Casual vs Part-Time vs Full-Time: What Each Means for Employers

A full-time employee works around 38 hours a week and gets paid leave and notice; a part-time employee works fewer than 38 regular hours with the same entitlements pro-rata; a casual has no firm advance commitment to ongoing work and is paid a loading (usually 25%) instead of paid leave, notice and redundancy pay. Since 26 August 2024 the Fair Work Act has defined "casual" by the real substance of the relationship rather than the word in the contract, and it gives casuals a conversion pathway you must respond to properly.

The three types at a glance

	Full-time	Part-time	Casual
Hours	Around 38 ordinary hours a week	Fewer than 38, usually a regular pattern	No guaranteed hours; shifts offered and accepted
Commitment	Firm advance commitment to ongoing work	Firm advance commitment to ongoing work	None
Pay	Base rate	Base rate for hours worked	Base rate plus loading (usually 25%) or a specific casual rate
Paid annual and personal leave	Yes	Yes, pro-rata	No
Notice of termination	Yes, both ways	Yes, both ways	No

All three get the National Employment Standards (NES) and are covered by whichever modern award applies to your industry. If you haven't pinned down your award, start with how modern awards work; it sets the rates, loadings and shift rules below.

What "casual" means now

Under section 15A of the Fair Work Act, a person is a casual if, when they start, the relationship has no firm advance commitment to ongoing work and they're entitled to a casual loading or a specific casual rate under an award, agreement or contract.

Whether there's a firm advance commitment is judged on the real substance, practical reality and true nature of the relationship, not just the contract. Factors that must be weighed include whether:

you can offer or not offer work, and whether that actually happens
the employee can accept or reject shifts, and whether they actually do
ongoing work of the kind they do is reasonably likely to be available
full-time or part-time staff already do the same kind of work
the employee has a regular pattern of work.

No single factor decides it, and a regular pattern alone doesn't make someone permanent. But if you roster a casual like a permanent, expect them to turn up like one and have part-timers doing identical work beside them, the label gets hard to defend. How you run the roster matters as much as the letter of offer.

The paperwork you owe casuals

Every casual must receive the Casual Employment Information Statement (CEIS) before or as soon as possible after they start, plus the Fair Work Information Statement. Small business employers (fewer than 15 employees) must give the CEIS again after 12 months; larger employers give it at 6 and 12 months, then every 12 months. It's a free download, so build it into onboarding with the rest of the first-employee paperwork.

Full-time and part-time: the permanent options

Both have a firm advance commitment to ongoing work; the difference is hours.

A full-time employee works around 38 ordinary hours a week (the NES maximum, plus reasonable additional hours), accrues full leave and must give and receive notice.

A part-time employee works fewer than 38 hours, usually in a regular pattern, and gets the same minimum entitlements pro-rata: a part-timer on 19 hours accrues half a full-timer's leave but gets full notice periods.

The catch is rigidity. Many awards require you to agree the regular pattern of hours in writing before the employee starts, changing it needs written agreement, and hours outside the agreed pattern are often payable at overtime rates. If your workload genuinely swings week to week, fixed-hours part-time can cost more than casual, which is exactly why casual exists.

Casual loading and pay

The loading compensates for what casuals don't get: paid leave, notice, redundancy and job security. Under most awards it's 25% on top of the permanent base rate for the same classification, though some awards set a casual hourly rate instead, and its interaction with penalty rates and overtime varies by award.

For award-free employees, the national minimum wage from 1 July 2026 is $26.44 an hour, and casuals on it must receive at least $33.05 including the 25% loading (as at September 2026). Award rates are usually higher; check them with Fair Work's Pay and Conditions Tool.

Two things employers regularly get wrong:

Super is payable on casual wages. All three types attract the 12% super guarantee on ordinary time earnings, and under payday super casual contributions must reach the fund within 7 business days of payday.
The loading doesn't buy you out of everything. Casuals still get paid family and domestic violence leave, unpaid carer's and compassionate leave, penalty rates, overtime where the award provides it and minimum shift lengths.

Decent payroll software handles loadings, accruals and Single Touch Payroll for all three types.

Leave and entitlements by employment type

Entitlement	Full-time	Part-time	Casual
Annual leave	4 weeks (5 for some shiftworkers)	Pro-rata	None; loading instead
Paid personal/carer's leave	10 days a year	Pro-rata	None
Unpaid carer's leave	2 days per occasion once paid leave runs out	Same	2 days per occasion
Compassionate leave	2 days paid per occasion	Same	2 days unpaid per occasion
Family and domestic violence leave	10 days paid a year	10 days paid	10 days paid
Public holidays	Paid if on a normal working day	Same	Paid only if they work, at the award rate
Unpaid parental leave and flexible work requests	After 12 months' service	Same	After 12 months' regular and systematic work with a reasonable expectation of continuing

Long service leave is set by state and territory legislation, and in some jurisdictions long-serving casuals qualify, so check your state's rules.

