Salons & barbers in Australia

2026-09-25

Taking on an apprentice in January? Start them in December instead

If you were planning to take on a hairdressing, barbering or beauty apprentice in January, start them before 1 January 2027 instead. The $2,500 Priority Hiring Incentive is not being cut. What changes on New Year's Day is the list that decides whether your trade qualifies for it at all, and the new list has not been published. An apprentice who starts in 2026 is paid for under the 2026 rules. One who starts on 4 January gets whatever the new list says.

2026-09-08

The non-compete in your stylists' contracts is being banned. The clause that protects your client list is not

On 7 September the government released draft legislation that would ban the non-compete clause in your staff contracts for anyone earning under $190,100 a year. In a salon that is everyone. The useful part is not the ban itself, it is what the ban leaves standing, because that is where whatever protection you actually have will have to live from now on.

2026-07-15

Two things hit your salon's first July pay run: a 4.75% award rise and Payday Super

If you employ stylists, your first pay run in July 2026 costs more than June did. The Hair and Beauty Award, which sets the minimum you can pay almost everyone in a salon, went up 4.75%, so a Level 1 stylist moves from $26.55 to $27.81 an hour. On the same day a second change called Payday Super started: it does not change how much super you pay, but it changes when it has to leave your account. Here is exactly what both do to your margin, worked on your own roster, and how to make the timing work for you instead of against you.