Opening on a public holiday is a decision most businesses make on instinct and regret in the wages bill, because public holiday penalty rates turn an ordinary trading day into one where labour can cost well above double the normal rate once award penalties, loadings and the interaction with other entitlements are counted. For a hospitality or retail business, the difference between a public holiday that made money and one that quietly lost it is usually the penalty maths nobody ran before rostering the team. This guide explains how public holiday penalties work, walks a full roster-to-cost example, and shows how to decide whether opening is worth it. Award rates vary; confirm the modern award or agreement that covers your staff.
Published: July 2026
Public holidays carry two distinct cost layers under the Fair Work system, and both have to be counted. See Fair Work on public holidays and pay on public holidays.
Penalty rates for those who work. Employees who work on a public holiday are generally entitled to a public holiday penalty rate under their award or agreement, frequently 250 per cent (double time and a half) of the ordinary rate, though the exact figure varies by award, employment type and sometimes the specific holiday. For casuals, the public holiday penalty typically applies on top of, or in a defined interaction with, the casual loading, which is a common point of miscalculation. Confirm the rate in the relevant modern award.
Entitlements for those who do not work. Permanent employees who would ordinarily have worked that day but do not, because it is a public holiday, are generally entitled to be paid their ordinary hours for the day at base rate. So a public holiday can cost a business twice: penalty rates for the staff who work it, and ordinary pay for the rostered permanents who get the day off.
On top of these sit minimum shift lengths, overtime interactions, and whether the holiday falls on a day the employee would normally work. The result is that public holiday labour cost is rarely a simple multiple; it is a stacked calculation.
Calendar and people tools: 2026-27 Australian public holidays, human resources services, loaded employment cost tool, team wage spend analyser.
Hypothetical café on a major public holiday.
Ordinary Saturday baseline (for comparison):
Public holiday roster (illustrative award at 250% for hours worked):
Working team:
Non-working permanents who would have worked:
Total public holiday wage cost (worked + non-worked entitlements):
$2,240 + $360 = $2,600 before super, payroll tax and workers compensation.
Incremental cost versus ordinary weekday base for six people at $28 × 8:
Ordinary six-person day ≈ $1,344. Holiday total $2,600. Incremental labour ≈ $1,256 for the day, roughly +93 per cent on that simple base, and more once on-costs apply to the higher wages.
Revenue test. Contribution margin on food and drink after COGS is 65 per cent. To cover $2,600 of wages alone you need wages / 0.65 ≈ $4,000 of sales before other opening costs (power, card fees, wastage). Add $400 other variable opening costs and you need roughly $4,600-plus sales to break even on the day before normal profit. If holiday sales historically land at $3,800, opening loses money even when the venue feels “busy”.
Interpretation. Run this number before the roster is published. Closing can be the profitable decision. Opening only when forecast sales clear penalty-loaded labour plus other costs protects margin.
Opening on a public holiday makes sense only if the expected revenue (at holiday trading levels) exceeds the penalty-loaded labour cost plus the other costs of opening (and ideally clears the business’s normal contribution margin, not just breaks even on wages). Owners tend to remember the busy public holidays and forget that the labour cost was 2.5 times normal while the revenue was not 2.5 times normal.
If a café’s Sunday-level revenue does not cover a Sunday’s penalty rates, a public holiday’s higher penalties make the case worse, not better. Conversely, a truly high-traffic holiday can clear even double-time-and-a-half comfortably. For multi-venue operators, run the number per holiday per venue; some dates will fund others only if you stop subsidising the losers.
Public holiday penalty cost sits at the intersection of award compliance and margin discipline. On the compliance side, public holiday penalties are a frequent source of underpayment, because the rates are high and the interactions are fiddly, and a payroll system configured even slightly wrong mispays every public holiday. On the margin side, unexamined public holiday trading is a classic invisible loss. Getting both right is payroll accuracy plus management-accounting discipline: awards configured correctly so public holiday pay is right, and labour-cost-to-revenue analysis so the trading decision is informed. Support: finance services and how much does managed payroll cost in Australia.
Hypothetical hospitality group with three venues on the same public holiday.
Venue A (tourist strip): forecast sales $9,500, contribution margin after COGS 62 per cent, contribution ≈ $5,890. Fully loaded public holiday labour $3,100, other opening costs $450. Surplus after labour and variable opening costs ≈ $2,340. Open.
Venue B (suburban lunch trade): forecast sales $3,200, contribution 62 per cent ≈ $1,984. Fully loaded holiday labour $2,400, other costs $300. Shortfall ≈ $716. Close, or open with a skeleton roster only if a revised forecast still clears cost.
Venue C (events booked): confirmed function revenue $6,000 contribution after COGS $3,600, plus walk-in forecast $1,500 contribution $930. Labour $3,400. Net positive if the function deposit is real and staffing matches the contract. Open with contracted headcount, not hope-based headcount.
