How to Make a Small Claims Wage Claim in Australia

Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), an applicant may choose the small claims procedure before a magistrates court or the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) to recover an amount the employer was required to pay under the Act or a fair work instrument (art. 548(1)). "Fair work instrument" includes a modern award or enterprise agreement — so unpaid award wages, overtime and penalty amounts, as well as amounts below the National Minimum Wage, all fall within it.

The defining feature is that it is simplified and less formal. It is built for exactly the kind of claim most employees bring: a defined sum of unpaid wages, provable from hours and pay slips, that does not need the full machinery of an ordinary proceeding.

Two figures matter, and people routinely confuse them.

First, the cap: in small claims proceedings, the court may not award more than $100,000 (or a higher amount if one is prescribed by the regulations) (art. 548(2)). If your total unpaid wages exceed that, you either bring an ordinary application instead or accept the cap.

Second — and this is the detail that often gets missed — interest awarded under section 547 does not count towards that $100,000 cap (art. 548(2A)). So pre-judgment interest, where the court awards it, sits outside the ceiling. Note that the Fair Work Act sets no fixed statutory interest rate: interest is awarded by the court, on application, and the rate follows the rules of the court hearing the matter — so never assume a fixed figure.

A small claim is simple, but it is not vague. Before you file, have three things ready:

1. Your ordinary hourly rate. This is your real contractual wage or the award minimum, and it must not sit below the National Minimum Wage — $26.44 per hour from 1 July 2026 ($1,004.90 per week, following the Fair Work Commission's Annual Wage Review 2026, [2026] FWCFB 3500).
2. The dates and hours unpaid. A clear, dated schedule of the hours you worked and were not paid for — the backbone of the claim.
3. The applicable award (if any). Australia has no statutory overtime rate: any overtime multiplier or penalty rate comes from your modern award or enterprise agreement, not the law. Identify the award before you put a multiplier into your claim; until then, quantify the certain floor (unpaid hours at your ordinary rate, 1:1).

The strength of the whole application rests on these numbers. If your employer failed to keep the records or give the pay slips they were required to (arts. 535, 536), the burden of disproving your allegation shifts to them (art. 557C) — which is why your own timestamped log is so valuable.

Do not wait. An application may be made only within 6 years after the day the contravention occurred (art. 544), and a court cannot order an underpayment for a period more than 6 years before the proceedings commenced (art. 545(5)). Each unpaid pay period runs its own six-year clock, so your oldest unpaid hours fall away first.

A note on terminology: this is the Fair Work system. There is no "labour court", "labour tribunal" or "prud'hommes" in Australia — the small claims procedure runs before a magistrates court or the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2).

• How to Recover Unpaid Wages in Australia: Step-by-Step Underpayment Claim
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• Unpaid Overtime in Australia: Your Complete Rights Guide