IGA Pay Rates 2026 — Hourly Wage by Age & Level

Which award sets IGA pay

IGA supermarket staff are paid under the General Retail Industry Award 2020 (MA000004). There is no IGA-wide enterprise agreement: each store's owner is the employer, and the General Retail Industry Award covers its staff unless that owner has its own approved agreement. A few do — for example Lloyds IGA and Champions IGA — and an agreement still cannot pay a base rate below the award.

Employer: The company that owns your IGA store — every IGA supermarket is independently owned and operated, with Metcash as the wholesaler.

Next scheduled increase: First full pay period on or after 1 December 2026 (juniors aged 18 and 19). Staff aged 18 or 19 at Levels 1 to 3 who have worked for their employer for more than 6 months move up: 18-year-olds from 70% to 75% and 19-year-olds from 80% to 85% of the adult rate (determination PR813655). At Level 1 that is $20.86 and $23.64 an hour. Adult rates next change with the 2027 Annual Wage Review.

For the underlying award minimums across every employer in the industry, see Retail Award rates 2026.

IGA hourly pay rates by level (adults)

Base hourly rates before tax for adult employees. Casual rates include the 25% casual loading, paid instead of leave entitlements.

IGA pay rates by age (junior rates)

Junior employees are paid a set percentage of the adult Retail employee level 1 rate for their age. Retail Award junior percentages (cl 17.2) apply only at Levels 1 to 3; a junior doing Level 4 work or above gets the full adult rate. A 20-year-old who has worked for the employer for more than 6 months already gets 100%.

The percentages are the instrument’s own. The dollar figures are our arithmetic — the percentage applied to the adult Retail employee level 1 rate, rounded to the cent — because the instrument does not print junior dollars. Your payslip may differ by a cent.

For how junior rates work across every award, and when you move to the adult rate, see junior pay rates in Australia.

IGA penalty rates: evenings, weekends and public holidays

Penalty rates are a percentage of the base hourly rate for your level (or, where stated, a flat amount per hour) for hours worked at the times below.

• Percentages are of the minimum hourly rate for your level (award cl 22.1, Table 12, for employees who are not shiftworkers). Casual figures add the 25% loading rather than multiply it: Sunday casual is 175%, not 187.5%.
• For an adult Level 1 employee that is $34.76 an hour on a weekday evening or Saturday ($41.72 casual), $41.72 on a Sunday ($48.67 casual) and $62.57 on a public holiday ($69.53 casual).
• Staff employed specifically as shiftworkers (for example night fill on shifts) are paid under the award's shiftwork rates instead: 130% Monday to Friday, 150% Saturday and 175% Sunday (casual 155%, 175%, 200%).

Overtime

To price a mix of weekday, weekend and overtime hours, use the overtime and penalty rate calculator.

How much IGA pays a week

Gross weekly pay for an adult at Retail employee level 1, with every hour at the ordinary weekday rate. Weekend and evening shifts push these figures up; tax comes off them.

A full-time year (38 hours × 52 weeks) at $27.81 is $54,953 before tax. See take-home pay on $55,000 (the nearest salary we publish) and $27.81 an hour as a yearly salary.

Enter your hourly rate and hours in the weekly pay calculator to see tax withheld and what lands in your account. Casual or part-time with a second job? Check the second job tax calculator.

What this page does not show

We publish only what we could read from a primary source. Left off rather than estimated:

• Whether your particular IGA store's owner has its own enterprise agreement — agreements are registered under the owner's company name, which we cannot search store by store.
• Rates under the Lloyds IGA and Champions IGA agreements — not transcribed here.
• Liquor, pharmacy and some bakery counters inside IGA stores can fall under other classifications or awards.

IGA pay questions

Pay rates at other employers