How the award engine works.
Every hour MyGig prices carries the award, the classification and the clause behind it. This page is the plain account of where those come from, what is checked by a machine, what is approved by a person, and what the engine deliberately does not do.
Last reviewed 3 September 2026
Two sources, never memory
Rates come from the engine.MyGig’s award engine is built from the Fair Work Commission’s modern award pay guides. It maps 118 awards; 114 of them have adult casual hourly rate tables published on this site, effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026 (snapshot generated 11 July 2026). The 4 not published have a stated reason each: their engine rows are daily, per-charter or per-engagement rather than adult hourly, or were stale on the day.
Terms come from the award library. Breaks, allowances, minimum engagement and hours rules published on the award guides are extracted from the Fair Work award library ↗, most recently on 20 August 2026. Never from memory, and never from the engine, which is the source for rates only.
No clause, no row
The award documents contain no headings at all: structure is carried by paragraph classes, and a loose search for clause numbers returns dollar amounts out of the rate tables. So the extractor reads clause numbers as anchored tokens per paragraph class, finds the breaks, allowances and hours sections by two independent signals (the clause title and the award’s own table of contents), and publishes a sentence only when it can attribute it to a clause. A value it cannot attribute is dropped, not guessed. Sentences are cut only at sentence boundaries, never with an ellipsis, because half a sentence of award text is a misquote.
Allowance amounts are published only because a build check fails once the extracted terms predate the most recent 1 July. If that check were ever removed, the amounts would come out with it.
The award’s words first, then MyGig’s reading
Where MyGig offers a plain-English reading of a break clause, it renders beneath the award’s own sentence, labelled as MyGig’s, and only after the founder has approved it. Each reading stores two hashes of the sentence it was written against. If Fair Work varies the award, the build fails rather than leaving a reading under words it was not written for, and the reading is re-read before it returns. A reading may say what the clause means for a casual shift; it may not widen the clause or carry a figure the clause does not state.
Dates that fail the build
- Award terms fail the build once the extraction predates the most recent 1 July.
- Award counts are derived from the engine snapshot and checked against every place they are stated; a typed count fails.
- Readings fail the build when the clause they were written against changes.
- Research figures on the State of Casual Pay report are re-derived from the snapshots by a script; the build fails if the sources change without a re-derivation or once the review date passes.
- Status claims such as ATO registrations carry a review date in a claims register; the build fails when one lapses.
When a shift is posted
When a business posts a shift, the engine resolves the award and the classification for the work, applies the casual loading, the penalty stream for the day and time, and the allowances the shift triggers, and shows the all-in cost with the flat 15% service fee before the shift is booked, with the clause cited on every priced line. The same engine prices the shift calculator and drives daily payroll, so a worker is paid the day after the shift on the same calculation the business saw before it.
What it does not do
It does not tell a business what its legal obligations are, and nothing on this site does. It prices a shift under the award and classification that apply to it and cites the source so the reader can check. What the law requires of a particular employer is a question for Fair Work ↗ and the ATO ↗. The dated record of the rule changes that move casual pay is on what changed and when.
Questions
Where do the rates come from?
From MyGig's award engine, which is built from the Fair Work Commission's modern award pay guides and applies the 25% casual loading. The rate tables published on this site are a snapshot of that engine, effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026; the engine, not the website, prices a shift.
Where do breaks, allowances and minimum engagement come from?
From the Fair Work Commission award library, never from memory and never from the engine, which is the source for rates only. Each published term is the award’s own sentence with its clause number; anything the extractor cannot attribute to a clause is dropped rather than guessed.
Does the engine tell me what my legal obligations are?
No. It prices a shift under the award and classification that apply to it and cites the clause, so you can check the source. What the law requires of a particular employer is a question for Fair Work and the ATO, and every page on this site that touches the law links them.
What happens when the award changes?
Rates move on 1 July each year with the Annual Wage Review and the engine re-syncs. Award terms are re-extracted from the Fair Work library, and a build check fails if the published terms predate the most recent 1 July, so a stale allowance amount cannot sit on the site unnoticed. A reading MyGig has written against a clause is hash-checked against that clause: if Fair Work changes the words, the reading is pulled until it is re-read.
Written by Enguerrand Vidor, Founder & CEO, MyGig. Reviewed 3 September 2026. General information, not legal advice.
See the clause before you book.
Post a shift and the all-in cost, with the award and clause behind it, shows before you confirm.