What a no-show really costs (it is not just the shift)

When a casual does not show, the instinct is to count the loss as one shift’s wages. The real bill is larger, because the work still has to happen, and every way of making it happen costs more than the shift you planned. We published the full numbers in The cost of an unfilled shift: NSW warehouse, 2026; this is the short version.

The three prices of one empty shift

• The shift you planned: $322 all-in. Eight hours of an entry warehouse casual at current award rates, plus 12% super and workers comp.
• Emergency agency fill: about $485. The same loaded cost plus a typical ~25% short-notice agency margin, plus 90 minutes of supervisor time spent ringing around and re-rostering.
• Cover it with overtime: about $572. Extending existing staff on Monday-to-Saturday overtime multiples costs 70% more in wages alone, before the scramble time. That is 78% above the shift you planned.

And the pattern is a budget line, not an annoyance: Australian absence research puts unplanned absence at 7 to 8% of payroll, which for a mid-size NSW operation running 30 casuals is roughly $88,000 a year, before a single overtime premium is counted.

Paying less starts before the no-show

• Workers who are paid quickly and correctly show up more. MyGig pays every worker the day after the shift, at no cost to them, which is a reliability lever as much as a worker benefit.
• Backup depth beats heroics: a platform pool with standby workers re-fills a dropped shift without your supervisor working the phones.
• Measure it. If no-shows are not a tracked number with an owner, they are being paid for out of overtime and nobody can see the total.

The full methodology, every rate, multiplier, and assumption, is published with the research at MyGig Workforce Insights. If unfilled shifts are a weekly event in your operation, your first MyGig shift’s service fee is on us.