🇦🇺 Hiring in Australia

💡 Everything you need to know to hire and manage employees in Australia through Toku. Toku handles payroll processing, tax withholding, superannuation, and statutory compliance. This guide covers what you need to plan costs and manage your team.

At a Glance

Onboarding a New Hire

Plan for 3-5 business days between submitting a new hire and their start date. Before Day 1, the employee completes a Tax File Number (TFN) declaration and superannuation choice form, and must be registered with the ATO before their first pay cycle. Toku handles the registrations; you just need to submit the hire in time.

Submit the new hire through the Toku platform for the employment agreement, statutory registrations and payroll setup. See Onboard Contributors as a Client Admin in Toku for the steps. Toku will confirm the expected onboarding timing for your hire.

Employer Costs

When you hire in Australia, budget for these mandatory costs on top of gross salary:

Rule of thumb: total cost of employment is roughly 113-115% of gross salary. There is no 13th or 14th month salary requirement, and wages must be paid in AUD.

Employees additionally pay income tax (0-45% progressive) and a 2% Medicare levy through payroll withholding. These come out of gross salary, not on top of it. Toku calculates and remits all of the above.

Compensation & Payroll

Toku runs payroll in Australia once per month. Employees receive a payslip each cycle showing gross, net, deductions, and superannuation.

The national minimum wage (from 1 July 2026) is AUD 26.44/hour (AUD 1,004.90/week full-time). Most roles are covered by an industry "Modern Award" that sets higher minimums by classification.

Employment Contracts & Probation

• Toku issues a compliant local employment agreement for every hire.
• Employment types: permanent full-time, permanent part-time, and casual (casuals get a 25% pay loading instead of paid leave).
• Fixed-term contracts are generally capped at 2 years or two renewals.
• Probation is 6 calendar months under Toku's standard employment agreement. During probation, employment can be ended with 1 week's notice.

Working Hours

The standard week is 38 hours. Additional hours must be reasonable, and employees may refuse unreasonable requests. Overtime and weekend rates depend on the applicable Modern Award: commonly 150% for early overtime and Saturdays, 200% for Sundays, 250% on public holidays. Australia also has a Right to Disconnect: employees may refuse to monitor or respond to work contact outside working hours unless refusal is unreasonable.

Leave Entitlements

Parental leave is paid by the government, not by you, though many employers choose to top it up as a competitive benefit.

Public Holidays (2026)

Australia has 8 national public holidays; states add several more (e.g., King's Birthday, local show days).

Employees who work a public holiday are typically entitled to penalty rates (commonly 250%).

Benefits

Australian employees are covered by the public Medicare system, and Toku maintains mandatory workers' compensation coverage for all employees as the employer of record. Superannuation and all the leave entitlements above are statutory too, and are included in Employer Costs above. On top of these, Toku provides supplemental private healthcare through GU Health, with an Employee Assistance Program for plan members, and handles all administration. Employer-provided healthcare is a taxable benefit in Australia, declared annually through Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) rather than as a monthly payroll deduction.

Benefits at a Glance

Supplemental Health Through Toku

Toku offers private healthcare through a GU Health group policy (effective 15 July 2026, replacing the previous Bupa arrangement), brokered by DKG Insurance Brokers, combining two products:

• Superior Gold Hospital: in-hospital treatment at Gold level, the same tier as the previous Bupa cover, so transferring employees saw no downgrade.
• Corporate Health 80 Extras: dental, optical, physiotherapy, and allied health, with dedicated per-category limits. Key Extras limits (AUD, per person per year): general dental $1,800; physiotherapy $600; pharmaceutical prescriptions & psychology $300; therapies $400 (remedial massage sub-limit $300, acupuncture, Chinese medicine); aids & appliances $400; exercise physiology $600; orthotics $300. Because each category has its own dedicated limit rather than drawing from one shared pool, members can claim up to $1,900 per person per year across these categories.

Extras limits are fresh from day one: GU Health does not apply portability deductions for corporate groups. Coverage applies to treatment in Australia only. Employees on visas are covered under the overseas visitor (OVC) product: Optimum Gold Hospital with Med $250(S)/$500(F) Excess + Corporate Health 80. Network providers (including Ramsay, St Vincent's, GenesisCare, and St John of God hospitals) can be found at guhealth.com.au/find-a-provider.

