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 operations manager onto your payroll, not about booking one for a job. An operations manager at the bottom of the advertised market band, $110,000 a year, costs about $127,168.34 a year once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are counted, against a wage of $110,000.00. That is roughly 15.6 per cent on top.
Cost basis
$110,000
Award free or set by the parent award, see below
Market band
$110,000 to $130,000
National advertised range, SEEK, refreshed 1 July 2026
Real annual cost
$127,168.34
At the award floor, full time, South Australian on-costs
The wage is the smallest honest answer. Worked from the bottom of the market band, full time, 38 hours a week:
| Line | How it is worked out | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Wages | Bottom of the market band, $110,000 a year | $110,000.00 |
| Annual leave loading | 17.5% of four weeks' wages | $1,480.77 |
| Superannuation | 12% of wages plus loading | $13,377.69 |
| Workers compensation | 1.85% of wages, loading and super | $2,309.88 |
| Real annual cost | Against a $110,000.00 wage | $127,168.34 |
There is no award floor for this role, so the wage line starts at the bottom of the national advertised band published on SEEK, refreshed 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.
None generally. Sector specific requirements do exist: transport operations often expect fatigue management knowledge, and some manufacturing sites expect formal safety qualifications.
This role is usually award free, meaning no modern award sets a minimum wage for it and the only legal floor is the national minimum wage. Pay is set entirely by the market, so the figures below are worked from the bottom of the advertised band rather than from an award rate.
The practical consequence for you: there is no legal minimum to anchor against and no classification to argue about, so the advertised band is the whole negotiation. The current national band is $110,000 to $130,000, and pitching below it on a role with no award floor simply means nobody applies.
Widening or narrowing the brief by one role often does more for a stalled vacancy than raising the rate. The nearest neighbours:
This is a role people are promoted into rather than trained for, so the market is made almost entirely of people who already have a job. That is why operations management vacancies rarely fill from advertising alone.
On the Jobs and Skills Australia 2025 Occupation Shortage List this role appears as no generic ANZSCO occupation, not assessed. The ANZSCO 2022 classification has no generic operations manager occupation, so the Occupation Shortage List does not rate one. The nearest assessed occupations, corporate general manager, production manager and facilities manager, are all rated as not in shortage. That is the national picture, not a claim about your town, and it is the reason an advertisement alone often does not produce a shortlist.
Advertising and waiting. The people who can run this are almost all employed, are not reading job boards, and will move for the right role rather than for a listing. The second is writing a specification that is really three jobs, which is common when the role is being backfilled after someone exceptional left. The third is assuming award free means terms can be whatever the employer likes, when the National Employment Standards still apply in full.
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.
At the award floor of award free an hour, about $127,168.34 a year once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are added, against a wage of $110,000.00. That is roughly 15.6 per cent on top of the wage. Payroll tax is excluded because most employers sit below the threshold.
The national advertised band is $110,000 to $130,000. The award floor of award free is the legal minimum, not the market. An offer pitched near the floor is the most common reason a vacancy in this trade stays open.
Usually not. Most operations management roles sit above award coverage, although the National Employment Standards still apply and an award can still reach parts of a role that involve covered work.
The official occupation classification has no generic operations manager occupation, so it is not assessed. The closest assessed occupations are rated as not in shortage.
The market and the individual. With no floor to anchor to, the band is set by what comparable roles are actually paying.