What It Really Costs to Employ Someone in a Pet Business

The short version

Employing someone in a pet business costs more than the hourly rate, and almost every component of the extra is set by your state rather than by Canberra. Payroll tax, workers compensation and long service leave are three different systems with three different sets of rules in eight different places.

Before any of that, there is a more basic question that a lot of Australian salons have wrong: which award applies. We will start there, because getting it wrong is the one mistake on this page that can cost you money you have to pay back.

This guide is general information for Australian pet business owners. It is not legal, accounting, tax or financial advice, and it does not take account of your circumstances. Australian pet businesses are regulated across four separate layers, federal, state and territory, regional and local council, and each publishes its own rules independently. This guide brings that fragmented material together in one place. It is based on publicly available information published by those bodies, verified on 7 August 2026, and linked at the point each fact is stated so you can read the original. We maintain those links and re-check them, but we do not control what those bodies publish, and rules, thresholds and fees change, most commonly on 1 July. You remain responsible for your own compliance: confirm your position with the relevant authority, your council, or your own accountant or solicitor, and make your own decision before you act. Petboost accepts no responsibility for any action taken on the basis of this article. If anything here is inaccurate, tell us and we will correct it.

1. The award almost everyone gets wrong

There is an award called the Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award (MA000118). The name makes it sound like the award for anyone who works with animals. It is not.

The Fair Work Ombudsman's own summary of MA000118 lists who the award does not cover, and the list is worth reading slowly:

private boarding kennels, dog grooming businesses, dog walkers, wildlife educator, animal transport, animal technician, research veterinary technician

That is a grooming salon, a boarding kennel and a dog walking round, named explicitly as outside the award (fairwork.gov.au). MA000118 covers private veterinary practices and community-based anti-cruelty charities such as the RSPCA.

So what does cover a grooming salon?

The Miscellaneous Award (MA000104). Fair Work's library states it directly:

The Miscellaneous Award covers employees working as pet groomers for a pet grooming business which isn't covered by an industry or occupation-based award that has a classification for the employee.

Source: library.fairwork.gov.au. For boarding, Fair Work is even more direct: "The Miscellaneous Award covers animal attendants who work for pet boarding businesses" (library.fairwork.gov.au).

One honest gap. Fair Work publishes nothing on dog daycare or dog walking specifically. Searching its library for those terms returns no article. So we can tell you MA000118 excludes them, and we cannot tell you with a citation what replaces it. If that is your business, run your roles through Fair Work's Pay and Conditions Tool and get advice rather than assuming.

If you groom inside a pet shop, the answer may change again. Where an employee is principally employed in retail, a retail award can apply instead. What they are principally employed to do is the test.

The rate that looks wrong but is not

From the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, MA000104 Level 1 is $978.10 a week, or $25.74 an hour, rising to $1,221.10 a week and $32.13 an hour at Level 4. Casual loading is 25 per cent under clause 11.1.

The National Minimum Wage from the same date is $26.44 an hour, or $1,004.90 a week (fairwork.gov.au).

So the award Level 1 rate is lower than the National Minimum Wage. That is not an error, and Fair Work addresses it head on:

The minimum award wages in some awards may now be less than the National Minimum Wage. If an employee is covered by an award or agreement, the minimum wage set out in the award will apply instead of the National Minimum Wage.

If your groomer is covered by MA000104, the award rate applies. If you have someone genuinely award-free, the National Minimum Wage applies, and for a casual that is $33.05 an hour including the 25 per cent loading (fairwork.gov.au).

Key Takeaway: Check your award before your next pay run. If you have been paying MA000118 rates to groomers or kennel staff, you have been using an award that Fair Work says does not cover them.

2. Payroll tax: the threshold is the whole game

Payroll tax is a state tax on your total Australian wages. Most single-site pet businesses never reach it. A second site, or a growing casual pool, can put you over without it feeling like a milestone.

Every figure below comes from that jurisdiction's own revenue office, not from the harmonised national portal. That matters, and we explain why underneath the table.

Do not trust the national portal for a number

There is a harmonised national site, payrolltax.gov.au, run jointly by the state revenue offices. It is genuinely useful for the concepts that are harmonised, and it is a good directory for finding your own revenue office.

