Would You Select Full Time Casual Employment with 25% Loading, or Full Time Permanent Employment?

OzyBe on 06/04/2026 - 16:30
Last edited 06/04/2026 - 17:49 by 1 other user

I always get stumped on this one, so thought I would throw it out to the wise folks at OzBargain to throw in their 2 cents worth.

Some employers give you an option (if they like you after a period of time) to upgrade to permanent employment, taking a 25% reduction, compared to casual employment.

There are some benefits to permanent such as sick leave, holiday pay, and job security (and people have told me banks won't give you a home loan if you are casual), but if you are doing say a 38 hour week that 25% reduction is going to reduce your annual income - unless I am missing something.

Interested to hear from people that have pondered the same thing. If you had the choice of the two, which would you choose? Has anyone done the math to see how much pay difference there is?

Education & Work

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  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 06/04/2026 - 16:34
    +53

    Full time permanent. no competition

    • supersabroso on 06/04/2026 - 22:00

      Full time if you're in it for the long term. Otherwise, if the work is basically full time and you want to hit it hard, casual is better in the short term. Eg. Some of the temporary contractor positions in Sydney Metro were offering $600k/year when they are only worth $386k/year full time. Temporary contractor jobs with TfNSW's IT departments were paying $300k/year when the full time equivalent is only $180k/year. 25% is less ideal but my answer is still the same if you're only going to do the job for a short time (eg. less than 3 years).

      • wongcr on 07/04/2026 - 12:43
        +3

        Hi, these were contractor positions not casual.
        Big difference in employment law! (And you need an ABN as well).

      • kiitos on 07/04/2026 - 07:25

        What sorts of roles were they?

      • Jimothy Wongingtons on 07/04/2026 - 10:39

        I agree. That’s super niche though…

  • loulou1 on 06/04/2026 - 16:35
    +22

    Casual hours can change at any time. Being permanent gives you the security of knowing exactly what your pay is going to be consistently.
    4/52 weeks in annual leave, 2/52 weeks minimum sick leave entitlement, guaranteed pay for public holidays without having to work them, working toward long service leave.
    I would choose permanent because I would sleep better at night.

  • tubeidea on 06/04/2026 - 16:46
    +19

    Casual seemingly gets more money, until you get sick and then you don't get any sick pay, and you might not have a job to come back to when you get better, depending on how much of a scumbag your employer is.

    Having worked casual in the past, I would never choose it over permanent full time or even part time employment, the industry is rife with scumbag employers and I see plenty of jobs that should be full time but are instead being advertised as casual with full time hours, I always make a mental note of those employers, it tells how how working is going to be for them. They wouldn't be gunning for casuals with full time hours if they were decent people.

    It's not just home loans that are hard / impossible to get with a casual job, it's everything, even something like a credit card isn't easy to get with casual employment, because credit card providers know how tenuous your working situation is (even if you don't) so they don't want to lend to someone who might not have a job tomorrow out of no fault of their own.

    I also can't stand rosters being changed at the last minute, I like knowing when I have to work the week beforehand, better yet I prefer it never changing apart from public holidays, whereas casuals sometimes get weekly rosters the week beforehand, but those are never set in stone and can change the day beforehand or even on the day if your employer is one of the bad ones.

    God forbid you take one of the days you're not rostered on to do something, such as go out, go to the doctor, do some shopping and then your employer tries to put you on that day at the last minute and have a fit when you tell them you can't, then proceed to retaliate by giving you less hours / no hours.

    • OzyBe on 06/04/2026 - 17:12

      Good points

  • Benoffie on 06/04/2026 - 18:32
    +7

    Ive been a casual teacher for 10 years.

    What I wouldn't give for a permanent position 😕

  • JIMB0 on 06/04/2026 - 16:37
    +3

    Casual loading is great if you're working a lot of overtime, it also saves you from the difficulties of having to take all your sick leave.

    • helldoodle on 07/04/2026 - 23:27
      +2

      casual loading is based on your base rate not any penalties you would get (public holiday overtime sundays)

      • JIMB0 on 08/04/2026 - 06:23

        My industry pays penalty rates on the loading.

  • cashless on 06/04/2026 - 22:04
    +3

    Given the choice, I’d select full time retirement

  • djones145 on 06/04/2026 - 23:01
    +3

    are u married
    do u have kids
    do u have a home loan
    do u live at home

    if u got nothing, casual contract work all the way baby

    • rehan770 on 09/04/2026 - 01:49

      Im married
      I hv kids
      I hv a home loan
      I live @ home

      I got everything, still casual contract working due to age factor.

