Baker salary in Australia

The headline number

Jobs and Skills Australia's profile for Bakers and Pastrycooks (ANZSCO 3511) shows median full-time earnings of $1,417 a week before tax, and median hourly earnings of about $36, as at the May 2025 ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours. Across all occupations the medians are $1,852 a week and $47 an hour.

That figure is for full-time, non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate, so it leaves out apprentices, part-timers and owners. About 74 per cent of bakers and pastrycooks work full time, averaging around 43 hours a week.

What the median hides

• •Shift rates: the Retail Award has specific early-morning and night shift rates for baking production employees who start between midnight and 6am, and the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Manufacturing Award has early-morning and night shift definitions for baking production employees. A baker working those hours every week earns well above the base rate
• •Enterprise agreements: supermarkets and many large plant bakeries pay under their own registered agreements, which can sit above award rates and include their own loadings
• •Overtime: busy seasons like Easter and Christmas often bring extra hours
• •Part-time work: a big share of the trade, especially pastrycooks, works part time, which drags down annual income even when hourly rates are fine
• •Remote work: mine sites and remote camps sometimes hire bakers and pastry cooks on fly-in fly-out rosters, usually at higher rates

Bakers versus pastrycooks

Jobs and Skills Australia does not publish a separate median wage for bakers and pastrycooks because the samples are too small. Its 2021 Census figures show about 18,700 bakers, 66 per cent working full-time hours, and about 6,800 pastrycooks, with 56 per cent full time. In practice, pay depends far more on the setting, the award or agreement and the hours you work than on whether you make bread or pastry.

Running your own bakery

Self-employment is where the biggest range sits. A busy bakery with good wholesale accounts can pay its owner well above any wage. Plenty of others survive on thin margins after flour, butter, energy, rent and wages, and the owner works the longest hours in the building. Before you buy in, get proper advice on the numbers, and be wary of buying a business that relies on the outgoing owner's skills.

Which award sets your pay

• •Retail bakery shops where the main activity is baking for sale on the premises: General Retail Industry Award (MA000004), which lists bakers and pastry cooks as trade-level employees
• •Manufacturing and wholesale plant bakeries: Food, Beverage and Tobacco Manufacturing Award (MA000073), which expressly excludes retail bakeries
• •Supermarket in-store bakeries: usually the company's enterprise agreement
• •Pastry cooks in restaurants, hotels and catering: hospitality awards, as covered on our cookery pages
• •Not sure? Use the Fair Work Find My Award tool or call the Fair Work Ombudsman

Apprentice pay

We do not quote apprentice dollar figures because they change every year and depend on your situation. Under the Retail Award, apprentice rates are a percentage of the trade rate based on your year of apprenticeship and whether you completed Year 12. Both baking awards have adult apprentice rates for people 21 or older when they start, and both say time spent at training counts as time worked.

Shift rates apply to apprentices too, but employers generally cannot roster you in a way that stops you attending training. Check your exact rate on the Fair Work Pay Calculator at calculate.fairwork.gov.au, and check your payslip against it.

How to earn more

• •Finish your apprenticeship: the jump to the qualified trade rate is the biggest single pay rise you will get
• •Take on early-morning or night production if you can handle it
• •Move into a leading hand, head baker or bakery manager role
• •Add the Certificate IV in Baking (FBP40221) if you want to run production or a business
• •Build a specialty, such as artisan bread, patisserie or wedding cakes, that customers will pay a premium for

Check the live figure

The ANZSCO-based occupation profiles quoted here are no longer being updated, and Jobs and Skills Australia is moving to new OSCA-based profiles. Before you make decisions on these numbers, check the current figure on Your Career or Jobs and Skills Australia, and ask employers what they actually pay.