It is not reliable for a current threshold. When we checked on 7 August 2026, it listed the ACT at $2,000,000 and 6.85 per cent. The ACT's own revenue office had already moved to $1.75 million and a 6.75 per cent entry rate on 1 July 2026. It also did not show the NT's new 6.5 per cent rate for very large employers. Go to your own revenue office for the number.

Grouping is the trap that catches growing salons

Related businesses are grouped and share a single threshold. Opening site two in a new company does not buy you a second tax-free allowance. If you are structuring for growth, this is an accountant conversation before you sign the lease, not after the first assessment.

Lodgement dates are not harmonised either

Two things to note. The NT sits on the 21st while everyone else is on the 7th. And in several jurisdictions there is no separate June monthly return because June folds into the annual reconciliation, so lodging one anyway can mean paying twice. The NT publishes exactly that warning on its own page.

Queensland also runs a mental health levy: nil up to $10 million in Australian taxable wages, 0.25 per cent above that, and a further 0.5 per cent above $100 million, applied proportionately to Queensland wages over the thresholds (qro.qld.gov.au).

3. Workers compensation: who you buy from, and what you are classified as

Every employer with staff must hold workers compensation cover. Where it gets interesting for a pet business is that the country runs two different models, and your industry classification drives your premium.

Publicly underwritten means a single government insurer. Privately underwritten means you buy from an approved private insurer and they price you commercially.

The privately underwritten list is confirmed in Safe Work Australia's comparison of workers compensation arrangements, which names the ACT, NT, Tasmania and Western Australia (plus Seacare) (safeworkaustralia.gov.au).

Your classification, and the one state that has noticed pet businesses exist

Premiums are set against an industry classification. The national spine is the ABS classification, which puts "Pet grooming service" and "Pet boarding service" together in Class 9539, Other Personal Services (abs.gov.au).

Most schemes therefore file you under a generic personal services heading. South Australia is the exception, and it is worth knowing about. ReturnToWorkSA publishes a dedicated classification, SAIC 953902 Pet Care Services, at 4.247 per cent for 2026-27. That is roughly two and a half times SA's generic personal services rate.

For comparison, NSW publishes 1.760 per cent for pet grooming and 1.720 per cent for pet boarding and kennels, and Victoria publishes 1.789 per cent for the equivalent class.

Do not budget off those numbers. They are the published or suggested starting points, and what you actually pay depends on your scheme, your wages, your claims history and, in the privately underwritten states, what an insurer decides to charge you. The useful takeaway is the shape: find your classification, ask what rate attaches to it, and do that before you hire rather than after your first renewal.

4. Long service leave: the one nobody plans for

Long service leave is the most overlooked employment liability in pet services, and the industry has exactly the profile that generates it. Groomers stay. Kennel managers stay longer.

It is state law, so there is no single national answer.

Three things stand out for a pet business.

Victoria and the ACT are three years earlier than everywhere else. In Victoria it also accrues from day one and is paid out on termination regardless of why the person left. A Melbourne salon with a groomer at six and a half years has a liability arriving sooner than a Sydney salon with the same person.

Western Australia is the quiet one. In WA a plain resignation at seven years triggers a pro rata payout. In NSW, QLD, TAS, the ACT and the NT the reason for leaving generally has to qualify.

South Australia and the Northern Territory pay 13 weeks, not 8.67. That is half as much again.

Casuals accrue it too, and that surprises people

A long-serving casual bather is not outside this. In South Australia, SafeWork SA is explicit: "Casual workers are entitled to long service leave and under the same conditions as full-time and part-time employees" (safework.sa.gov.au). The entitlement is averaged over the last 156 weeks and paid at the base hourly rate including the casual loading, which makes it larger than owners expect.

There is no portable scheme for pet services

Portable long service leave lets someone carry an entitlement between employers. Australia has these schemes, and Fair Work lists the industries they cover: building and construction, contract cleaning, community services, security, and coal mining nationally (fairwork.gov.au).

Pet services is not among them, in any state or territory.

The closest it comes is the ACT, whose portable services scheme expands to hairdressing and beauty services from 1 January 2027. The Act ties that expansion to ANZSIC Class 9511, Hairdressing and Beauty Services, and pet grooming sits in Class 9539 instead. So a Canberra hair salon will be inside that scheme and a Canberra dog groomer will not.