      • kiitos on 11/04/2026 - 20:48

        Were you casual when you applied for the home loan? Did that cause issues for you? Does your spouse have a full-time job?

        • rehan770 on 11/04/2026 - 23:33

          Yes it does. I was working when we applied for 1. However you have to go very deep into it making things happen. Have to be very cautious - I don't want you to follow l as it might bite you in a long run. If you are a smart worker you will be able to handle thou!!!

          • tenpercent on 11/04/2026 - 23:36

            @rehan770:

            f you are a smart worker you will be able to handle thou!!!

            Amen to that.

  • scrimshaw on 06/04/2026 - 18:59
    +2

    I used to work on a casual basis but basically had almost full time work hours of around 30 to 38 hours a week. While the higher pay is tempting, and even nicer on public holidays due to penalty rates, the biggest downside is that they can just stop calling you in without any reason.

    Which is what happened to me, I got dropped out from the work roster and they only called me in for emergency situations or when they needed me for a very specific something.

    They can't do this to you if you are a permanent.

  • elgrande on 06/04/2026 - 19:45
    +2

    Given the high risk of recession, full time for sure.

  • opt on 07/04/2026 - 01:00
    +2

    Full time permanent employees generally get 20 days annual leave, 10 days sick leave and around 10 public holidays, that’s around 40 days of paid leave out of around 250 working days a year or 16% (so you are only actually getting about 9% more being casual if you take all those days off). You also have a bit of job security as a permanent employee can’t be fired without a restructure or redundancy and advance warning. Therefore in a downturn casuals are the first to go or lose hours. Depending on the company and the industry, permanent employees may also get other benefits like bonuses, salary packaging, additional allowances, better training opportunities etc. After all, the whole reason for a casual loading is to balance some of those risks and drawbacks. So becoming permanent is not simply taking a 25% pay cut for nothing. In this economy I’d say permanent wins hands down.

  • MS Paint on 06/04/2026 - 17:26
    +1

    Coles or Woolies OP?

  • freefall101 on 06/04/2026 - 18:38
    +1

    Rule of thumb, go permanent for the redundancy coverage, termination period and general security. If you can't afford to lose your job, it's simply not worth being a casual for what can often be peanuts of extra pay when they can screw you at a moment's notice.

    However it does vary a lot on the award, the industry and the specifics of the job. Banked leave goes up in value with each pay rise you get, whereas as a casual you lose whatever you have when you take the leave, so a plus for permanent. By having to submit timesheets as a casual it makes it pretty easy to get overtime, whereas if you're paid above award then overtime might be baked into the rate already, plus for casual. Some casuals get redundancy in their awards. Some awards pay casual loading on overtime (manufacturing), others do not (higher education).

    It'd also be a very good idea to take the 25% and stuff it into a fund to pay for time off and in case you lose your job. But a lot of people aren't great with money.

  • TheMills on 06/04/2026 - 20:17
    +1

    Companies can make positions redundant on the drop off a hat ( outsource jobs to Phillipines | India ) and the severance pay is 2 weeks / year served in VIC. Also, most of the companies force employees to take leaves during Christmas to NewYears time, so 5-7 days of 20 days annual leave is gone.

    I wonder what's the rationale behind full time job in the current times?

    • Aerith-Waifu on 06/04/2026 - 21:39
      +1

      Crown Perth has just done a major redundancy with 52 weeks pay. From 21st of April there will be a lot less people working on table games and in admin.

      I was told by someone

      • tenpercent on 06/04/2026 - 21:42

        So it will be easier to count cards?

        • Muppet Detector on 06/04/2026 - 22:07

          Eye in the sky. It was never really on the dealer or pit boss.

          • tenpercent on 06/04/2026 - 22:12

            @Muppet Detector: I'm thinking fewer tables running means more players at a single blackjack table which ultimately means it's easier to count.

          • Crow K on 12/04/2026 - 13:48

            @Muppet Detector: That and electronic card shufflers / 8 deck shoes being in play being the actual killer to the whole process.

  • stickingly on 07/04/2026 - 07:15
    +1

    Also depends on the job. In some jobs (eg IT) it is expected (and even written into the contract) that you "may need to" work overtime and after hours to do whatever needs to be done to complete the work or respond to emergencies, and that this is included in the salary. In some IT jobs I did I would have earned a lot more if I had been paid at overtime rates for every hour that I worked

  • 82norm on 07/04/2026 - 08:55
    +1

    Poll?