Notice, redundancy and unfair dismissal

Full-time and part-time employees get minimum notice under the NES, worked out or paid in lieu:

Continuous service	Minimum notice
1 year or less	1 week
More than 1 year, up to 3 years	2 weeks
More than 3 years, up to 5 years	3 weeks
More than 5 years	4 weeks

Employees over 45 with at least 2 years' service get an extra week. Awards and contracts can set longer periods, never shorter, and probation doesn't remove the entitlement.

Casuals aren't entitled to notice or redundancy pay under the NES, and casual service usually doesn't count towards continuous service for notice if they later go permanent. Confirm the end of any employment in writing anyway.

Redundancy pay is where small business gets a real break: most employers with fewer than 15 employees don't have to pay NES redundancy pay, though some awards have industry-specific schemes.

Don't confuse "no notice" with "no risk". An employee can bring an unfair dismissal claim after 6 months' service, or 12 months with a small business, and a casual who has worked on a regular and systematic basis with a reasonable expectation of ongoing work can claim too. The long-term casual you quietly stop rostering is precisely who ends up at the Fair Work Commission.

Minimum engagement and rostering rules

Awards set minimum shift lengths that differ by employment type. Common examples (as at September 2026):

General Retail Industry Award: casuals are paid for at least 3 hours per engagement (1.5 hours in limited circumstances set out in the award).
Hospitality Industry (General) Award: casuals get at least 2 consecutive hours; part-timers must be rostered for at least 3 consecutive hours per shift.
Restaurant Industry Award: casuals get at least 2 consecutive hours per engagement.

Sending a casual home after 45 minutes because it's quiet doesn't cut their pay below the minimum engagement. Other awards differ, so read your own clause.

Rostering differs too. You offer a casual a shift and they can decline it; that mutual freedom is part of what keeps them casual. A part-timer's agreed hours are theirs and changes need agreement. Full-timers can be asked to work reasonable additional hours, subject to the award's overtime rules.

When casual is right, and when it's risky

Casual suits genuinely variable work: seasonal peaks, event staff, leave cover, a new business that can't yet predict demand. You pay 25% more per hour but carry no leave liability, no notice obligation and no fixed wage bill in a slow week. It becomes risky when reality drifts permanent. Warning signs:

the same person has worked the same shifts every week for months
you'd be in trouble if they declined a shift
permanent staff do identical work alongside them
you've stopped offering shifts and started dictating the roster.

At that point you're paying a premium for flexibility you aren't using, the employee can trigger the conversion pathway, and any dispute will be judged on practical reality. The same "real substance" logic drives the employee vs contractor test.

Sham casual arrangements are also unlawful: knowingly misleading a permanent employee into a casual contract for the same work, or dismissing (or threatening to dismiss) someone to re-engage them as a casual. Both attract civil penalties.

Converting casuals: the employee choice pathway

Since 26 August 2024 the old employer-offer rules have been replaced by an employee-driven pathway. You and a casual can still agree to convert at any time. Where you can't agree:

Eligibility. The casual must have been employed for at least 6 months, or 12 months if you're a small business employer, and believe they no longer meet the casual definition. Service before 26 August 2024 doesn't count, and they can't give notice if you refused one in the last 6 months.
The notice. They tell you in writing that they want to become full-time or part-time.
Consultation. Before responding you must discuss whether they'd be full-time or part-time, their hours and the start date.
Written response within 21 days. If you accept, state the new status, hours and start date, which defaults to the first full pay period after your response.
Grounds for refusal. Only that the employee still meets the casual definition, that there are fair and reasonable operational grounds (substantial changes to how work is organised, significant operational impacts, or substantial changes needed to comply with an award or agreement), or that accepting would breach a legally required recruitment process. Give reasons in writing.
Disputes that can't be resolved at the workplace can go to the Fair Work Commission.

You can't cut a casual's hours, change their pattern or dismiss them to avoid the pathway. If a casual works regular hours and wants permanency, converting is often cheaper than the loading you're paying, so run the numbers before refusing.

Key takeaways

Casual means no firm advance commitment to ongoing work, judged on how the relationship actually operates, not the word in the contract.
Casuals get a loading (usually 25%) instead of paid leave, notice and redundancy, but still get super, paid family and domestic violence leave, unpaid carer's and compassionate leave, and minimum shift lengths.
Part-timers get full-time entitlements pro-rata, but most awards lock their hours in writing and charge overtime outside them.
Give every casual the Casual Employment Information Statement at the start and again at 12 months (6 and 12 months, then annually, with 15 or more staff).
A casual with 6 months' service (12 in a small business) can give written notice to convert; consult, respond within 21 days and refuse only on permitted grounds.
Long-term regular casuals can bring unfair dismissal claims, so end their engagement with the same care as a permanent's.

Where to get help

Fair Work Ombudsman (fairwork.gov.au, 13 13 94): employee-type pages, the Casual Employment Information Statement, the Pay and Conditions Tool and Small Business Showcase templates.
Fair Work Commission (fwc.gov.au): award texts, the National Minimum Wage Order, conversion and unfair dismissal disputes.
Australian Taxation Office (ato.gov.au): super guarantee and payday super.
Your state or territory long service leave authority for casual long service leave rules.
An employment lawyer or HR adviser for contracts, part-time hours agreements and conversion or dismissal responses; your accountant can model casual loading against permanent leave accruals.