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 storeperson onto your payroll, not about booking one for a job. A storeperson on the award floor of $27.72 an hour costs about $63,323.73 a year once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are counted, against a wage of $54,774.72. That is roughly 15.6 per cent on top.
Award floor
$27.72
Storage Services and Wholesale Award (MA000084), effective 1 July 2026
Market band
$60,000 to $70,000
National advertised range, SEEK, refreshed 1 July 2026
Real annual cost
$63,323.73
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 | $27.72 x 38 hours x 52 weeks | $54,774.72 |
| Annual leave loading | 17.5% of four weeks' wages | $737.35 |
| Superannuation | 12% of wages plus loading | $6,661.45 |
| Workers compensation | 1.85% of wages, loading and super | $1,150.21 |
| Real annual cost | Against a $54,774.72 wage | $63,323.73 |
Award floor from the Fair Work P.A.C.T summary for the Storage Services and Wholesale Award (MA000084), 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.
None required to start, which is what makes this the common entry point into warehousing. A forklift high risk work licence is the usual first ticket and it lifts the person to grade 2. Some sites add food safety or dangerous goods requirements depending on what is stored.
This is one of the few awards on this site with genuine time-served steps, and they sit only in grade 1: on commencement, after three months, and after twelve months. An employer who leaves a storeperson on the commencement rate past those dates is underpaying them by the award's own terms. Wholesale employees run a parallel ladder at identical money.
| Classification | Hourly floor | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Storeworker grade 1, on commencement | $27.08 | Base rate |
| Storeworker grade 1, after 3 months | $27.41 | Base rate |
| Storeworker grade 1, after 12 months | $27.72 | Base rate |
| Storeworker grade 2 | $27.97 | Base rate |
| Storeworker grade 3 | $28.77 | Base rate |
| Storeworker grade 4 | $29.61 | Base rate |
Storage Services and Wholesale Award (MA000084), 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:
No licence and no qualification is required to begin, so the pool is large and turnover is high. The constraint in warehousing is almost never finding people, it is matching the shift and the work honestly enough that the job still suits them at the end of the first month.
On the Jobs and Skills Australia 2025 Occupation Shortage List this role appears as 741111 Storeperson, not in shortage nationally or in any state, on the 2025 list. 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.
Ignoring the service steps and leaving people on the commencement rate. It is an award breach waiting to happen and it is also the fastest way to lose someone at three months. The second is advertising a picking role and a forklift role as the same job. The third is not mentioning the shift pattern, which is the single thing warehouse applicants filter on hardest.
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 $27.72 an hour, about $63,323.73 a year once superannuation, leave loading and workers compensation are added, against a wage of $54,774.72. 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 $60,000 to $70,000. The award floor of $27.72 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.
Grade 1 has three rates: on commencement, after three months, and after twelve months. The steps are automatic with time served and they apply only within grade 1.
Grade 2 covers licensed operation of materials handling equipment, so a forklift licence is the usual route.
No. Wholesale employees run a parallel classification structure at identical rates under the same award.