Hourly Pay or Commission for Groomers in Australia?

The Question Is Usually Asked Backwards

Owners ask whether to pay groomers hourly or on commission as though the two were alternatives. In an American salon they are. In Australia they are not, because a commission arrangement here sits on top of a wage floor that does not move.

Once you accept that, the question improves. It becomes: what shape of incentive is worth bolting onto a base you have to pay anyway, and what will that incentive quietly do to the work?

Where the numbers come from. Every rate below is from the Fair Work Ombudsman or the award itself and is dated. Rates change every July, so check yours on the day you set pay. We are software people, not employment lawyers.

Which Award Covers Your Groomers

Most salon owners assume the Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award. It is a reasonable guess and it is usually wrong.

That award covers the veterinary surgery industry and the animal care industry, and it defines the animal care industry as community-based charity organisations working to prevent cruelty to animals (Fair Work Ombudsman award viewer, accessed 30 August 2026). A commercial grooming salon is neither of those things.

The Fair Work Ombudsman's own guidance is direct about where grooming lands: the Miscellaneous Award covers employees working as pet groomers for a pet grooming business which is not covered by an industry or occupation-based award (Fair Work Ombudsman, accessed 30 August 2026). The Miscellaneous Award picked up a lot of previously award-free work when the Full Bench reviewed its coverage clause in 2020, and grooming was part of that.

The caveat matters if your salon sells retail. The same guidance notes that an employee who does grooming alongside other work, such as retail sales, may be covered by an industry or occupation award depending on what they are principally employed to do. A person who grooms four days and runs the shop on the fifth is a question for the Fair Work infoline, not for a blog.

Your groomers may also be covered by an enterprise agreement, in which case that agreement replaces the award analysis entirely.

What the Floor Actually Is

From the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026, the Miscellaneous Award minimum rates are:

Source: Fair Work Ombudsman award viewer, MA000104, accessed 30 August 2026. Modern award minimums rose 4.75 per cent in the 2026-27 Annual Wage Review, and the National Minimum Wage for award-free employees is $26.44 an hour (Fair Work Ombudsman, accessed 30 August 2026).

Sitting on top of those rates: casual loading of 25 per cent, Saturday and Sunday penalties of 120 and 150 per cent of the minimum hourly rate for full-time and part-time staff and 145 and 175 per cent for casuals, public holidays at 250 per cent, and overtime at 150 per cent for the first three hours and 200 per cent after that.

Classification is where owners most often get it wrong, and it is not a judgement call about how good someone is. It follows the award's own descriptors, based on the skill and responsibility the job actually requires. Run your specific employee through the Fair Work Pay Calculator rather than picking a level that feels right. That tool is free, it is the regulator's own, and it accounts for age, casual status and the day of the week.

We wrote up the whole employment cost picture, including workers compensation and payroll tax thresholds by state, in what employing actually costs.

Commission-Only Is Not Available Here

An employee can be paid commission-only where the applicable award or enterprise agreement says they can (Fair Work Ombudsman, accessed 30 August 2026). Some awards do allow it. The Miscellaneous Award does not: it contains no commission, piece rate or payment-by-results provision at all, and its minimum rates clause simply requires the employer to pay the classification rate for ordinary hours worked (MA000104, accessed 30 August 2026).

So the American model of paying a groomer fifty per cent of what they bill and nothing else is unlawful for an award-covered employee in Australia. It is unlawful even if the groomer prefers it, even if they signed something, and even in the weeks where fifty per cent happens to exceed the award. Underpayment is assessed against each pay period, not averaged across a good year.

There is a second trap that catches people who know the first one. Paying the award rate and calling the commission a bonus does not help if the total for the period still falls short once penalties and overtime are counted. Run the arithmetic for the actual roster, not for a typical week.

Three Structures That Work

Flat hourly

Pay the classification rate plus whatever loadings apply. No incentive layer.

Worked example, Level 2 part-timer at $27.08, 30 hours across Tuesday to Saturday including a six-hour Saturday: 24 ordinary hours at $27.08 is $649.92, plus six Saturday hours at 120 per cent, $32.50 each, is $195. Gross $844.92, before super.

This is the right answer more often than owners expect. It is predictable, it is impossible to get wrong, and it does not create any pressure on how a groomer treats a difficult dog. Its weakness is that a fast groomer and a slow groomer cost you the same, which is a real problem once you have three or four on the floor.