  • mooseca on 06/04/2026 - 16:52

    You need to do the math on your own figures. Was offered the casual employment option few years ago for 25% increase but was 1k less annual take home after holidays, sick leave. May have forgot public holidays too

    • R4 on 07/04/2026 - 11:15
      +3

      maths

    • OzyBe on 06/04/2026 - 17:10
      -3

      That is quite close. Wow, option to move from permanent to casual - I always thought it was the other way around.

  • sam-1966 on 06/04/2026 - 17:01

    Also ask at work if there are any other benefits. My husband gets the option to purchase shares (up to $5,000 worth) each year, with repayments coming out of his pay. Casual staff don't get this.

    And, as others have said, have a permanent roster makes life much easier.

  • OzyBe on 06/04/2026 - 17:12

    Thanks everyone,

    Looks like permanent is the way to go, with actual income only being slightly less providing it is not compared to a casual job with substantial overtime.

    • Muppet Detector on 06/04/2026 - 17:22

      You can have a full time job and a casual job if the "substantial overtime" is something that you're ok with.

  • Muppet Detector on 06/04/2026 - 17:19

    but if you are doing say a 38 hour week that 25% reduction is going to reduce your annual income - unless I am missing something.

    Pretty spot on, but whilst that 25% reduction seems like a lot, once you've passed any probationary period, it's pretty hard for them to fire you unless you do something really wrong..

    Then you have that higher casual rate…. that I think they can make disappear in a few hours, with no notice and no reason.

  • Muppet Detector on 06/04/2026 - 19:15

    How does work cover get payed if you get injured at work whilst you're a casual?

    • Downvoter on 06/04/2026 - 20:11
      +1

      Same. 85% for first 6 months then it reduces

      • Muppet Detector on 06/04/2026 - 22:05

        But 85% of what? Full time, you get 85% of Full time (it used to be 80% - had a pay rise!) but casual, no set hours, 85% of what? And ouch if it's a long term or permanent injury..

        • Downvoter on 06/04/2026 - 22:22
          +1

          They average out the previous 12 months of income if you’ve been employed that long. If it’s less I dunno, google it I spose.

  • kenzstar on 06/04/2026 - 23:02

    you dont get paid when you go on holidays.

  • 82norm on 07/04/2026 - 08:59

    Depends on your situation and circumstances. If you’re not relying on paid annual leave, sick leave etc, casual. If you have a family, mortgage, financially insecure, perm.

  • apple2016 on 07/04/2026 - 09:00

    Casual - you get more pay on hand, inturn more tax to pay or you can divert more into super etc. If you are able to invest long term its good. There ie no annual leave or sick leave, so depends on how you priotize this.
    Full time - you will get annual and sick leave, but you will loose the sick leave if you dont get sick or switch companies. I have seen people work for same organization for 20+ yrs and save a lot of sick leave, which could help when you are getting older. annual leave can be cashed out and again it grows as your salary grows.

    It really depends if you want to stick to one organization or move arround etc.

    • opt on 07/04/2026 - 11:40

      save a lot of sick leave, which could help when you are getting older.

      Sick leave can also be taken as carer’s leave to care for a child/immediate family member.

  • Geoff01 on 07/04/2026 - 09:15

    Your situation determines your benefits. You will get higher super,higher overtime on your casual wage. You will also pay 30% more tax on the extra as well. Take off your annual leave,sick leave( which a lot of people don't use) public holidays,extra tax your probably not that far ahead vs the security of permanent. Increased super is one benefit no-one here has mentioned.

  • Billy24 on 07/04/2026 - 09:28

    Most major lenders will give you a home loan after 12 months of casual employment, I think CBA is 6 months if you need it.

    Am casual effectively functioning as a contractor/consultant and have just financed a construction loan and no issues on the employment side of things

    Credit cards also, have applied and been approved for an Amex and an ANZ card recently with no issues

    Not saying that casual is the way to go, but its not correct that you cant get a home loan being casual

    • Muppet Detector on 07/04/2026 - 09:33

      So, you are self employed then?

    • jhlook on 07/04/2026 - 18:20

      NAB also does home loans after a person has been a casual for 6 months

  • ReaperX22 on 07/04/2026 - 09:51

    Permanent. Always.

    I'd even prefer permanent part time over casual with the same or similar hours. Yes it pays less, til you factor in sick, annual, the ability to not be dropped as easily.. I guess there's an inherent issue with some part time is they can roster you minimum hours sometimes as the hours vary.. So as long as you'd get a consistent roster or whatever yeah I'd do part time perm over casual too..

    But I also haven't worked casual since 2014..

