# Australian national minimum wage (FY2025-26)

**Benchmarking hypothetical, not legal advice.** Figures are as at FY2025-26.

## Answer

From **1 July 2025** for the **2025-26** financial year, the Australian **national minimum wage** for an adult employee who is **not** covered by an award or registered agreement (before any casual loading) is:

**$24.95 per hour**

The body that sets the national minimum wage each year is the **Fair Work Commission**, through its **Annual Wage Review** under the **Fair Work Act 2009**.

## Working

The national minimum wage is not fixed in legislation as a dollar amount. Each year the Fair Work Commission reviews and adjusts minimum rates in modern awards and sets a national minimum wage order for award-free employees.

For the 2025-26 year, the Commission’s Annual Wage Review decision took effect from the first full pay period on or after **1 July 2025**. The national minimum wage hourly rate for that year is **$24.95** (dollars and cents: twenty-four dollars and ninety-five cents per hour).

That rate is the **base hourly** rate. Casual employees covered only by the national minimum wage would receive a casual loading on top of this base; this answer is the rate **before** any such loading.

## Approach

No files were present in an `inputs/` directory for this run; the sandbox contained only the task prompt. Under the closed-book constraint (no web or external lookup), the answer was drawn from recall of the Fair Work Commission’s FY2025-26 minimum wage settings: the July 2025 national minimum wage hourly figure and the Commission’s role under the Fair Work Act 2009 annual review process.