How Many Hours Can You Work Without A Break In Australia? In most cases, employees are required to work for 5 hours before they can take a break. In terms of breaks between shifts and days, most full time employees work about 38 hours a week for 7.6 hour days.
Full-time employees working between 7 to 10 hours a day are entitled to 2 paid rest breaks of 10 minutes and one unpaid meal break of 30-60 minutes. Employees are also entitled to a minimum break of 12 hours between shifts, but it can be agreed between employer and employee to reduce the break to 10-12 hours.
A lunch break is not a legal requirement under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) ('Fair Work Act'). An employee's entitlement to a lunch break depends the relevant provisions of an their applicable modern award, enterprise agreement or individual's contract of employment.
The same rest breaks as permanent workers, including at least a 30-minute unpaid break for every five hours of work.
Maximum weekly hours
An employee can work a maximum of 38 hours in a week unless an employer asks them to work reasonable extra hours.
What is the working week? Under Australian laws, employees work up to 38 hours in a week, or 7.6 hours (7 hours, 36 minutes) each day.
Australia's National Employment Standards set the maximum weekly hours of work at 38, although some awards and agreements may allow for averaging over a period of up to 26 hours.
There are many cases where expecting workers to work for five hours without a break is unreasonable and a risk to their health and safety. Workers under AWAs could be even more at risk. Workers should refuse to sign any agreement that does not provide for set meal breaks AT LEAST after five hours of work.
Casual Employees
A casual employee is generally a person who is 'engaged to work as such', for a minimum number of hours per shift (generally, it is either a minimum of 3 or 4 hours).
Awards, enterprise agreements and other registered agreements provide for paid and unpaid rest breaks and meal breaks for employees. Awards and registered agreements can also provide for a minimum amount of time off between the end of one shift and the start of another.
Australian Eating Habits
Australians tend to eat three meals a day: Breakfast – eaten in the morning is either light and cold (cereal, toast, coffee) or heavy and hot (bacon, eggs, sausages, fried tomato) Lunch – eaten around 12 – 2 pm is usually a light meal such as a sandwich, or salad.
The standard is that employees who work more than five hours in a day are entitled to a 30-minute unpaid meal break. For employees who do not fall under any modern award or agreement, there is no statutory obligation on the employer's part to provide this.
What are the maximum hours for a shift? In Australia, the maximum number of ordinary hours a casual employee can work is 12 hours in a day or shift. A casual employee must have time off after this and there must be time for meal breaks. This averages about 38 hours over a 4-week roster cycle or a 9.5 hour week.
Full-Time Employees Cannot Work More Than 10 Consecutive Days. As part of the hours of work that your full-time employees work, it's important to make sure that any full-time employees don't work more than 10 days in a row, regardless of the needs of the workplace.
Most HBE consumed the first meal of the day between 6.01 and 8.00 am (76.6%) during the week and 7.01 and 9.00 am on weekends (65.9%). Most HBE consumed the first meal of the day early during the week (84.0%) compared to the weekend (54.6%).
There are over 120 modern awards. However, the minimum hours for shift work in most industries is 3 to 4 hours. This means that even if you schedule an employee for a two-hour shift, you must pay them for at least three hours of labour.
Full-time employees usually work an average of 38 hours each week. They're usually employed on a permanent basis or on a fixed term contract.
Rest breaks if you're over 18
If you work for more than 6 hours a day, you're entitled to an uninterrupted rest break of at least 20 minutes - for example a tea or lunch break.
From 1 July 2023, work rights for international students will be capped again, but at a higher level of 48 hours per fortnight. This factsheet provides information on how this will work. We aim to provide documents in an accessible format. If you're having problems accessing a document, please contact us for help.
Student visa work restrictions were relaxed throughout the pandemic, and completely removed in January 2022 to allow primary and secondary student visa holders to work over their normal limit of 40 hours per fortnight to address workforce shortages. This will end on 30 June 2023.
It's been a year since Student Visa Working Hours were relaxed and everyone who is holding an Australian Student Visa is able to work with unlimited time. This arrangement will come to an end and working hours for Student Visa holders will be back to 40 hours per fortnight after June 30, 2023.
If you're certain your total income for the income year from all your payers will be $18,200 or less, you can choose to claim the tax-free threshold from each payer. If you do this and your total income later increases to above $18,200, you'll need to provide one of your employers with a withholding declaration.
Working 70-hour weeks can be challenging, but it's also a way for some people to achieve their financial and career goals. By learning strategies to coordinate your work and manage your priorities, you can make this schedule more sustainable and continue pursuing an ambitious career path.
The national minimum wage increase
The Australian Government's Fair Work Commission has announced an increase in the national minimum wage. Following the Fair Work Commission (FWC) Annual Wage Review 2022-23, the Australian national minimum wage has now increased to $23.23 per hour.