type and grade/level 1 service dates
• Part-time patterns and written variations
• Ordinary-hours, weekend, RDO, make-up-time, and shift agreements
• Rosters, actual start and finish times, breaks, overtime, and call-backs
• TOIL agreements and time-off balances
• First-aid appointments, freezer-time records, travel directions, receipts, and allowance evidence
• Annual leave in advance, cash-out, shutdown, and excessive-leave records
• Individual flexibility agreements and salary reconciliation records

An accurate employee time clock can help collect hours and break data. The payroll settings and review process still need to reflect the Award’s precise triggers, agreements, and rates.

Other current obligations to know

Superannuation and Payday Super

The super guarantee rate is 12%. For earnings paid from 1 July 2026, Payday Super requires employers to calculate super on qualifying earnings for each payday. Contributions generally need to reach the employee’s fund within 7 business days after payday, with limited alternative timeframes for situations such as some new employees.

Follow choice-of-fund and stapled-fund requirements, use an eligible fund, report the required information, and retain super records. The Award also lists default funds that may be used where legislation permits and the fund can accept the employee.

Employee information statements

Give every new employee the Fair Work Information Statement before, or as soon as practicable after, they start. Casuals also receive the Casual Employment Information Statement at commencement and again at the statutory intervals. An employee entering a new fixed-term contract receives the Fixed Term Contract Information Statement.

Consultation, delegates, and disputes

When a definite major workplace change is likely to have significant effects, clause 30 requires notice, relevant written information, discussion of the effects and mitigation, and consideration of matters raised by employees and representatives.

Clause 31 applies when an employer proposes changing a regular roster or ordinary hours. Give affected employees and representatives information, invite their views about the impact, and consider those views before deciding.

The Award also contains a workplace-delegates term and a dispute-resolution process. Review the detailed conditions when a delegate exercises representation, communication, facility, or training rights.

Right to disconnect

Employees may refuse to monitor, read, or respond to work-related contact outside their working hours unless the refusal would be unreasonable. Employers must not directly or indirectly prevent an employee from exercising the right to disconnect.

The Award recognises that an employer can still attempt contact to notify an employee of an emergency roster change under clause 20.5(b) or a call-back under clause 23. Whether an employee’s refusal is unreasonable depends on the statutory factors and circumstances.

Pay, final pay, and ending employment

Wages must be paid weekly or fortnightly. Amounts due under the Award and NES are generally payable no later than 7 days after termination, subject to the Award and any Commission order.

The Award contains employee-notice rules, a limited possible deduction where an adult employee does not give required notice, paid job-search time after employer notice, and redundancy provisions. Check clauses 33 and 34 together with the NES before ending employment or making a deduction.

Underpayments

Intentional underpayment of wages or entitlements can be a criminal offence for conduct from 1 January 2025. Honest mistakes are not automatically criminal, although employers still need to calculate the shortfall, correct related records, pay the employee, and address super or other consequential amounts. See the Fair Work Ombudsman’s criminal underpayment guidance.

Resources and Links

For further reading and official resources, visit:

• Storage Services and Wholesale Award 2020 [MA000084]: Read the current consolidated Award, classification definitions, operative clauses, and schedules.
• Storage Services and Wholesale Award Pay Guide: Check current adult, casual, junior, shift, weekend, overtime, and allowance figures.
• Fair Work Ombudsman Award summary: Review high-level coverage examples and links to official tools.
• Pay and Conditions Tool: Calculate rates and entitlements using the employee’s circumstances.
• National Employment Standards: Review minimum leave, public holiday, notice, redundancy, and related entitlements.
• Record-keeping and pay slips: Check the information employers must record and provide.
• ATO Payday Super guidance: Review qualifying earnings, payment timing, reporting, and transition rules from 1 July 2026.

FAQs

Disclaimer

The information provided here is a summary only and does not constitute legal advice. While we have made every effort to ensure the information provided is up to date and reliable, we cannot guarantee its completeness, accuracy, or applicability to your specific situation. Laws change frequently, and outcomes may vary depending on your business circumstances. We recommend consulting a qualified employment lawyer before making decisions related to workforce management.

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