What casual labour
actually costs you.
Not the headline rate — the real number, with super, WorkCover and payroll tax in it. Put your own figures in below. We have shown the parts that count against us too.
Work out your number
Victorian rates, 2026-27. Everything excludes GST.
Through an agency
They employ the worker and carry the on-costs — then charge 22% on top of all of it. That is a published standard rate; agencies negotiate, and volume buyers pay less. Use your own quote.
Direct, through Sagora
You employ the worker, so the on-costs are yours. Our fee is 10% of wages only.
$62.19 cheaper direct — 13.1% less, on $320.00 of wages. You take on the super, the WorkCover and the paperwork.
Where this calculation is soft
- 1.WorkCover is not really a per-hour cost. Under $7,500.00 a year in remuneration you need no policy at all, and there is a minimum premium, so one extra shift can cost you nothing in WorkCover. The calculator charges it on every hour, which overstates the direct cost for a small employer — we would rather err against ourselves.
- 2.The saving is in dollars; the work you take on is not. Payroll, super lodgement and record-keeping are roughly fixed per engagement, not per hour. Over a 3-hour shift they can swallow the difference; over a 10-hour shift or across many shifts they disappear into the background. If you book a handful of shifts a year, going direct may genuinely not be worth it.
- 3.How an agency is rated for WorkCover is unsettled. We model the agency at the labour hire classification (3.457%). If WorkSafe instead rates them on the work being performed, they carry your industry rate too — and most of the variation you see when you change industry above would disappear.
What that agency margin actually buys
It is not pure profit, and anyone who tells you it is has not run a labour hire business. The agency is the employer of record. That means:
- —They pay the super, register for WorkCover and remit the payroll tax — and carry the penalties if it is wrong.
- —A workers compensation claim is against their policy, not yours, and does not move your premium.
- —Unfair dismissal, underpayment and entitlement claims land on them as the employer.
- —If someone does not turn up, finding the replacement is their problem.
- —One invoice a month instead of paying each worker and reconciling it.
Sagora does none of that. You engage the worker, so every one of those is yours. The trade is a lower cost, a faster fill and your pick of who turns up.
Worth your time if
- ✓You already employ casuals directly — payroll, super and WorkCover are already running.
- ✓You need someone at short notice and cannot wait for a callback.
- ✓You want to choose the person, and keep the good ones.
- ✓Your work is steady enough that the same faces coming back is worth something.
Use an agency instead if
- —You do not run payroll and do not want to start.
- —You want someone else to carry the employment risk entirely.
- —You need thirty people on Monday — that is what agencies are good at.
- —Your WorkCover class is high and the saving above came out small or negative.
What you are taking on — read this part
Super, within days of payday. Payday Super started on 1 July 2026. Superannuation is no longer a quarterly job — the contribution has to reach the fund shortly after each pay run. 12% of wages, and it is payable on the casual loading too.
WorkCover. You need a policy once you pay more than $7,500.00 a year in remuneration. Below $200,000.00 your premium is the industry rate and your own claims history does not affect it; above that, a claim does move your premium.
Payroll tax. Only above $1,000,000.00 of annual Australian wages in Victoria. Note that superannuation counts toward that total.
Minimum engagement. Most awards set a minimum casual engagement, commonly two to four hours. Book someone for two hours under a three-hour award and you owe three. An agency handles this for you; engaging directly, it is yours to know.
Casual conversion. A casual working a regular pattern can ask to become permanent, and the request goes to you, because you are the employer. Worth saying plainly: My Team and recurring bookings exist to create exactly that regular pattern. It is a good problem — it means someone reliable keeps coming back — but it is a real obligation an agency would have absorbed.
None of this is advice about your circumstances — it is the published rates, linked below. If you are near a threshold, ask your accountant.
Our fee, in full
A percentage of the worker's wages for the shift, charged only when a shift is confirmed. Posting is free, browsing is free, and a shift nobody takes costs nothing. Workers are never charged.
Tiers are by lifetime completed bookings and are never lost once earned. Direct bookings through My Team and recurring bookings are a flat 7%.
Straight answers
Is there a fee if I hire someone permanently?+
Hiring a worker you met here outside the platform within 24 months, to avoid the fee, costs $500 per worker. It is the cost of the introduction, not a penalty for working with someone again. Book them through My Team at 7% and it does not apply.
Are the licences checked?+
Workers upload the document and we mark it checked once we have looked at it. A worker card shows you which tickets have been checked and when, which ones are only stated, and which have expired. Treat an unchecked ticket as a claim, not a credential — and ask to see it on site, as you would with anyone.
Do you add GST?+
No. Sagora Pty Ltd is not registered for GST, so the fee is the fee and you get an invoice rather than a tax invoice. This is not a saving and we will not present it as one — if you are registered for GST you claim the GST on an agency invoice back anyway. It is a difference in paperwork, not in cost. The numbers above exclude GST on both sides.
Who pays the worker?+
You do, directly. Sagora never touches the wages — we invoice you separately for the fee once both sides confirm the shift has ended. It is why the worker keeps every dollar of the rate you agreed.
What if nobody takes the shift?+
You pay nothing. The fee only exists on a confirmed shift. That also means a thin market costs you nothing but time — worth knowing while we are still early in Melbourne.
Where these numbers come from
Checked 11 September 2026 for the 2026-27 year. Rates change — WorkCover is re-gazetted annually and award rates rise every 1 July.
- Superannuation Guarantee 12% — ATO
- Victorian payroll tax 4.85%, $1m threshold — State Revenue Office Victoria
- WorkCover industry rates 2026-27 — WorkCover Premiums Order No. 34, Victoria Government Gazette
- Agency service fee 22% of wages plus on-costs — Sidekicker
The agency column models a Victorian agency at Sidekicker's published rate. Traditional labour hire margins run wider. Your own quote is the one that counts — this is a model, not a promise.
Post a shift and see
Free to post, free to browse. Nothing is charged until a shift is confirmed.