“Just hire someone to answer the phone” is advice every tradie has been given. It is worth knowing what the someone costs before you decide against it, or for it.
All figures below are the rates in force for 2026-27 and the sources are named. Nothing here is an estimate.
Which award applies
A receptionist in a trade business is covered by the Clerks — Private Sector Award 2020 (MA000002), not by a construction award. It’s an occupational award, and the building and plumbing awards are not among the industries carved out of it. Reception and switchboard duties are named in the Level 1 classification.
The base rate
From the Annual Wage Review 2026, which lifted modern award minimums by 4.75 per cent with effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026:
| Classification | Weekly (full-time) | Hourly |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1, first year | $1,024.86 | $26.97 |
| Level 1, second year | $1,073.10 | $28.24 |
| Level 2, first year | $1,119.10 | $29.45 |
| Level 3 | $1,182.10 | $31.11 |
Level 1 first year annualises to $53,293. That is the number most people have in their head. It is not the cost.
What goes on top
Superannuation — 12 per cent
The super guarantee rate is 12 per cent for 2026-27. On a Level 1 first-year wage that is $6,395 a year.
Annual leave loading — 17.5 per cent
The Clerks Award provides leave loading at 17.5 per cent of the minimum hourly rate on the four weeks of annual leave every full-time employee gets under the National Employment Standards. That’s another $717.
Workers compensation — and here is the part people get wrong
Every published estimate you’ll find prices workers comp for a receptionist at a clerical rate, somewhere under one per cent. In New South Wales that is simply wrong for a trade business, and it’s wrong by a lot.
NSW premiums are industry-rated, not occupation-rated. icare’s own classification rules state that clerical and administrative services carried out inside another business are not a separate and distinct business and get no separate classification — so the wages of those workers attract the rate of the employer’s actual industry.
Your receptionist is rated as a plumber. The 2026-27 published rates:
| Business | Industry rate | Clerical rate, if it applied |
|---|---|---|
| Plumbing services | 4.390% | 0.682% |
| Electrical services | 2.890% | 0.682% |
| Air conditioning and heating | 3.970% | 0.682% |
| Carpentry services | 9.690% | 0.682% |
| Painting and decorating | 8.360% | 0.682% |
| Bricklaying services | 11.520% | 0.682% |
Plus a dust diseases contribution of 0.110 per cent. For a plumbing business that’s an indicative $2,430 a year on a Level 1 wage — roughly six times what a clerical rate would suggest. The final premium varies with claims history and wage declarations, so treat that as the indicative rate rather than an invoice.
Payroll tax — probably nothing
NSW payroll tax starts above $1.2 million in annual Australian wages, at 5.45 per cent. A small trade business is nowhere near it. Ignore it unless you’re grouped with related entities.
The total
| Per year | |
|---|---|
| Base wage, Level 1 first year | $53,293 |
| Superannuation at 12% | $6,395 |
| Annual leave loading | $717 |
| Workers comp, plumbing business, indicative | $2,430 |
| Total | $62,835 |
Before a desk, a computer, a phone line, recruitment, or the fortnight of your time it takes to train someone into a trade business.
Now divide by the hours you actually get
This is the number that changes the decision.
A full-time employee works 38 hours. They get four weeks of annual leave, ten days of paid personal leave, and in NSW thirteen public holidays. That leaves roughly 44 working weeks, or about 1,690 hours a year at the desk.
There are 8,760 hours in a year. So a full-time receptionist covers about 19 per cent of the time your phone can ring, at about $37 an hour of coverage. The other 81 per cent — every evening, every weekend, every public holiday, the fortnight they’re in Bali — is back to whatever you were doing before.
The honest comparison
A receptionist does things no phone system does. They chase invoices, handle the walk-in, manage the diary, know that Mrs Patterson always rings on Thursdays, and pick up the twenty-first kind of call that no script anticipated. If that’s the job you need done, hire one, and now you know the real number.
If the job you actually need done is “the phone gets answered properly, every time, including at 2am”, that’s a different problem and $62,835 is an expensive way to solve 19 per cent of it.
Our pricing is on the home page, and the missed call calculator will tell you what the unanswered 81 per cent is currently costing.
Sources: Clerks — Private Sector Award 2020 (MA000002) and determination PR799283, Fair Work Commission; Annual Wage Review 2026 [2026] FWCFB 3500; super guarantee rate, ATO; National Employment Standards, Fair Work Act 2009 ss.87, 96, 115; NSW WIC rates 2026-27 and WIC System Table B, icare NSW; payroll tax thresholds, Revenue NSW. Figures current at September 2026. Not financial or legal advice.