Employee Assistance Program (Honeysuckle)

As of 31 August 2026, the plan is complemented by the Honeysuckle EAP / Corporate Health platform, including an Employee Assistance Program (3 sessions), same-day psychology appointments, 24/7 in-the-moment mental health support, GP telehealth, online prescriptions and pharmacy delivery, annual digital health checks, and a wellbeing hub.

Who's covered: The EAP currently covers only employees already enrolled on the GU Health plan; it has not been automatically extended to all employees. There is no cost to the employee; you are billed a one-off installation fee plus an ongoing service fee of AUD $150 per enrolled employee per year, on an annual billing cycle.

Getting access: Unlike the GU Health plan, EAP enrollment isn't self-service. Toku provides the eligible employee list (name, email, and single/family scale) to DKG. Whether members are notified directly by the broker/GU Health or need to be informed by their employer, and how new hires get added, is being confirmed with our broker; check with your Toku benefits contact for the latest.

Costs & Who Pays

Employee-only coverage is fully sponsored. The plan is a fully funded arrangement: GU Health invoices the employer for the full premium, and where an employee adds dependents by selecting the family tier, the dependent portion is recouped through payroll deduction each pay cycle. Premiums vary by income tier and state.

Enrollment

Enrollment is not automatic. Employees self-enrol via the GU Health online portal (members.guhealth.com.au/dkgsme) using the access code provided by Toku, choose the single or family tier, and complete the mandatory fields. Employees switching from an existing insurer should not cancel their old policy first: during enrolment they provide their current fund details, and GU Health requests a clearance certificate, cancels the old policy on their behalf, and carries over served waiting periods (waived where the new benefit is equivalent or lower; a wait may apply to any increase in benefit level).

What You Need to Know About Benefits

• Superannuation, Medicare, workers' compensation and statutory leave are mandatory and already reflected in Employer Costs above; the GU Health plan is an extra Toku provides on top.
• Healthcare benefits are taxable through the annual FBT process, which Toku's payroll provider handles. Nothing appears as a monthly payroll deduction for the tax.
• Enrollment in the health plan is employee-driven, so remind new hires to self-enrol using the Toku-provided access code.
• The EAP currently covers GU Health plan members only, and EAP enrollment is handled by Toku with the broker rather than by the employee. For the full employee-facing detail, see Australia Supplemental Healthcare for coverage details and enrollment.

Common Extras

Other common extras clients offer: salary sacrifice arrangements (extra super, novated car leases), employee assistance programs, professional development budgets, and flexible working. Note that non-cash benefits may attract Fringe Benefits Tax (47%). Toku can advise on the cost impact before you commit to a benefit.

Ending Employment

Termination must not be harsh, unjust, or unreasonable. Australia has strong unfair-dismissal protections, so involve Toku early when considering a termination. For the process, see How to Terminate an Employee or Contractor.

Minimum notice (by service):

Employees aged 45+ with 2+ years of service get one extra week. Redundancy pay applies when a role is genuinely eliminated: from 4 weeks (1-2 years of service) up to 16 weeks (9-10 years). Dismissal without notice is only permitted for serious misconduct.

Annual Leave at Termination

This section describes statutory annual leave. Any additional contractual or company-provided leave above the statutory minimum may follow different carryover, expiry, or payout rules under the employee's agreement or applicable policy, subject to local law.

Statutory leave termination payout: Required. All accumulated unused statutory annual leave is generally paid at termination, including applicable leave loading.

Statutory carryover / look-back: Unused statutory annual leave carries forward year to year. There is no ordinary calendar-year forfeiture.

Admin responsibility: Monitor high balances throughout employment and encourage employees to take leave regularly. A year-end “use it or lose it” policy cannot remove accrued statutory annual leave.

Important exceptions: Long service leave and award/enterprise-agreement entitlements can create additional termination costs depending on the employee's state, tenure, and coverage. Toku should confirm the final calculation before termination amounts are communicated.

See the Annual Leave / PTO Carryover & Termination Payout Guide for the cross-country framework.

Hiring Someone from Overseas?

Non-residents need a visa with work rights (main route: Skills in Demand subclass 482). New Zealand citizens can work automatically. Talk to Toku before extending an offer to a candidate who needs sponsorship. Timelines range from weeks to months.

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Last updated November 5, 2026 (onboarding link only). Last verified October 2026. This guide is for general information and doesn't constitute legal or tax advice. Your Toku account manager can confirm specifics for your situation.