Aussie cafe bosses erupt over $78 an hour pay for dish washers
Kitchen hands and wait staff working public holidays will soon make over $78 an hour, as cafe bosses sound the alarm over a “relentless” crisis.


News.com.au
June 9, 2026

Aussie hospitality titans have warned the nation’s iconic cafe culture is on the brink of collapse due to a “relentless” crisis as venues bleed cash just to keep the doors open.
Before the Fair Work Commission’s latest annual wage review bumped award rates up by 4.75 per cent and pushed the baseline minimum wage to $26.44 an hour, cafes around the nation were already at a tipping point.

On public holidays, when the 150 per cent penalty rates kick in, the lowest-paid cafe workers will make a staggering $78/hour from July 1.

Industry leaders say the system has become entirely “dysfunctional”, forcing business owners to choose between slugging customers with massive surcharges or turning off the lights completely.

John Hart, the executive chairman of the Restaurant and Catering Australia — a national peak body representing more than 57,000 cafes, restaurants and caterers — said cafes are under immense pressure and that was only amplified on public holidays.

“It’s dysfunctional at the moment. The wages have gone up to a point where it means businesses effectively can’t operate profitably at any point,” Mr Hart said.


The pressure becomes critical when a public holiday rolls around on the calendar.

“It just makes it that much more pronounced on a public holiday because of the rates. It brings the decision right to the fore as to whether you open,” he said.

“You’re not opening because you’re gonna make money; you’re opening because you want to be there for your customers and you might want the cash flow... but you’re gonna lose money. It’s pretty much that straightforward.”


He said cafes nationally are now, on average, spending more than 50 per cent of their revenue on wages. He said adding a surcharge to prices, which 70 per cent of cafes apply on public holidays, made opening “a little bit more bearable” - but that doesn’t mean they are making money.

Most cafes have surcharges on weekends and public holidays.

Industry experts say cafes are under immense pressure. Hampson
“The problem is that if you don’t open and you choose to not open and not apply a surcharge, you’ve got your business sitting idle that you’re paying rent on,” Mr Hart said. “So you’re losing money anyway.”

‘Muppets’: Cafe boss erupts, says venues making $35 an hour

Phillip Di Bella, founder of Di Bella Coffee and head of The Coffee Commune, an initiative representing more than 1300 independent cafe owners, outlined how much profit an average cafe makes on a public holiday.

When making a baseline of 100 coffees an hour at $7 each, so $700 in revenue, wages would swallow $350 of that, goods would cost $140, GST would be $70 and utilities and rent would take $105. So the total profit made on those coffees would be just $35.

Despite this, he said the public debate around minimum wages completely misses the point and that keyboard warriors who tell struggling businesses “if you can’t afford wages, don’t open” were out-of-touch “muppets”.

He said hardly anyone is on minimum wage in hospitality because in order to attract them, they have to pay more.

“Our baristas are averaging $33, $34 an hour. So in order to attract good people, you’ve got to pay above the minimum wage anyway,” he said. “So that’s one misconception is people understanding what minimum wage is and what we’re paying.

“You’ll not find many people when you are running at three per cent unemployment, most people are not paying minimum wage. And if you’ve got really good staff, you’re certainly not paying minimum wage.”

Coffee industry expert Phillip Di Bello.

He said to run a semi-profitable business, the percentage of wages should be no more than 30 per cent, maximum 35 per cent of takings.

“Wages across 1300 cafes that we get the data from are running at 45 to 50 per cent of turnover,” he said. “Now, if wages are running at up to 50 per cent, that means they’re either overstaffed — which they’re not, because they can’t afford to be — or two, the customer’s not paying enough for their product.”

Mr Di Bella notes that a standard weekend brunch has become a loss-leader for independent operators due to these ratios.

“So when the customer says, ‘oh, why’s my bacon and eggs $30 on a weekend?’, well 50 per cent of that has just gone straight to wages,” he said. “

I read the article and the comments and the whole story is fake news Ltd rubbish-

“ Wrong…

“When making a baseline of 100 coffees an hour at $7 each, so $700 in revenue, wages would swallow $350 of that, goods would cost $140, GST would be $70 and utilities and rent would take $105. So the total profit made on those coffees would be just $35.”

