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Surcharge calculator for cafés, restaurants and salons
The public holiday or Sunday surcharge that covers your wages, and what card fees cost you now that card surcharges are banned.
The short answer
From 1 October 2026, you can’t add a surcharge for paying by Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos card.
Public holiday, weekend, booking and service surcharges are still allowed, and on a public holiday the extra wages are about a normal day’s wage bill again.
The first calculator works out the surcharge that covers them. The second shows what card fees cost you now, and the price rise that covers those.
Public holiday and Sunday surcharge calculator
List who works that day. The calculator prices the same hours at award rates on that day and on a weekday, adds super, and works out the surcharge that covers the difference from the day’s takings.
Including GST, before any surcharge.
- Wages and super on a public holiday
- $3,177
- The same hours on a weekday
- $1,553
- Extra that day
- $1,623
A surcharge of about 29.8% covers it. Rounded up, the wording for your menu is:
A surcharge of 30% applies on public holidays.
For comparison, after GST, a 10% surcharge brings in $545 and 15% brings in $818.
Award minimums for adults from 1 July 2026, daytime hours, super at 12%. Juniors, late nights and overtime are in the penalty rates calculator.
Card fees after the surcharge ban
Card fees didn’t go away on 1 October, only the surcharge that passed them on. Enter a month’s takings and your fee rate to see what you now absorb, and the price rise across everything you sell that would cover it.
Everything you sell, cash included.
Total card fees on your last statement divided by card sales. The figure here is only an example.
Leave at 0 if you never added one.
- Card fees a month
- $504
- Surcharges you no longer collect, a month
- $540
- Card fees a year
- $6,048
Raising prices by about 1.28% across everything you sell would leave you with the same money after card fees.
Fees as your provider charges them, before claiming GST credits. A price rise also lands on customers paying cash, so a cash discount is the other option.
Why a 10% surcharge rarely covers a public holiday
Under the Restaurant and Hospitality awards, a casual earns 250% on a public holiday against 125% on a weekday, twice as much. Full-time and part-time staff earn 225% against 100%. So the extra wages on a public holiday are one to one and a quarter times a normal day’s wage bill, and a surcharge only covers them if it is about as big a share of takings as wages normally are.
Take a café with a supervisor on 8 hours, two casual cooks on 8 hours and three casual floor staff on 6 hours, taking $6,000 on the day. On a public holiday its wages and super come to $3,177, against $1,553 for the same hours on a weekday. A 15% surcharge brings in $818 after GST, which covers 50% of the $1,623 extra.
| Day | Extra cost | Surcharge needed |
|---|---|---|
| Public holiday | $1,623 | 29.8% |
| Sunday | $395 | 7.2% |
| Saturday | $325 | 6% |
Sundays and Saturdays cost far less extra, and under the Restaurant Industry Award casuals up to Level 2 get the same 150% on both days. Every venue’s mix is different, which is what the calculator is for. For a single shift at any level, age or time of night, use the penalty rates calculator.
What changed on 1 October 2026
- No surcharge for paying with Visa, Mastercard, American Express or eftpos credit, debit or prepaid cards (ACCC). The Reserve Bank also lists PayPal and UnionPay as removing surcharges.
- Still allowed: weekend surcharges, public holiday surcharges, booking fees and service fees (Reserve Bank FAQ), and delivery fees (ACCC).
- You can raise prices to cover card fees. You can’t say the rise is because of the surcharge change if it also covers other costs: the ACCC’s own example is a salon doing exactly that.
- You can give a discount for paying a particular way, such as cash or PayID, if it’s clearly shown beforehand and the full price is shown prominently (ACCC).
- If your terminal or point of sale added a card surcharge automatically, check it is switched off.
Ask your provider about the lower caps
Also from 1 October 2026, the Reserve Bank lowered the caps on interchange, the wholesale fee that sits inside what your card provider charges you. The debit and prepaid cap fell from 10 cents or 0.2% to 8 cents or 0.16% a transaction, and the consumer credit cap from 0.8% to 0.3% of the transaction. The Reserve Bank notes that small businesses tend to pay interchange at or near the caps, so the change matters most to them. Your provider sets the rest of the fee: check your next statement against the last one, and ask whether the lower caps have reached your rate.
The menu rule for day surcharges
A café or restaurant can show a public holiday or Sunday surcharge as a percentage, under regulation 80A of the Competition and Consumer Regulations 2010, if the menu says “A surcharge of [percentage] applies on [the day or days]” at least as prominently as its most prominent price. The exemption covers food and drink only. A salon or clinic has to show the full price for the day instead. The details, with wording to copy, are in public holiday surcharges: the rules.
How the calculators work
- Wages are award minimums for adults from 1 July 2026, at daytime rates, from the same rates as the penalty rates calculator. Late-night amounts, juniors, minimum engagements and overtime aren’t included.
- “A weekday” means Monday to Friday daytime hours, which the three awards price the same.
- Super is added at 12% on both days, because penalty rates count toward it.
- Takings include GST. If you’re registered for GST, one eleventh of the surcharge is GST, so the surcharge is grossed up to cover the wages after it.
- The suggested menu wording rounds the surcharge up to a whole percent.
- The price rise for card fees is the one that leaves your takings, after card fees, where they were. GST affects the fees and the extra income equally, so it cancels out.
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Where these figures come from
The card changes are from the Reserve Bank’s March 2026 conclusions paper and its FAQ, and the ACCC’s guidance for businesses on card surcharges, read on 1 October 2026. The menu rule is regulation 80A. Wage rates are from each award’s published text, read the same day. This is general information, not legal or financial advice.