Christmas Day pay rates 2026 and 2027: what you earn by state and award

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day by state, 2026 and 2027

Christmas Day itself never moves, but what surrounds it does. Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory make the evening of Christmas Eve a part-day public holiday, and when Christmas Day lands on a weekend most states add the next weekday as an extra holiday. Every date below comes from the state government's own list and matches the Fair Work Ombudsman's 2026 and 2027 pages.

Tasmania, 2027: WorkSafe Tasmania's table lists Monday 27 December as the Christmas Day holiday, while the Fair Work Ombudsman's 2027 list shows both Saturday 25 December and Monday 27 December. If you work in Tasmania on Saturday 25 December 2027, check your award or agreement, or ask the Fair Work Infoline on 13 13 94, before assuming the Saturday is an ordinary day.

What Christmas Day pays under the main awards

Christmas Day is paid at the same public holiday rate as any other public holiday under most awards. The General Retail Award and the Hospitality Award both pay 225% of the minimum hourly rate to full-time and part-time staff and 250% to casuals, and the casual figure already contains the 25% casual loading, so nothing more is added. Across the 14 awards this site publishes the permanent range is 200% to 250%, and the casual range 225% to 312.5%.

Two awards single Christmas Day out. The Road Transport and Distribution Award's day-work rates are higher on Good Friday and Christmas Day than on other public holidays: 250% of the weekly wage rate for full-time and part-time day workers and 275% for casual day workers. Under the Nurses Award, Christmas Day falling on a weekend adds an extra 50% in businesses that operate seven days a week (cl 28.2(b)), which is relevant in 2027 when Christmas Day is a Saturday.

If an enterprise agreement covers you, its rate replaces the award's. Pick the enterprise agreement option in the calculator and type in the percentage from your agreement. The full 14-award table is on the public holiday pay guide.

Worked example: an 8-hour shift on Christmas Day 2026

The table uses each award's entry-level adult rate from 1 July 2026 as the base hourly rate, 8 hours worked, and compares the public holiday pay with the same hours on an ordinary weekday. Your own rate will differ, so use the calculator above for your payslip.

Before tax. Excludes overtime, allowances and any minimum shift length your award sets.

When Christmas Day falls on a weekend (2027)

Christmas Day 2027 is a Saturday and Boxing Day a Sunday. New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, the ACT and the Northern Territory keep Saturday 25 December as a public holiday and add Monday 27 December as an additional public holiday for Christmas Day, with Tuesday 28 December as the additional day for Boxing Day. Both extra days are real public holidays for pay: work either and the public holiday rate applies, and a full-time or part-time employee who normally works that Monday or Tuesday is paid for it if they have the day off.

Tasmania handles it differently, and the Boxing Day side of that is covered in the Boxing Day guide. For Christmas Day, the practical point is to check which of the Saturday and the Monday your award or agreement treats as the public holiday if you work in Tasmania.

Paid for Christmas Day when you don't work it

Every employee can be absent from work on a public holiday. A full-time or part-time employee whose roster includes Friday 25 December 2026 is paid their base rate for the ordinary hours they would have worked. Penalty rates, loadings, bonuses and overtime are not included, and your employer can't change your roster to avoid the payment. Casuals are not paid for Christmas Day if they don't work.

If you are on annual leave over Christmas, a public holiday that falls on one of your normal working days is paid as a public holiday and is not deducted from your leave balance. The Christmas shutdown guide walks through exactly how many days of leave a shutdown costs.

Can you refuse to work Christmas Day?

Your employer can ask you to work, but the request must be reasonable, and you can refuse if the request is unreasonable or you have reasonable grounds. The Fair Work Ombudsman lists the relevant factors: the nature of the workplace and your role, your personal circumstances including family or caring responsibilities, how much notice you were given, whether you could expect to be asked, and any penalty rates or other payment on offer.

The type of workplace is one of the factors, so a request to work Christmas Day can be more reasonable in a hospital, hotel or restaurant than in an office. If the request is reasonable and your refusal is not, you can be required to work, and the public holiday rate then applies to every hour.

Checking your Christmas pay on the payslip

Hours worked on Christmas Day should appear as their own line, marked public holiday or paid at a multiple of your base rate such as 2.25 or 2.5 times, rather than inside ordinary hours. Multiply those hours by your base rate and the percentage for your award to check the line. Casuals should see a single rate with the loading already inside it. If the numbers don't match, raise it with payroll first, then use the back pay calculator to total what you are owed.

Public holiday pay is ordinary income and is taxed through PAYG with the rest of your pay, so a big Christmas week can look smaller after tax than you expect. The take-home pay calculator shows the after-tax figure.

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.

Christmas Day pay questions