Sapna is a content writer at Sprintlaw. She has completed a Bachelor of Laws with a Bachelor of Arts. Since graduating, she has worked primarily in the field of legal research and writing, and now helps Sprintlaw assist small businesses.
If you employ engineers, IT professionals, scientists, or other “professional” roles, there’s a good chance the Professional Employees Award 2020 (often called the PE Award) sits somewhere in your compliance checklist.
And if you’ve ever tried to reconcile award rules with what you actually do day-to-day (project deadlines, client deliverables, flexible hours, occasional weekend work), you’re not alone.
From 2023 onwards, many Australian businesses have been reviewing how they apply awards and employment conditions - not just because awards change, but because the broader employment law landscape has kept moving. This article walks you through what to focus on when thinking about “2023 changes” to the Professional Employees Award 2020, and what to do now in 2026 to keep your contracts, payroll, and practices aligned.
Important note: awards are varied from time to time (including pay rates) and the right approach depends on your exact workforce, classifications, and contracts. The goal here is to help you spot the issues early and know what to action.
What Is The Professional Employees Award 2020 And Who Does It Cover?
The Professional Employees Award 2020 is a modern award that sets minimum employment terms and conditions for certain professional employees in Australia.
In practical terms, an award can affect things like:
- minimum pay rates and classification structures
- ordinary hours and how “reasonable additional hours” work
- overtime or penalty-style entitlements (where applicable)
- allowances and reimbursements
- annual leave loading (where relevant)
- consultation requirements for workplace change
Why Award Coverage Is Often Confusing For “Professional” Roles
Professional employees are frequently paid well above minimum rates, may be on salaries, and may work flexible hours. That can create a false sense of safety - but award compliance is not only about base salary.
Even if your employees are paid above award, you still need to consider whether the overall package leaves them better off overall compared to what the award would provide (especially where hours, additional payments, and leave loading are involved).
Also, “professional” doesn’t automatically mean “award-free”. Some roles might instead be covered by a different modern award, or be award-free depending on seniority and duties.
If you’re formalising terms for professional staff, a tailored Employment Contract is often the starting point for documenting salary, hours, duties, confidentiality, and other key conditions (while still staying consistent with minimum legal requirements).
What Changed In 2023 For The Professional Employees Award 2020?
When business owners talk about “2023 changes” to an award, they’re usually referring to one (or both) of these moving parts:
- Annual pay rate updates (typically flowing from the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review, often applied from 1 July each year)
- award variations that amend clauses (for example, housekeeping updates, clarification of entitlements, or alignment with broader workplace reforms)
Because award variations can be technical and are sometimes implemented through determinations over time, the most reliable approach is to treat 2023 as a trigger to review your reliance on old templates and legacy payroll settings.
1) Pay Rates And Classification Alignment
A common compliance gap is not the pay rate itself, but the classification decision that sits behind it. In professional environments, job titles can be misleading, and duties evolve quickly.
In 2026, it’s worth re-checking:
- whether each professional employee is classified correctly under the PE Award (if it applies)
- whether your pay rates kept up with annual increases over 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026
- whether allowances or other monetary entitlements are being captured
2) Salary Set-Off Clauses And “All-In” Pay
Many employers try to simplify administration by paying an above-award salary and describing it as “inclusive of everything”. This can work, but only if it’s drafted and applied properly.
To reduce risk, you generally want clarity about what the salary is intended to cover (for example, reasonable additional hours and certain allowances) and you’ll want payroll practices that match the contract.
This is particularly relevant where you pay above-award wages and you want confidence that the employee’s overall entitlements remain compliant as award rates move over time.
3) Hours Of Work And “Reasonable Additional Hours”
The PE Award is commonly associated with professional roles where work doesn’t always fit neatly into a 9–5 pattern. That makes it especially important to understand how ordinary hours and additional hours interact.
Even when an award permits “reasonable additional hours”, you still need to keep an eye on:
- how many hours people are actually working in peak periods
- whether additional hours are becoming routine rather than occasional
- how you manage fatigue and work health and safety risks
- whether you have clear processes for approvals and time recording
If you’re trying to sense-check your internal expectations, it can help to anchor back to guides like legal maximum working hours, because “professional” work still sits within broader Fair Work frameworks.
What Employers Still Get Wrong In 2026 (Even After A 2023 Update)
Even if you updated your pay rates in 2023, there are a few patterns we see repeatedly - especially in small to mid-sized businesses where HR and payroll are lean.
Misclassification As “Professional” When Another Award Applies
Some workplaces apply the PE Award because an employee is “in IT” or “an engineer”, without checking the actual coverage rules and whether another industry award applies instead (or whether the role is award-free).
Misclassification can flow into incorrect minimum conditions, and the risks often snowball when you scale your team.
Assuming A High Salary Removes Award Obligations
Paying well is great, but salary alone doesn’t automatically “switch off” award entitlements.