Group view. Opening everywhere because “public holidays are busy” would have Venue B destroy part of Venue A’s profit. Run the calculator per venue per date, then set marketing and rosters. Calendar planning: 2026-27 Australian public holidays.
Open full roster when forecast contribution clearly covers penalty-loaded labour, other variable costs and normal margin target. Document the forecast so the post-day review has a baseline.
Open skeleton when demand is real but thin: fewer hours, senior multi-skilled staff, limited menu or service offer. Recalculate labour; a half-roster at 250 per cent can still beat a full roster that overserves empty tables.
Close when forecast contribution cannot clear loaded labour. Closing is a margin decision, not a cultural failure. Staff permanent entitlements for the day still exist where they would have worked; include that cost in the “close” scenario so you are not surprised by paid-not-worked wages.
Expensive option: roster first, check sales later. Practical option: model by 1 August for the remaining year’s holidays, lock open/close rules, and only re-open a closed date if a booking or campaign changes the forecast with numbers attached.
Casual loading interaction. Misapplying inclusive versus exclusive public holiday rates can underpay by several dollars an hour across every holiday hour worked.
Minimum engagement. Calling someone in for two hours when the award requires a longer minimum raises cost above the naive hourly maths.
Substituted public holidays and state differences. Trading assumptions from one state do not automatically apply in another; multi-state groups need state calendars and state award coverage checked together. See multi-state workforce compliance checklist Australia.
Payroll configuration drift. A rule that was right last year can be wrong after an award update. Sample every public holiday pay run in the first week after the holiday, not three months later.
Use the team wage spend analyser and breakeven point calculator so holiday trading sits inside normal margin control, not outside it as a special case.
Days 1 to 30. Map the remaining public holiday calendar by state and venue. Pull last year’s sales and wage cost for each date you opened. Identify the known loss-makers.
Days 31 to 60. Configure payroll public holiday rules and sample-test them. Model open-full, skeleton and close scenarios for the next three holidays with fully loaded labour.
Days 61 to 90. Lock open/close decisions before marketing and rosters go out. After each holiday, compare forecast to actual wages and sales, then update the playbook. Treat public holidays as a managed portfolio, not a cultural obligation to open everywhere.
How much do you pay staff on a public holiday?
Employees who work generally receive a public holiday penalty rate under their award, frequently around 250 per cent (double time and a half) of the ordinary rate, though it varies by award, employment type and holiday. Permanents who would normally work but do not are generally paid their ordinary hours at base rate.
Do casuals get public holiday penalty rates?
Generally yes, and the public holiday penalty typically applies in a defined interaction with the casual loading, which is a common point of miscalculation. The exact treatment depends on the award.
Does a public holiday cost money even if some staff do not work?
Yes. Permanent employees who would ordinarily have worked the day are generally entitled to be paid their ordinary hours at base rate even when they do not work.
How do I work out what opening on a public holiday costs?
Apply the relevant public holiday penalty rates and loadings to the rostered hours by employment type, add the base-rate cost of any entitled permanents not working, and compare the total to an ordinary day. The gap is the true incremental cost of opening.
How do I decide whether to open on a public holiday?
Open only if expected holiday-level revenue exceeds the penalty-loaded labour cost plus other opening costs, ideally clearing normal contribution margin rather than just breaking even.
Why is public holiday pay a compliance risk?
Because the rates are high and the interactions (casual loading, overtime, non-working entitlements) are fiddly, so a slightly misconfigured payroll mispays every public holiday, compounding across the calendar into a real underpayment exposure.
Should a business ever close on a public holiday?
Often, yes. If holiday-level revenue does not cover the penalty-loaded labour cost, opening loses money, and closing is the correct decision.
What drives the public holiday cost most?
The penalty rate and loadings on the working roster, the employment mix, and the base-rate cost of entitled permanents not working. Getting the award configuration right is what makes the calculation, and the pay, correct.
Do on-costs change the open-or-close maths?
Yes. Super and other on-costs apply to higher penalty wages, so fully loaded holiday labour is higher than the gross wage total alone. Use loaded cost for the trading decision.
How far ahead should we model public holidays?
Map the full public holiday calendar each year, model the high-risk dates first, and set open/close rules before marketing and rostering lock in the wrong decision.
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We review and check this guide periodically. At the time of writing (July 2026), all information was current. Scale Suite is a registered BAS Agent, not a licensed tax advisor or financial advisor. This content is general information only and does not constitute professional tax, financial, or legal advice. Some details may change over time.
Scale Suite is a Sydney-based provider of outsourced finance and HR services for Australian SMEs. We deliver bookkeeping, financial reporting, payroll processing, fractional CFO support, recruitment, employee onboarding, people and culture support, and fractional HR oversight, all as a fully embedded team that works inside your business.
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