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 a plumber onto your payroll, not about booking one for a job. A plumber on the award floor of $32.80 an hour costs about $74,928.51 a year once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are counted, against a wage of $64,812.80. That is roughly 15.6 per cent on top.
Award floor
$32.80
Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award (MA000036), effective 1 July 2026
Market band
$85,000 to $105,000
National advertised range, SEEK, refreshed 1 July 2026
Real annual cost
$74,928.51
At the award floor, full time, South Australian on-costs
The wage is the smallest honest answer. Worked at the award floor, full time, 38 hours a week:
| Line | How it is worked out | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Wages | $32.80 x 38 hours x 52 weeks | $64,812.80 |
| Annual leave loading | 17.5% of four weeks' wages | $872.48 |
| Superannuation | 12% of wages plus loading | $7,882.23 |
| Workers compensation | 1.85% of wages, loading and super | $1,361.00 |
| Real annual cost | Against a $64,812.80 wage | $74,928.51 |
Award floor from the Fair Work P.A.C.T summary for the Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award (MA000036), 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.
State plumbing registration or licence, issued by the plumbing regulator in each jurisdiction, with separate classes for water, sanitary, drainage, gasfitting, roofing and mechanical services. Gasfitting in particular is its own authorisation and a plumber without it cannot legally do gas work. A restricted or provisional registration is not the same as full registration, and the award pays them differently. A white card is separate. Fees are set per state and per class.
The award publishes registered and unregistered rates as two separate columns at every tradesperson rung. Registration is worth between about ninety cents and a dollar twenty an hour depending on level. Sprinkler fitting runs as a completely separate ladder inside the same award.
| Classification | Hourly floor | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Worker level 1(a), new entrant | $27.97 | Base rate |
| Worker level 1(c), after 12 months | $28.85 | Base rate |
| Worker level 2 | $31.63 | Base rate |
| Tradesperson level 1, not registered | $31.63 | Base rate |
| Tradesperson level 1, registered | $32.80 | Base rate |
| Tradesperson level 2, registered | $33.73 | Base rate |
| Tradesperson special class level 1, registered | $34.65 | Base rate |
| Advanced tradesperson level 1, registered | $36.41 | Base rate |
| Advanced tradesperson level 2, registered | $37.12 | Base rate |
Plumbing and Fire Sprinklers Award (MA000036), 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.
Widening or narrowing the brief by one role often does more for a stalled vacancy than raising the rate. The nearest neighbours:
Plumbing has the same four year apprenticeship bottleneck as the electrical trade, with an extra wrinkle: registration classes are granted separately, so a plumber can be fully qualified and still not hold the specific authorisation your job needs.
On the Jobs and Skills Australia 2025 Occupation Shortage List this role appears as 334116 Plumber (General), in shortage nationally and in every state and territory. 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 for a plumber without naming the classes of work is the big one. Gasfitting, roofing and drainage are different authorisations, and an applicant reads a bare plumber advertisement and assumes their classes are fine. The second is not distinguishing registered from unregistered in the offer, when the award itself does. The third is pitching a maintenance role at new construction money, or the reverse, when the two attract quite different people.
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 $32.80 an hour, about $74,928.51 a year once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are added, against a wage of $64,812.80. 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 $85,000 to $105,000. The award floor of $32.80 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.
Yes. The award publishes a registered and an unregistered rate at every tradesperson level, and registration is worth roughly a dollar an hour at the floor.
Not automatically under the award. Gasfitting is a separate authorisation rather than a separate pay grade, so the difference usually shows up in the market rate rather than the floor.
Yes, but on their own ladder with its own allowances, which sits above the general plumbing rates at most rungs.