For example, depending on the circumstances, you may still need to consider:
- how you deal with additional hours, time recording, and approvals
- whether leave loading applies in your context
- whether allowances should be paid
- whether your contract terms are consistent with the award (and the National Employment Standards)
Not Reviewing “Time Off In Lieu” Arrangements
In professional workplaces, it’s common to offer flexibility instead of extra pay when extra hours happen (for example, “take Friday afternoon off next week”).
That can be a sensible employee benefit, but you should document and manage it carefully so it doesn’t become an informal system that creates disputes later.
Having a clear policy (and contract wording where appropriate) matters, especially if you use time in lieu as part of your culture.
How To Audit Your PE Award Compliance (Without Overcomplicating It)
If you’re not sure whether your business is “doing it right”, a structured audit can save you a lot of time and stress. The aim isn’t perfection overnight - it’s reducing risk and building a repeatable process.
Step 1: Confirm Award Coverage And Classifications
Start with a simple list:
- each role title
- what the employee actually does day-to-day
- their classification level (if the award applies)
- their salary and any allowances
This is also a good time to check whether any roles have drifted over time (for example, a “graduate engineer” who is now leading projects and supervising others).
Step 2: Check Your Pay Rates And Any Annual Adjustments
For most employers, the most obvious 2023-related task is verifying that award rate increases were applied correctly, and that the same approach was followed in later years.
What you’re checking for is:
- the base rate is at or above the correct minimum for the classification
- the salary hasn’t accidentally fallen below the minimum due to annual increases
- any “all-in salary” approach still leaves the employee better off overall
Step 3: Review Hours, Rostering Practices, And Breaks
Professional workplaces don’t always roster like hospitality or retail - but breaks still matter.
If your employees regularly work long days, travel between sites, or do on-call work, it’s worth reviewing break expectations and documenting your approach. For a practical baseline, many employers reference guides like employee meal breaks as part of their compliance review.
Step 4: Check Overtime And Additional Hours Practices
Some professional employees won’t have “overtime” in the traditional sense, but disputes often arise when extra hours become frequent and there’s no shared understanding of what’s included in salary.
It’s worth checking:
- Do managers approve additional hours?
- Do employees record time accurately (even if paid a salary)?
- Are you offering TOIL informally without a consistent method?
Even where your workforce is mostly salaried, it helps to understand how overtime is treated more broadly in Australia, including the principles discussed in overtime laws.
Step 5: Align Contracts With How You Actually Operate
A major source of legal risk is when:
- the contract says one thing, but the workplace does another
- the contract is silent on key issues like additional hours, confidentiality, or IP ownership
- you rely on old templates that were never tailored to your business
If your business has changed since 2023 (new service lines, different client expectations, more remote work, bigger projects), it’s usually the contract that needs the refresh - not just payroll settings.
What Else Changed Around 2023 That Impacts Professional Employees?
Even if a change isn’t written directly into the Professional Employees Award 2020, it can still affect how you employ professional staff.
This is where many employers get caught out - they update “the award”, but miss the wider rules that interact with it.
Fixed-Term And Maximum Term Contract Risk
Professional workplaces often use fixed-term arrangements for project work, parental leave cover, or funding-based roles.
But fixed term contracting in Australia has become a much higher scrutiny area, and you should be careful about repeating or rolling contracts without checking the rules.
If your business uses project-based hiring, it’s worth reviewing how maximum term contracts work in practice, and whether your current approach needs updating.
Changing Roles, Duties, And “Role Creep”
Professional employees often grow quickly - particularly in startups and scaleups. That’s a good thing, but it creates legal and compliance consequences if the employment contract and classification are never updated.
Common examples include:
- a developer becoming a team lead without a change in contract terms
- a junior engineer starting to manage client budgets and deliverables
- a “specialist” role evolving into a cross-functional leadership role
As duties change, you may need to update position descriptions, pay structures, and contract clauses around hours, confidentiality, and restraints.
Operational Flexibility Vs Compliance
Most small businesses want to do the right thing, but still need flexibility. The trick is building structured flexibility - clear written terms that give you room to operate without accidentally drifting into non-compliance.
That might include:
- clear consultation processes for major workplace change
- transparent policies on remote work and availability
- consistent approvals for additional hours and TOIL
- updated contracts when roles change materially
Key Takeaways
- The Professional Employees Award 2020 can apply to a range of professional roles, and award coverage and classification are often where compliance issues begin.
- “2023 changes” usually trigger a wider review: pay rate updates, classification checks, and whether your salary set-off approach still works as award rates move over time.
- Even in professional workplaces, you should stay on top of hours, breaks, and additional hours practices - especially when workloads spike or flexible arrangements are informal.
- High salaries don’t automatically remove award obligations, so it’s important to check the overall package (not just base pay) against award minimums.
- Contracts should reflect how your business actually operates, particularly around reasonable additional hours, time off in lieu, confidentiality, and role changes.
- Changes outside the award (like reforms affecting fixed-term arrangements) can still affect how you employ professional staff and how you structure contracts.
If you’d like help reviewing your Professional Employees Award coverage, updating your employment contracts, or sense-checking your compliance processes, reach us at 1800 730 617 or team@sprintlaw.com.au for a free, no-obligations chat.
Sapna Goundancontent writer
