Hiring in New South Wales: what is actually different

Award rates are national, so the legal minimum for a role is identical in Sydney and Melbourne. Three things do change at the border, and one of them costs more than employers expect.

Start with what does not change, because it saves a lot of wasted searching: modern award minimums are national. An electrician's award floor is $32.19 an hour whether the job is in Sydney or Geelong. Anyone offering you New South Wales award rates is describing something that does not exist.

What genuinely changes is the employer's on-costs and obligations. There are three.

1. Payroll tax starts earlier here than almost anywhere

New South Wales runs a single flat rate. Below $1.2 million in Australian wages you pay nothing. Above it, every dollar over the threshold is taxed at 5.45 per cent. There is no taper and no second tier, which makes it the simplest of the states to budget for and the easiest to trip over, because the rate applies in full from the first dollar above the line.

That threshold is the second lowest in the country. Only Victoria and Western Australia start earlier, at $1 million. South Australia does not start until $1.5 million and the Northern Territory not until $2.5 million, so a business of the same size can be paying payroll tax in Sydney and none at all in Adelaide or Darwin.

Revenue NSW, payroll tax thresholds and rates, 2026-27. Checked 26 August 2026. The threshold counts Australian wages across every state, not just NSW wages, so a business operating interstate should check how grouping applies to it.

2. Workers compensation is frozen for two years, which is unusual

New South Wales runs a public scheme through icare, so your rate comes from your industry classification rather than from shopping insurers. The Nominal Insurer's premium target collection rate is 1.99 per cent of wages, and it has been frozen at that figure for both 2026-27 and 2027-28.

That freeze is worth knowing about, because it follows three years where the average rate rose by up to 8 per cent a year. Industry classification rates are not changing either. Your own bill can still move on wages, claims history and incentive eligibility, but the underlying rate is not the thing moving it.

icare, 2026-27 workers compensation premium settings. Checked 26 August 2026. The target collection rate is a scheme-wide figure; your own industry rate can sit well above or below it.

3. Fourteen public holidays, equal fewest in the country

This is the one line where New South Wales is cheaper than most. Fourteen days is the equal lowest count in Australia, matched only by Western Australia and Tasmania, and two days fewer than South Australia or the Northern Territory.

On an electrician at the award floor of $32.19, fourteen public holidays is $3,425 of paid time. In South Australia the same employee's sixteen days come to $3,914. The difference is about $489 a year per employee in New South Wales's favour, and it scales with every head you add.

Public holiday counts from the Fair Work Ombudsman list, checked 27 July 2026. Several states have additional regional days that do not appear, so treat these as a baseline. Hours shown at 7.6 per day, the standard full-time day under a 38 hour week.

What it adds up to

A full-time electrician at the award floor in New South Wales costs about $73,636 a year against a wage of $63,607, once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are counted. That is roughly 15.8 per cent on top of the wage, with payroll tax at nil for an employer under the threshold.

The full line-by-line arithmetic, and what changes once you are over the payroll tax threshold, is on what an employee really costs in Australia. To run it on your own rate and state, use the employee cost calculator.

Roles we fill in New South Wales

Each of these has its own page covering what the role costs to employ, the current market band and the licences that gate it.

Beyond the trades we also fill warehousing and operations, office and administration, supervisors, managers and executives. The pay checker covers seventeen roles with their award floor and market band.

Hiring somewhere else in Australia

Same shape, different numbers. Each one covers that state or territory's payroll tax threshold, its workers compensation arrangement and its public holiday count, with the source and the date it was checked.

Questions