Pay slips a cafe has to give: what goes on them, and by when

A pay slip is due within one working day of paying someone, and for staff paid by the hour it has to show more than the total. The Fair Work Act sets the deadline. The Fair Work Regulations set what goes on the slip.

When a pay slip is due

An employer must give a pay slip to each of its employees within one working day of paying an amount to the employee in relation to the performance of work.

For paragraph 536(2)(a) of the Act, a pay slip must be: (a) in electronic form; or (b) a hard copy.

What every pay slip must show

Regulation 3.46(1) says a pay slip must specify:

• "the employer's name"
• "the employee's name"
• "the period to which the pay slip relates"
• "the date on which the payment to which the pay slip relates was made"
• "the gross amount of the payment"
• "the net amount of the payment"
• "any amount paid to the employee that is a bonus, loading, allowance, penalty rate, incentive-based payment or other separately identifiable entitlement"
• "the Australian Business Number (if any) of the employer"

Extra lines for staff paid by the hour

If the employee is paid at an hourly rate of pay, the pay slip must also include: (a) the rate of pay for the employee's ordinary hours (however described); and (b) the number of hours in that period for which the employee was employed at that rate; and (c) the amount of the payment made at that rate.

Read with regulation 3.46(1)(g), a pay slip for hourly staff shows the ordinary rate, the hours at that rate and the amount at that rate, and also specifies any loading, allowance or penalty rate amount paid on top.

If the employee is paid at an annual rate of pay, the pay slip must also include the rate as at the latest date to which the payment relates.

Deductions and super

If one or more amounts are deducted from the gross amount of the payment under subsection 324(1) of the Act, the pay slip must also include, for each deduction: (a) the amount of the deduction; and (b) the name, or the name and number, of the fund or account into which the deduction was paid.

Where the employer "has made, or intends to make, superannuation contributions for the benefit of the employee", regulation 3.46(5) requires either "the amount of each contribution that the employer made during the period to which the pay slip relates, and the name, or the name and number, of any fund to which the contribution was made", or "the amounts of contributions that the employer intends to make in relation to the period to which the pay slip relates, and the name, or the name and number, of any fund to which the contributions will be made".

Regulation 3.46(5A) sets out when a pay slip "is not required to include the name, or the name and number, of a fund", for a pay slip due within 14 days of an employee's first pay, in the circumstances it describes.

False or misleading pay slips

An employer must not give a pay slip for the purposes of this section that the employer knows is false or misleading.

A note to section 536(2) adds that if an employer fails to comply with subsection (1) or (2), "the employer may bear the burden of disproving allegations in proceedings relating to a contravention of certain civil remedy provisions". A missing pay slip can leave the employer proving a negative in a dispute about pay.

Pay slips are a separate obligation from the employee records the same employer has to keep, which section 535 of the Act covers. Check your award or enterprise agreement as well.

This article is general information about the Fair Work Act 2009 and the Fair Work Regulations 2009, not legal or payroll advice, and does not take account of your business's circumstances. It quotes the Act as at compilation 73 and the Regulations as at compilation 56, and is current as at 15 September 2026.