Award vs Non-Award Workers: How WA Weekly Compensation Payments Are Now Calculated

If you are looking for the difference between award and non-award workers for WA workers compensation, here is the short answer: since 1 July 2024, that distinction no longer determines how your weekly payments are calculated. The Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023 (WA) replaced the old two-track system with a single set of rules — called income compensation — that applies to every worker. This article explains what changed, and how weekly payments are calculated under the current law.

The Old Law: Why the Distinction Used to Matter

Under the former Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981, an injured worker’s weekly payments depended on whether an industrial award applied to their employment. A non-award worker was paid at their pre-injury rate for the first 13 weeks, after which payments stepped down to 85%. An award worker generally continued to receive their full award-based rate without that step-down. Over a long claim, being on one side of the line or the other could change the value of weekly payments by tens of thousands of dollars — and disputes about whether an award applied were common. That framework was repealed on 1 July 2024.

The Current Law: Income Compensation for Every Worker

Step 1 — Your Pre-Injury Weekly Rate of Income

Your payments are based on your pre-injury weekly rate of income: your average weekly rate of earnings in the position you held on the day of the injury, generally calculated over the year ending the day before the injury (or over the shorter period you actually held the position, if less than a year). If you held two or more jobs at the time of the injury, the average weekly earnings from each are added together. The monetary value of board and lodging provided by your employer counts as earnings, and any period of unpaid leave is excluded from the calculation.

Step 2 — 100% for the First 26 Weeks, Then 85%

For a worker who is totally incapacitated for work, income compensation is paid at:

• 100% of the pre-injury weekly rate of income for the first 26 weeks for which income compensation is payable; and
• 85% of the pre-injury weekly rate of income after those first 26 weeks.

This step-down now applies to everyone — the old rule that award workers avoided it is gone. If your base rate of pay would have increased after your injury (for example, an award or agreement pay rise), your payments are adjusted to reflect that percentage increase — although changes in overtime, bonuses or allowances are not passed through.

Step 3 — The Maximum and Minimum Weekly Rates

Weekly payments are capped at the maximum weekly rate of income compensation, which is currently $3,293 and is indexed annually.

There is also a floor. Payments cannot fall below the greater of the minimum you would have been entitled to under the Minimum Conditions of Employment Act 1993, or the sum of your base award rate plus your regular additional earnings (such as regular over-award payments and regular overtime allowances). This is the one place your award still matters: it no longer drives the calculation of your payments, but it can protect you as a minimum. (The minimum does not apply in some special cases, including working directors, jockeys and workers who held two or more concurrent jobs — where only the statutory minimum applies.)

The Overall Limit

Income compensation is subject to an overall cap across the life of a claim — currently $284,448, indexed each 1 July. In limited circumstances an arbitrator can order additional income compensation beyond the general limit.

What This Means for You

• If you were injured on or after 1 July 2024, whether an award applies to your job does not change how your weekly payments are calculated — everyone gets 100% for the first 26 weeks of payable compensation and 85% after that, within the maximum and minimum above.
• Your payments should reflect your real average earnings in the year before the injury — including where you worked more than one job.
• If your injury occurred before 1 July 2024, transitional arrangements apply to how the new Act deals with existing claims — get advice about your specific situation.

If you think your weekly payments have been calculated on the wrong basis — the wrong pre-injury rate, a step-down applied too early, or a payment below the minimum — Foyle Legal can review your payments. You can find out more at the Foyle Legal workers compensation page or the Foyle Legal workers compensation FAQ.

If you have made a claim for workers compensation in Perth WA and would like to discuss it further you can contact Foyle Legal on 0408 727 343.

Your first consultation is completely obligation free, and we represent workplace injury workers on No Win No Fee basis.