How piece rates work
How farm piece rates, piecework records, daily minimum wage guarantees and Top-ups fit together under the Horticulture Award, and what AgCore records.
What a farm piece rate pays for
A piece rate pays a worker for their own output: bins picked, trays packed, kilograms pruned or another countable unit. It is tied to a particular task, so one farm can have separate rates for mango bins, avocado bins and packing trays.
On Pay & piece rates, AgCore keeps each task as a Piece Rate Type with its name, unit and exact dollar rate. The rate then follows the task into the worker's signed record, the pieces entered for the day and the pay report.
The Horticulture Award does not allow a combined group rate. The output belongs to the individual worker. The Fair Work Ombudsman's pay and piece rates guide explains the rule and gives current examples.
A Piece Rate Type is the working definition, not a history table. Deactivating one removes it from new piece entries, but AgCore keeps the rate captured on entries already recorded. Editing the definition does not rewrite those past records.
The record comes before the work
Under the Horticulture Award, the employer fixes the rate and gives the worker a written piecework record before that piecework task starts. It names the task, the piece rate, the start date and the worker's hourly rate.
AgCore presents this record as a Piecework Agreement. The worker signs it for the chosen Piece Rate Type. AgCore keeps the signed record and blocks piece entries for that task until the signature is in place.
The Award calls the legal record a piecework record. AgCore calls its signed product record a Piecework Agreement. They refer to the same piece-rate terms, but the Fair Work wording is the authority.
Read the Fair Work Ombudsman's piecework records guide for the required contents and record-keeping rules.
Hours, tallies and pay stay together
Paying by output does not remove the hours record. Employers covered by the Horticulture Award must keep the worker's hours and the piece rate that applied while those hours were worked.
In AgCore, the day's piece tally sits with the worker's Time Entry. Quantity multiplied by the signed rate becomes piece earnings. Work outside the piecework task stays visible as hourly earnings, rather than being folded into the tally.
The Piece Rate Report then shows the whole chain for the pay period, from hours worked through to final pay. The office can get back from a pay total to the work record behind it.
The daily minimum wage guarantee
A Horticulture Award pieceworker must receive at least their hourly rate multiplied by the hours worked on each day. When piece earnings fall short, AgCore records the difference as a Top-up during reconciliation. It is not another piece entry, and the employer still sets the piece rate for the real task. See how AgCore resolves the worker's wage rate against the live award floor, and what makes a rate lawful, in the minimum-wage guarantee guide.
Open AgCore
Already have a login? Open Pay & piece rates to see the tasks your Organisation pays against, or open the Piece Agreements to check who is covered. The detailed piecework and minimum-wage guide stays in the app beside the screens it describes.
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