Ordinary hours caps
Awards define how many hours in a day (and often in a week) are “ordinary” before overtime starts. A common weekly ordinary-hours concept is 38 hours, but daily caps and the order rules differ by award. Some awards also care about the span of hours or consecutive days.
Daily overtime
If a single shift runs longer than the award’s daily ordinary cap, the hours past that cap are overtime — often at a higher rate for the first block of overtime hours, then higher again. Casual Pay splits a long shift so you can see where ordinary hours stop and overtime begins.
Weekly overtime
Even if every individual day looks “normal”, a full week of shifts can cross the weekly ordinary-hours limit. Later shifts in the week may then partly or wholly attract overtime rates. That is why storing a whole week (Pro) can change the estimate compared with pricing one shift in isolation.
Overtime is not the same as a penalty day
Sunday and public holiday penalties are about the calendar day. Overtime is about how many ordinary hours you have already worked. Both can apply depending on the award’s stacking rules. Casual Pay follows each supported award’s engine rather than applying a single generic formula to every industry.
Check a real shift
Pick your award and enter start and end times — Casual Pay applies the loadings that match that award.
Open the calculator