Supported Wage Agreements

A Supported Wage Agreement is an agreement between an employer and employee to pay the employee based on their productivity. It is only available to people whose disability affects their productivity so that they cannot perform at 100% capacity.

An Independent Wage Assessor comes to the work-site and assesses the employee performing their duties and compares this to the average time other employees take to complete the same tasks. This productivity rate is then applied to their wage and the employer is only required to pay the employee at their rate of productivity. For example, if an employee is assessed as performing at 80% productivity the employer is required to pay 80% of the award wage. All assessments will be agreed and signed by all parties to the assessment and are lodged by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) with the Registrar of the Australian Industrial Relations Commission.

Assessments are reviewed and updated annually. Further information on Supported Wage Agreements can be found on the DEEWR website - http://www.dest.gov.au