Awards

From 1 January 2010, modern awards cover most workplaces. Modern awards were created to establish one set of minimum conditions for employers and employees across Australia who work in the same industries or occupations.

Modern awards, together with the National Employment Standards (NES) and the national minimum wage orders made by the Fair Work Commission, make up the safety net for employees covered by the national workplace relations system.

In this section

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How to find an award

There are 122 modern awards that replace thousands of federal and state based awards. We have provided a variety of ways to help you find your right award so you can use the other tools on this website, and get information on wages and conditions.

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Award Finder

Award Finder makes it easy to search for modern and pre-modern awards. You’ll need to know which award covers you to use other tools on this website. In this section you can also find Pay & Conditions Guides for many industries.

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Modern awards

In this section you can read about what a modern award is. You’ll find out who is covered by them and who isn’t, what they have in them and how they are being introduced.

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Pre-modern awards

Before modern awards were introduced, a number of types of awards and other instruments covered terms and conditions of employment. We call them ‘pre-modern awards’. You can find out more about them here.

A-Z modern awards list

Most people in the national workplace relations system are covered by a modern award. In this section you can browse a list of all modern awards to find the one that covers you.

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Award codes explained

Each modern award has a code. The letters at the start of the code show what type of award it is. This page explains what the code letters stand for.

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State award employers’ transition to modern awards

In this section you’ll find out about Division 2B State award employers' transition to modern awards. Since 1 February 2011, most employers in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania are covered by the conditions in modern awards. This has an impact on their employees minimum pay and conditions.