Going by Fair Work’s guidance for cafes, a cafe where most customers eat and drink on the premises is usually on the Restaurant Industry Award, and one where most take it away is usually on the Fast Food Industry Award. A cafe run by a hotel or resort sits under the Hospitality Industry (General) Award.
We’d settle it with evidence: a few months of POS sales split between dine-in and takeaway, kept on file with the award clause you relied on. Sunday is where a wrong choice shows up, because the three awards pay different percentages that day.
Mostly eat-in is Restaurant, mostly takeaway is Fast Food
Fair Work says the right award turns on your main industry and the duties your staff perform. For cafes it gives two examples:
- A Melbourne laneway cafe with a couple of tables inside, which mostly sells drinks and snacks to take away, is on the Fast Food Award
- A cafe with seating and a takeaway service, where most customers sit and eat, is on the Restaurant Award
Neither Fair Work nor the award text puts a percentage on “mainly”, which is why we’d keep the POS split. If your POS reports sales by order type, three months of it is a record you can show anyone who asks.
The Fast Food Award covers meals, snacks and drinks sold primarily to be consumed away from the point of sale (clause 4.2). A quick-service venue with a bench at the window, where most orders leave the building, is likely on it. Food courts have their own rule: the award covers food and drinks sold in food courts, shopping centres and retail complexes, except cafes whose service is primarily sit-down (clause 4.2(c)).
A cafe run by a hotel is on the Hospitality Award
Fair Work’s cafe guidance says a cafe can fall under another industry’s award if it operates within that industry. Cafes run by hotels or resorts go on the Hospitality Award, cafes in licensed clubs on the Registered Clubs Award, and cafes in museums or theme parks on the Amusement Award.
The Restaurant Award itself leaves out restaurants operated in or in connection with hotels, motels and registered clubs (clause 4.4(d)), and the Hospitality Award takes in restaurants operating in premises its employers own or operate (clause 4.2).
A cafe you run as your own business from a leased space in a hotel is harder to call, and neither the awards nor Fair Work’s guidance deals with a lease directly. Read clause 4.2 of both with the lease in front of you. If you have fewer than 15 employees, we’d get Fair Work’s answer in writing: its Employer Advisory Service gives eligible small businesses free written advice.
Where more than one award covers your business, each employee goes on the one whose classification best fits the work they do and where they do it (clause 4.5 of each award).
Sunday is where the three awards split
Saturdays and public holidays pay the same percentages under all three awards. Sundays don’t. From each award’s penalty table, as amended to 1 July 2026 (Restaurant clause 24, Fast Food clause 21, Hospitality clause 29):
- Saturday, all three: 125% full-time and part-time, 150% casual
- Public holiday, all three: 225% full-time and part-time, 250% casual
- Sunday, Restaurant: 150% full-time and part-time; casuals 150% up to Level 2, 175% from Level 3
- Sunday, Fast Food: 125% at Level 1 and 150% at Levels 2 and 3; casuals 150% at Level 1 and 175% at Levels 2 and 3
- Sunday, Hospitality: 150% full-time and part-time, 175% casual
The casual figures include the 25% casual loading. The percentages are of the minimum hourly rate (the Hospitality Award uses the ordinary hourly rate, which adds any all-purpose allowances), and Fair Work’s pay guides have the current dollar rates.
Late hours split too. The Hospitality Award adds a flat amount for each hour from 7pm on weekdays, and the Restaurant Award from 10pm, so a hotel cafe doing dinner service starts paying it three hours earlier.
We have costed casual against part-time for venues deciding how to roster, and the award changes that sum on a Sunday. Under the Restaurant Award a Level 2 casual is paid the same 150% as a part-timer. Under the Hospitality Award the casual is on 175%.
The wrong award on a Sunday, in dollars
Take a hotel that runs a cafe in its front room, with payroll set up on the Restaurant Award because the room looks like a cafe. The Sunday staff are casual food and beverage attendants grade 2, which is Level 2 in both awards, with no all-purpose allowances. From 1 July 2026 both awards set the same Level 2 minimum hourly rate, so the only difference is the percentage:
- Sunday casual wages at the Restaurant Award’s 150%: $1,200
- The same shifts at the Hospitality Award’s 175%: $1,400
- Short each Sunday: $200
- Over 52 Sundays: $10,400, before super
That $10,400 is back pay owed to the staff. If you find you’ve been paying on the wrong award, Fair Work’s steps for an underpayment are to work out the difference, pay it as soon as possible, record it in the pay records and check the extra tax and super. Fair Work also says it is best to report an underpayment early, especially a large or long-running one.
From 1 January 2025, intentional underpayment can be a criminal offence. Honest mistakes aren’t included, but the staff are still owed the money.
What we would do
- Pull three months of dine-in and takeaway sales from your POS
- Run Fair Work’s Find my award and read clause 4 of the award it gives you
- Check each employee’s level against the classification schedule at the end of that award
- Check again if you add or drop table service
Roger looks after over thirty venues in every state and territory. If we run your payroll, it goes through Xero every week.