ALL businesses get a GST credit. They only pay GST on the difference between what GST they PAID vs what they COLLECTED.

The above statement assume they collected 70 and didn’t pay any themselves.

Also, if revenue is 700, GST is roughly 63.64.

It would be 70 if revenue was 770.

Why does this matter, it’s only 7$. Because all the mistakes add up.

If profit was 35, now it’s 42. Oh and with the GST credit, it might be 55 PER HOUR. They trade for 8, PROFIT was over 400. That day.

Their “worst day” and the boss pockets 400 for doing nothing at all and having the day off himself. Crying poor cause someone else is being paid penalty rates.

I get it. There are other costs too. Super, downtime, etc. Can’t imagine 100 coffees per hour is realistic.

My point, don’t fudge figures, it sends the credibility of the whole article into question”.

Well - when a government creates massive inflation as a tool to impoverish the majority so they will beg to be brought to heel - the good people will anyway - the rest will become Underworld criminal masters etc - and then plays at 'looking after the lowest paid' by raising costs again .. what more can yo expect?

I warned yez all years ago that the social and economic management of this country would lead us to a tyrannical government of either left or right - Albo looks and acts weak - everyone laughs as he drags us all under... here reminds me of what one silly woman journalist once said about John Howard - many look at this little toad and laugh, but he was more like a stone fish, lying (sic) on the bottom until prey cam near, then striking unawares.

AlboCorp is our first attempt at an extreme 'socialist' government - not 'communist' quite - but one with an overbearing central government dictating all things to all people... and forsaking the social contract in doing so, and so as to cement for themselves a place in government forever .. a dictatorship by any other name.

Despite their sucking up for the feminine vote - many women are totally disgusted with them... they know as well as you and I that forcing women down our throats at every turn is not having the desired result, and that forcing transwomen down their throats is having the opposite effect - since most women see unwarranted advantage being given to those they would least vote for anyway... and nothing real for their sons and daughters..

Side snide slide:-  Again - AlboCorp (Albanese Corporation) graciously hands out a pay rise to 'the lowest paid, mostly women' - I call BS again on this (and wonder WTF those dopey lying sheilas in the 'gender wage agency' even do for a living):-

Men's AWE = $2228.30 (ABS Feb 2026)

Men's hours worked per week = 38.5

Women's AWE = $1957.45

Women's hours worked per week – 31.7

Simple calculations:-

Men's average HOURLY earnings = 2228.30/38.5

=  $57.88

Women's Average HOURLY earnings = 1957.45/31.7

=  $61.75

Let us go a little further:-

Horror of horrors – women 'only' EARN around 89% of what men EARN.

BUT – they only work 82% of the hours men work!!  So even there they are 7% or so ahead!!!   

In Roman numerals it is XXX.

UnSubRocky wrote Yesterday at 3:36am:


Of course they deserve that sort of money, if they work on a public holiday.

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There aren't. But there are a lot of people who would take the work for less than $70 an hour, if they were allowed to. The unions won't let them have a job, and are celebrating their unemployment as some great achievement.

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Ah. I see your logic. It's OK for the unions to deny people the right to have a job, so long as they keep up the good work?

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You are confused Greg. Do you think there might actually be more jobs if the cafes only have to pay staff $30 per hour instead of $70?

tallowood wrote Yesterday at 10:31am:


I just can’t  as I’m a cook-from-scratch domestic chef, I use organic free range eggs, organic butter on toast, signature organic olive oil to cook with, how do I know if even the eggs in a cafe are free range? There’s no mention so therefore they must be cheaper caged chooks eggs.
Recently it shocked me while staying at Mantra in Airlie Beach, their own restaurant offering breakfast eggs etc for $30 each unless we joined a club then it’s $24 each

Well, we walked a couple kms to nearest supermarket and I bought weetbix, milk, and paper bowls so we made our own breakfast.
4 mornings saved $240 just on breakfast alone.
Yes I’m the mathematician domestic chef at that 

For lunch I bought bread, ham, tomato and made sandwiches.
Many of the other lunch, morning and afternoon teas were included as part of travel deal.

Had a nice snitz lunch in Hamilton island included and these pesky blackbirds all over the diners! Geez! The waitress had a bottle of water and kept coming to spray the birds away!