Employment Law Updates Australia 2025
What Every Business Owner Needs to Know
Australia’s employment laws have seen major updates in 2025 and if you’re a business owner, it’s crucial to understand how they affect your team, your payroll and your compliance obligations.
From new casual employment definitions to the right to disconnect and changes to penalty rates and superannuation, here’s what’s new in Australian employment law and what you need to do about it.
Penalty and Overtime Rates Protected Under Law
In August 2025, Parliament passed the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Penalty and Overtime Rates) Bill 2025, designed to safeguard penalty and overtime rates in modern awards.
This means weekend, public holiday, and overtime payments are now more tightly protected under the Fair Work Act 2009.
What employers should do:
Review your award classifications and rosters to ensure employees are receiving the correct penalty entitlements — especially in industries like hospitality, construction, and cleaning.
📎 Learn more about penalty and overtime rates on Fair Work.
Casual Employment Reforms and the Right to Disconnect
Recent changes under the Closing Loopholes No. 2 reforms (effective late 2024–2025) redefine what it means to be a casual employee. Workers now have clearer rights to request conversion to permanent employment after regular, ongoing work.
The new Right to Disconnect also gives employees the ability to reasonably refuse work-related communication outside agreed hours.
Why this is important?
These changes encourage work-life balance but also require employers to update employment contracts and review classification decisions to avoid breaches.
📎 Details are available on the Fair Work Commission – New Laws.
Minimum Wage, Superannuation and High-Income Threshold Increases
From 1 July 2025, key financial changes came into effect:
Minimum wage increased to $24.95/hour or $948/week
Superannuation Guarantee rose from 11.5% to 12%
High-income threshold lifted to $183,100
What employers should do:
Check that your payroll systems and contracts reflect these new rates, and ensure super contributions are calculated correctly. For senior roles, confirm whether employees fall above the unfair dismissal threshold.
How to Stay Compliant in 2025
The best way to manage these changes is to:
Audit your employment contracts and ensure terminology aligns with the Fair Work Act.
Update payroll and rostering systems for new wages and entitlements.
Partner with HR or recruitment professionals who stay across legislation and compliance.
