Description

“Wage & Award Sprint — A Small Business Award Compliance Check For One Employee.”

The Wage & Award Sprint is a small business award compliance check for one employee — done properly, signed in writing, and built around the legal precision Fair Work expects. Wage theft is now a criminal offence in Australia. Most underpayments aren’t deliberate — they happen because the wrong award was applied, or the right award was applied with the wrong classification, or the salary set-off clause didn’t actually do what the owner thought it did.

The Wage & Award Sprint takes one employee and runs a proper Better Off Overall Test on them. You’ll know — in writing, signed and dated — whether you’re paying correctly under the right modern award and classification.

Every small business award compliance check includes:

• A confirmed modern award and classification level for the chosen employee.
• A single-employee BOOT analysis (estimated week).
• A written advice note, signed and dated for your small business award compliance check.
• A 30-minute Zoom to walk through the findings and the fix (if any is needed).
• A $695 credit toward your first month if you decide you want a full payroll compliance review.

Recommended for: any business that hasn’t checked an employee’s award and classification in the last 18 months, any business absorbing a new salaried hire, and any business worried about wage-theft exposure should consider our small business award compliance check. If you have more employees, please reach out to us to discuss using this link HERE

FAQ — Wage & Award Sprint

1. What is a Better Off Overall Test, and why does my business need one?

A small business award compliance check uses the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) to compare what an employee is actually being paid against what the applicable modern award would require…, factoring in base rate, overtime, penalties, allowances, and superannuation. If the employee is “better off overall” under what you’re paying than what the award would deliver, you’re compliant. If not — even by a small margin — you have an underpayment. The Sprint runs an estimated-week BOOT on one employee, which is enough to identify whether there’s a problem and roughly how big it is. A full BOOT across every week worked is a more detailed exercise that we’d do as a follow-on if needed.

2. Does the new criminal wage-theft law apply to my business?

The criminal wage-theft provisions in the Fair Work Act, which commenced on 1 January 2025, apply to all national system employers. They target intentional underpayments — situations where an employer knew an employee was being underpaid and continued the conduct anyway. Honest mistakes that are identified and rectified are not the target of the criminal provisions, but they are still recoverable as civil underpayments by Fair Work or the employee. The single best protection is to check, identify any issues proactively, and rectify them — which is exactly what this Sprint enables. Self-identified and self-rectified underpayments are treated very differently from those discovered by audit or complaint.

3. What happens if you find that I’m underpaying my employee?

We talk through it on the call. You’ll have three immediate priorities: update the pay rate going forward so the underpayment stops today, calculate the proper back pay for the underpayment period, and handle the conversation with the employee, with documentation in hand. The written advice walks you through each step, and the $695 credit code can be applied to a monthly support package if you want help with the backpay calculation or the employee conversation. Importantly, most underpayments in small businesses are unintentional; the correct response is to fix them properly, and doing so is the strongest possible position you can be in if Fair Work ever asks.

4. My contract has a salary set-off clause that says the salary covers everything. Doesn’t that protect me?

Maybe. It depends on two things: whether the clause is drafted in a way that legally permits set-off (many older contracts have wording that doesn’t actually do what the owner thinks it does), and whether the salary is sufficiently high to cover all the entitlements being set off. A set-off clause doesn’t create money out of thin air — it just permits the salary to be apportioned against multiple entitlements. If the salary is below the sum of base plus overtime plus penalties plus allowances that the employee is actually working, the set-off clause doesn’t save you. Part of what the Sprint checks is whether your set-off clause is doing what you think it’s doing.

5. Can you check more than one employee in the Sprint?

No — the Wage & Award Sprint deliberately covers one employee, one BOOT, one classification confirmation. This keeps it tight, deliverable in 2 business days, and priced at $695+GST. If you suspect issues across multiple roles or you want a whole-of-team review, what you need is a full payroll compliance review. That’s a different scope and a different price, and we’d usually deliver it through a monthly support package so the work can be staged. We’ll talk you through the right next step on the call if the Sprint reveals that the issue extends beyond the one employee we looked at. If you have more employees then please reach out to us to discuss using this link HERE

Additional Resources

• Wage Compliance – https://freshhrinsights.com.au/wage-compliance/
• Deductions from Wages – the In’s and Out’s – https://freshhrinsights.com.au/deductions-wages-ins-outs/
• Unlawful Wage Deductions: What Employers Must Know – https://freshhrinsights.com.au/unlawful-wage-deductions-what-employers-must-know/