Australia Day 2027 public holiday pay: Tuesday 26 January

Australia Day 2027 by state

Australia Day is 26 January. In 2027 that is a Tuesday, so there is no weekend substitute to work out. Every state and territory observes it on the day.

What Australia Day pays

Australia Day is paid at your award's public holiday rate, the same as any other public holiday. Retail and hospitality pay 225% of the base rate to full-time and part-time staff and 250% to casuals, with the 25% casual loading already in the casual figure. Across the 14 awards on this site the permanent range is 200% to 250% and the casual range 225% to 312.5%.

An enterprise agreement's rate replaces the award rate. Pick the enterprise agreement option in the calculator below and enter your own percentage.

Working or refusing to work on Australia Day

Every employee can be absent from work on a public holiday, but an employer can ask you to work it if the request is reasonable and you can refuse if the request is unreasonable or you have reasonable grounds. The Fair Work Ombudsman's factors include the nature of your workplace and role, your personal circumstances, the penalty rates on offer and the notice given.

You and your employer can also agree to substitute another day for Australia Day where your award or agreement allows it, or, if you are award and agreement free, by agreement. The substitute day is then paid as the public holiday and the original day as an ordinary day.

Worked example: an 8-hour shift on Australia Day 2027

Entry-level adult rates from 1 July 2026, 8 hours worked on Tuesday 26 January 2027, compared with the same hours on an ordinary weekday.

Before tax. Excludes overtime, allowances and minimum shift lengths.

If you have Australia Day off

A full-time or part-time employee who normally works Tuesdays is paid their base rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked on 26 January 2027, without any penalty rates, loadings, overtime or allowances. Your employer can't change your roster to avoid it. A part-timer who doesn't normally work Tuesdays gets nothing for it, and casuals are not paid for a public holiday they don't work.

No long weekend in 2027, but a cheap one

Because 26 January 2027 is a Tuesday there is no automatic long weekend. If you want one, you can take Monday 25 January as annual leave. That costs one day of leave: the Tuesday public holiday is paid as a public holiday and is not taken out of your balance when it falls on a day you would normally work. Check with your employer that the Monday leave is approved before you book.

In 2026 Australia Day was a Monday, so the long weekend came with the date.

Australia Day and other holiday questions

If you work in Western Australia, Tasmania or any other state, the Australia Day rules above are the same, because the day, the rate and the right to be paid for a normal working day are all national. What differs between states is the other holidays around it, covered in the 2027 public holiday guide.

More holiday pay guides

Every public holiday is paid by the same rules, but the dates, extra days and part-day windows differ. The public holiday pay guide has the full 14-award rate table, and each state page lists that state’s own days.

Australia Day pay questions