Hourly plus a productivity bonus

Pay the same hourly base, then add a fixed dollar bonus when a clearly measurable threshold is met over a period. For example, $150 a fortnight when completed appointments exceed an agreed number and the rebook rate stays above an agreed percentage.

Worked example on the same week: $844.92 plus a $75 pro-rata bonus share, $919.92.

The strength here is that you pick the measure, so you can pay for the behaviour you actually want rather than for raw volume. The weakness is that a threshold bonus creates a cliff, and the fortnight where someone falls two dogs short feels punitive even when the maths is fair. Sliding scales fix that and are more work to administer.

Hourly plus tiered commission

Pay the base, then a percentage of billings above a threshold that reflects what the base already costs you. For example, nothing up to $2,000 of billings a fortnight, then 10 per cent of everything above.

Worked example over a fortnight at $1,689.84 base and $2,600 billed: base plus 10 per cent of $600, so $1,749.84.

This is the closest lawful thing to the American model and it is genuinely motivating for experienced groomers. It is also the one that changes behaviour the most, which is the next section.

What Commission Does to the Work

Any incentive that pays on throughput will get you throughput. That is the point. It will also get you the things that come with throughput, and it is better to decide in advance which of those you are willing to accept.

Difficult dogs get avoided. The elderly spaniel with the sore hips takes ninety minutes and bills like a sixty-minute dog. Under commission, everybody's diary quietly fills with easy dogs, and the hard ones end up with whoever is least able to say no. Usually the owner.

Finishing quality drifts down before anyone notices. Not dramatically, and not deliberately. Five minutes less on the face, a slightly rougher tidy. It shows up in your rebook rate two months later, by which time it is hard to attribute.

Rebooking gets skipped. Rebooking at the counter takes ninety seconds and earns nothing this fortnight. It is the single highest-value ninety seconds in a grooming business, and a throughput incentive prices it at zero. If you pay commission, pay something on rebook rate as well, or you have built an incentive against your own retention.

Add-ons get pushed harder than they should be. Sometimes that is fine. Sometimes it is a nail trim sold to a dog who had one three weeks ago.

None of this is an argument against commission. It is an argument for choosing the measure carefully, because people optimise for exactly what you measure and nothing else.

Measure It Honestly or Do Not Pay On It

A bonus tied to a number nobody can check becomes a source of argument within about two pay cycles. Whatever you decide to pay on has to be visible to both of you, in the same place, without anyone tallying dockets.

Petboost's reporting has a Team tab that gives revenue per team member, utilisation and pace, and the recap turns that into something you can actually share rather than a spreadsheet you interpret at people.

The measure most worth paying on is usually not revenue at all. It is utilisation.

Revenue rewards whoever gets given the expensive dogs, which is a rostering decision you made. Utilisation rewards the person who fills their day and finishes on time, which is the thing you actually want. Idle hours are the honest version of the same number seen from your side, and they are what a productivity bonus is really buying back.

If you want the throughput lens instead, jobs per active day is the cleanest denominator, and it is worth knowing your own baseline before you set a threshold anyone has to hit.

Set the threshold from what your team already does, not from what you hope they will do. A bonus nobody has ever earned is a pay cut with extra steps.

What We Would Do

Start on flat hourly. Get the classification right, get the penalties right, and run it for six months while you find out what your salon's normal actually is.

Then, if you want an incentive, add a bonus on utilisation and rebook rate rather than a commission on revenue. It is easier to administer, it is much harder to game, and it pays for the behaviours that compound. Save tiered commission for a senior groomer who brings their own following and would otherwise leave to rent a table somewhere, which raises a different question entirely, covered in employee or contractor.

Sources

• Fair Work Ombudsman, Award coverage for pet groomers. Accessed 30 August 2026.
• Fair Work Ombudsman award viewer, Miscellaneous Award 2020 (MA000104): coverage, clause 15 minimum rates, casual loading, penalty and overtime rates, operative 1 July 2026. Accessed 30 August 2026.
• Fair Work Ombudsman award viewer, Animal Care and Veterinary Services Award 2020 (MA000118): coverage clause and the definition of the animal care industry. Accessed 30 August 2026.
• Fair Work Ombudsman, Piece rates and commission payments. Accessed 30 August 2026.
• Fair Work Ombudsman, Minimum wages and the Pay and Conditions Tool. Accessed 30 August 2026.

This is general information, not legal or employment advice. Worked examples are illustrative and exclude superannuation, leave accrual and workers compensation. Figures inside the diagrams are illustrative worked examples, not survey results.