Practically, that means your groomer's clock resets when they move salons, and the liability sits with whoever employs them at the time. It also means the ACT scheme is worth watching rather than filing away, because the ACT legislation allows work to be brought in by ministerial declaration rather than by new legislation.

5. Superannuation, and the change that landed on 1 July 2026

The super guarantee rate is 12 per cent, and it has stopped climbing. It reached 12 per cent on 1 July 2025 and the ATO's published table shows it holding at 12 per cent for 2026-27 and beyond (ato.gov.au).

The bigger change is how often you pay it. From 1 July 2026, Payday Super means super is due on every payday rather than quarterly.

The detail that will catch people is the test. Fair Work states that contributions must be received by the fund within seven business days of payday, not merely sent by you (fairwork.gov.au). If you pay weekly and route contributions through a clearing house, the clearing house's own processing time sits inside your seven days, not outside it.

Miss it and the super guarantee charge applies. Fair Work also notes that late super "may also breach the Fair Work Act or an applicable award or enterprise agreement".

The maximum contribution base for 2026-27 is $270,830 for the year, which replaced the old quarterly figure when Payday Super started.

What to actually do with this

1. Confirm your award this week. If you have been using MA000118 for groomers or kennel staff, check against Fair Work's Pay and Conditions Tool.
2. Find your workers compensation classification and ask what rate attaches to it, especially in South Australia.
3. Work out your long service leave exposure for anyone past four years, and sooner if you are in Victoria or the ACT.
4. Check your super timing against the seven-business-day received-by-the-fund test.
5. Only worry about payroll tax if your total Australian wages are approaching your state's threshold, and remember grouping if you run more than one entity.

Verified 7 August 2026 against the sources below, all of which are publicly available. Rules, categories and fees change, and council fees are typically reset on 1 July with each council's budget. This article is a starting point for your own research, not a substitute for it. Check the linked source and confirm your own position with the relevant authority before you rely on anything here.

Sources

• Fair Work Ombudsman, Animal and Veterinary Services Award MA000118 summary: fairwork.gov.au
• Fair Work Ombudsman, Award coverage for pet groomers: library.fairwork.gov.au
• Fair Work Ombudsman, Award coverage for animal attendants: library.fairwork.gov.au
• Fair Work Ombudsman, Miscellaneous Award MA000104 summary: fairwork.gov.au
• Fair Work Ombudsman, Minimum wages: fairwork.gov.au
• Fair Work Ombudsman, Award and agreement free wages and conditions: fairwork.gov.au
• Fair Work Ombudsman, Tax and superannuation: fairwork.gov.au
• Fair Work Ombudsman, Long service leave: fairwork.gov.au
• Australian Taxation Office, Super guarantee rates and thresholds: ato.gov.au
• Revenue NSW, Payroll tax thresholds and rates: revenue.nsw.gov.au
• State Revenue Office Victoria, Payroll tax current rates: sro.vic.gov.au
• Queensland Revenue Office, Payroll tax rates and thresholds: qro.qld.gov.au
• Queensland Revenue Office, Calculating the mental health levy: qro.qld.gov.au
• Government of Western Australia, Payroll Tax Employer Guide calculation: wa.gov.au
• RevenueSA, Payroll tax rates and thresholds: revenuesa.sa.gov.au
• RevenueSA, Returns and annual reconciliation: revenuesa.sa.gov.au
• State Revenue Office Tasmania, Payroll tax rates and thresholds: sro.tas.gov.au
• ACT Revenue Office, About payroll tax: revenue.act.gov.au
• Northern Territory Department of Treasury and Finance, Payroll tax: treasury.nt.gov.au
• Safe Work Australia, Scheme funding arrangements: safeworkaustralia.gov.au
• SafeWork SA, Long service leave: safework.sa.gov.au
• SafeWork SA, Casual worker calculation: safework.sa.gov.au
• Australian Bureau of Statistics, ANZSIC Class 9539 Other Personal Services n.e.c.: abs.gov.au
• Australian Bureau of Statistics, ANZSIC Class 9511 Hairdressing and Beauty Services: abs.gov.au