  • wetsandwich on 07/04/2026 - 11:01

    Unless you are some sort of uni student, full time permanent is the only option for a grown up. Casual and insecure stuff costs far more than you 'gain', once you get sick or they cut back on hours. And good luck getting any loan.

  • Parentheses on 07/04/2026 - 11:08

    It's pretty much 100% dependent on the job you are working and your life stage. When I was at uni, casual was the name of the game, because I wanted the flexibility to tell work to get stuffed when I was busy. When I was working in software engineering roles, consulting was the way to go for an extra 0 on the pay - nothing at all to do with casual loading, more because we were being competed over and only people who weren't in that high demand were taking permanent roles. Now that I've faux-retired to software research having a permanent role is a no-brainer, cause it's about long term track record building. In unstable times (like we are in right now) the calculus shifts much more strongly to wanting permanent work. Cause the difference in pay is -100% if you're casual and the business sheds headcount.

    people have told me banks won't give you a home loan if you are casual

    It's very difficult to get ANY major loan if you are casual. You can still get personal and car loans, but they'll be ones with crazy high interest rates. Note that self-employed (including consulting) is perceived much better to casual in this respect.

    • zfind on 07/04/2026 - 13:46

      Anecdotal but I’ve had no problems accessing debt as a casual, but my income is high and have a stable job. Including home loan, refinance and a plethora of credit cards.

  • 2esc on 07/04/2026 - 11:35

    Permanent is the way to go for home loan etc.

    I can however see casual wage working if in a relationship one person was permanent wages and the other partner on casual.

  • sandman20104159 on 07/04/2026 - 13:18

    Full Time Permanent, hands down. who doesnt want sick and public holiday pay!?

  • zfind on 07/04/2026 - 13:44

    Full time casual, am living it now. I get to receive entitlements as cash that I can use or invest now rather than banking with my employer. Also I win if I don’t get sick as those entitlements would otherwise go to waste.

    Yes it sucks when you’re not getting paid on holiday but that’s only psychological as you’ve already received it.

    A further benefit is (technically) my employer can’t refuse if I ask for time off, only can discuss it in terms of the business’ needs.

    Edit: I also get paid for my overtime work whereas my permanent colleagues are doing it for free. When I need extra cash I just work OT. Super flexible. Industry (job) specific though of course.

  • WorstAgreeableRadish on 07/04/2026 - 14:54

    25% more for casual work is not the same as 25% less for permanent work.

    1000 + 25% = 1250
    1250 - 25% = 937.5

  • Checkmate3023 on 07/04/2026 - 15:47

    Id take the full time gig assuming i intended on staying on beyond the next 12months

    However im my current field you probably get about 40-80% less working full time opposed contracting yourself out

    So i have choosen to do contract/casual work but if the gap was 30% or less id take full time

  • helldoodle on 07/04/2026 - 23:25

    all repends on the job, full time benifets are now worth between 32-37% more, depending on the AWARD/EBA

    keep in mind the 25% is only paid on your base pay not any extra % like public holiday or sunday rates

  • brad1-8tsi on 08/04/2026 - 14:29

    My last 3 jobs were casual. All ended on 24 hours notice with a text "We've run out of money/work. Thanks for your contribution and all the best in your endeavours." It was fine for me as I was just working for some beer money.

    Choose permanent if you need stability.

    • Checkmate3023 on 10/04/2026 - 14:22

      “You would earn 1.5 to 1.7 times more (as a freelancer) than what you probably would otherwise (as an employee),’’ Mr Oberholzer said."

      can say this is true for a lot of industries

  • Derrick Crane on 06/04/2026 - 17:21
    -2

    No

    • R4 on 07/04/2026 - 10:31
      +4

      maths

    • SBOB on 06/04/2026 - 16:57
      +2

      Has anyone done the math on income alone?

      taking a 25% reduction, compared to casual employment.

      seems you already have

    • Hardlyworkin on 06/04/2026 - 20:44
      +2

      Not buying insurance is far cheaper….until it isn't.

    • SlickMick on 08/04/2026 - 13:31

      I just factor that I miss 4 weeks annual leave, 2 weeks sick leave, and about 2 weeks public holidays.
      With 25% increase in wage, you'd less than 6% ahead.

      To me, not worth it. If you don't intend taking leave it would be more attractive.

      Another factor is how a casual is treated in an event like covid. I was in a casual role during covid, and the company split everyone into 2 teams: one team would work on site, the other work from home for a week, then swap. Casuals didn't get to work from home - they were only employed alternate weeks.

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