Hiring an administration officer in Australia

What the role really costs to employ, what the market is paying, and which licences actually gate it. Written for the employer doing the hiring.

This page is about taking an administration officer onto your payroll, not about booking one for a job. An administration officer on the award floor of $29.45 an hour costs about $67,275.75 a year once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are counted, against a wage of $58,193.20. That is roughly 15.6 per cent on top.

What it actually costs you

The wage is the smallest honest answer. Worked at the award floor, full time, 38 hours a week:

Award floor from the Fair Work P.A.C.T summary for the Clerks Private Sector Award (MA000002), effective 1 July 2026. Superannuation 12 per cent for 2026-27, ATO. Leave loading 17.5 per cent of four weeks, Fair Work Ombudsman. Workers compensation 1.85 per cent, ReturnToWorkSA scheme average, which varies by state and industry so use your own insurer's rate. Payroll tax is excluded because most employers sit below the threshold. Checked 5 August 2026. Full method on what an employee really costs.

That is the floor, not the offer. The market band above is what the role is actually advertised at, and an offer pitched near the legal minimum is the one experienced people scroll past. The full rate detail for this role has the classification ladder.

What gates this role

None. Progression in this award is driven by the complexity and autonomy of the work rather than by any ticket.

Which rung you are actually hiring on

Year steps exist only at levels 1 and 2. Levels 3, 4 and 5 are single rates, so progression above level 2 comes from the work itself rather than from time served. Level 1 year 1 is the entry rate for someone with no experience.

Clerks Private Sector Award (MA000002), adult full-time minimums effective 1 July 2026, from the Fair Work Ombudsman pay guides. Casual loading of 25 per cent sits on top. Which classification applies is decided by the work actually performed, not by the job title.

Roles that overlap with this one

Widening or narrowing the brief by one role often does more for a stalled vacancy than raising the rate. The nearest neighbours:

• Customer service representative: the same award, and often the same rung
• Operations manager: the usual longer term step up, and above award coverage

Why the good ones are hard to reach

A large, mobile pool with no entry gate, and a labour market where remote and hybrid arrangements have widened the geographic reach of every vacancy. Employers rarely struggle to find applicants. They struggle to match one to the duties and the systems actually in front of them, which is a different problem and not one the shortage list measures.

What employers get wrong hiring this role

Classifying by title rather than by duties. The award's levels describe what the person actually does, and calling someone an office administrator does not put them on a particular rung. The second is advertising a level 3 job at a level 1 rate, which is lawful only if the duties really are level 1. The third is not mentioning whether the role is genuinely hybrid, which now decides applications more than the salary does.

How we fill it

Four checks before a name reaches you: licences verified, screened against your brief, history checked, rate locked. If one step fails, the name never reaches you. The whole process is written out here, including where reference checks actually sit.

You pay nothing until your hire starts, and if they leave inside the first 90 days we replace them free.

Questions