Award rates are national, so the legal minimum for a role is identical in Perth and Sydney. 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 Perth or Parramatta. Anyone offering you Western Australia award rates is describing something that does not exist.
What genuinely changes is the employer's on-costs and obligations. There are three.
Payroll tax threshold
$1m
Australian wages, before any payroll tax applies
Workers compensation
1.931%
WorkCover WA recommended average, varies by industry
Public holidays
14
Days on the Fair Work Ombudsman list
Western Australia's threshold is $1 million in Australian wages and the rate above it is 5.5 per cent, but the threshold does not simply switch off. It diminishes between $1 million and $7.5 million, shrinking as your wages grow until it disappears entirely.
For a local, non-group employer the adjusted threshold is $1,000,000 minus about 15.38 cents for every dollar of WA wages above $1 million. The practical effect is that the tax phases in gradually rather than landing all at once, but it also means an employer part-way up that range cannot simply assume the full $1 million is tax free.
RevenueWA payroll tax employer guide, 2026-27 assessment year. Checked 26 August 2026. The taper rate of 0.1538 is $1,000,000 divided by the $6.5 million span between the lower and upper thresholds.
Western Australia does not run a central scheme. You buy the policy from a licensed insurer, and WorkCover WA gazettes a recommended premium rate for each industry class that insurers price around. The average recommended rate for 2026-27 is 1.931 per cent of wages.
That is up from 1.823 per cent the year before, a rise of about 6 per cent, which WorkCover WA puts down to higher average claim costs, more claims and wage growth. Because it is a recommendation rather than a fixed rate, it is genuinely worth shopping: two insurers can quote differently on the same classification.
WorkCover WA, 2026-27 recommended premium rates, released 9 April 2026. Checked 26 August 2026. Rates apply to policies commencing after 4pm on 30 June 2026.
Western Australia sits at fourteen days alongside New South Wales and Tasmania, the lowest count in Australia and two fewer than South Australia or the Northern Territory.
| State or territory | Public holidays | Paid hours at 7.6 per day |
|---|---|---|
| South Australia, Northern Territory | 16 | 121.6 |
| Victoria, Queensland, ACT | 15 | 114.0 |
| New South Wales, WA, Tasmania | 14 | 106.4 |
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 Western Australia'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.
A full-time electrician at the award floor in Western Australia costs about $73,594 a year against a wage of $63,607, once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are counted. That is roughly 15.7 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.
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.
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.
A note on licences crossing the border. Electrical work in Western Australia is licensed by Building and Energy and plumbing by the Plumbers Licensing Board, so a licence held in another state is not automatically valid here and usually needs recognition first. Refrigerant handling is a federal scheme and travels with the person.
That distinction is worth checking before you make an offer to someone relocating, not after.
Hiring in Western Australia?
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No. Modern award minimums are national, so the legal floor for a role is identical in Perth and every other Australian city. What changes by state is the market rate, the employer on-costs and the licensing paperwork.
Western Australia's threshold is $1 million in Australian wages and the rate above it is 5.5 per cent, but the threshold does not simply switch off. It diminishes between $1 million and $7.5 million, shrinking as your wages grow until it disappears entirely.
The private insurers, with rates recommended by WorkCover WA figure is about 1.931 per cent of wages, though your own rate depends on your industry classification and can sit well above or below it.
Fourteen on the Fair Work Ombudsman list. For a full-time employee that is 106.4 paid hours a year.
The $1 million tax-free threshold shrinks as wages rise, disappearing completely at $7.5 million. For a local non-group employer it reduces by about 15.38 cents for every dollar of WA wages above $1 million, so an employer part-way up that range cannot assume the full $1 million is tax free.
Electrical work in Western Australia is licensed by Building and Energy and plumbing by the Plumbers Licensing Board, so a licence held in another state is not automatically valid here and usually needs recognition first. Refrigerant handling is a federal scheme and travels with the person.
For a full-time electrician at the award floor, about $73,594 a year against a $63,607 wage once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are added, with payroll tax at nil below the threshold. That is roughly 15.7 per cent on top of the wage.