# Commission-only pay threshold rises to $72,938 as award lifts 4.75%
From 1 July 2026 Real Estate Industry Award rates rise 4.75 per cent and the income test for commission-only employment moves to $72,938, the employers' federation says.
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The income a salesperson must have earned before an agency can employ them on commission alone rises to $72,938 gross from 1 July 2026, according to the Real Estate Employers' Federation. Its chief executive, Bryan Wilcox, set out the figure in an article published by Real Estate Business on 29 June 2026, alongside a 4.75 per cent increase in minimum rates under the Real Estate Industry Award.
Both changes flow from the Fair Work Commission's Annual Wage Review decision of 2 June 2026. They apply across Australia, and they reach every Queensland agency that employs sales or property management staff under the award, whether those staff are paid a wage, a wage plus commission, or commission only.
4.75%rise in award minimum rates
$72,938commission-only income threshold, 2026-27
$3,304increase on the 2025-26 threshold
Real Estate Employers' Federation in Real Estate Business, 29 June 2026 and 27 June 2025; the increase is the difference between $72,938 and $69,634.
## What changes on 1 July
The wage review is the annual decision in which an expert panel of the Fair Work Commission sets the national minimum wage and adjusts the minimum rates in every modern award. The law firm Clayton Utz, summarising the 2026 decision, reports that the panel lifted modern award minimum wages by 4.75 per cent and the national minimum wage by 6 per cent, to $1,004.90 a week or $26.44 an hour. The new rates apply from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 July 2026.
The Real Estate Industry Award is one of those modern awards. Mr Wilcox writes that its minimum rates rise by the same 4.75 per cent. The award's wage tables cover four classification levels, from an associate in the first year of work through to a salesperson or property manager in charge of an office, and the percentage applies to each of them.
The increase is larger than the previous year's. Real Estate Business reported on 27 June 2025 that award rates rose 3.5 per cent on 1 July 2025, at the same time as the superannuation guarantee moved from 11.5 to 12 per cent. Clayton Utz notes that the 2026 decision was made against capacity constraints in the economy and elevated inflation, and that about 2.8 million employees, or 21.1 per cent of the workforce, are paid at rates the review sets.
## How the threshold is built
The commission-only figure is not decided separately. It is a product of the award's wage table, which is why it moves every July.
The award allows an employer and an employee to agree that the employee will be paid entirely by commission, with no weekly wage, but only if a list of conditions is met. One of them is an income test. The employee must be able to show remuneration, counting commission and bonuses and leaving out superannuation, of at least 125 per cent of the annualised minimum rate for their classification. The award calls this the minimum income threshold amount.
Because the threshold is a fixed multiple of an award rate, any rise in the rate lifts it in step. The federation put the threshold at $69,634 for 2025-26 and puts it at $72,938 for 2026-27. The difference is $3,304, an increase of about 4.7 per cent, which matches the wage review once rounding in the weekly rates is allowed for.
The commission-only test before and after 1 JulyReal Estate Industry Award
Measure
2025-26
2026-27
Annual increase in award minimum rates
3.5%
4.75%
Minimum income threshold amount
$69,634
$72,938
Multiple of the classification rate
125%
125%
Minimum commission-only rate
31.5% of employer's gross commission
31.5% of employer's gross commission
Real Estate Employers' Federation in Real Estate Business, 27 June 2025 and 29 June 2026; Real Estate Industry Award 2020, commission-only clause.
The income is measured over any consecutive 12 months within the three years before the agreement is made. The award accepts payment summaries, pay slips, commission statements or sales records as evidence, and an employer may ask for a statutory declaration.
## Who can be paid by commission alone
The income test sits beside several others. Under the award, a commission-only employee must be classified at Real Estate Employee Level 2 or above, must hold a real estate agent's licence or the equivalent authority under State or Territory law, must have at least 12 consecutive months of experience in property sales or leasing within the previous three years, and must be at least 21 years old.
The arrangement is closed to part-time and casual employees, to juniors, to trainees and to Level 1 associates. In practice that reserves it for established salespeople with a record of earnings, and keeps newcomers on a wage while they build one.
The award also sets a floor under the commission itself. A commission-only employee must receive at least 31.5 per cent of the employer's gross commission on a sale. Where more than one employee worked on a transaction, each is entitled to the minimum rate on the part attributed to them. Agencies are free to pay a larger share, and many do; the award states the least that can be agreed.
## Why the figure matters after the agreement is signed
The threshold is not only an entry test. The award requires the employer to review a commission-only employee's gross income every year. If the income has fallen below the threshold, the commission-only arrangement must come to an end and the employee moves to a wage.
That is the reason a rise matters to people already working this way. An agent whose commission income last year sat between $69,634 and $72,938 met the old test and does not meet the new one. Mr Wilcox advises agencies to review existing agreements and "ensure they continue to satisfy the legislative requirements".
The design dates from a review of the award decided in 2017. Elite Agent reported on 24 August 2017, in an explanation written by Mr Wilcox, that the Fair Work Commission lifted the threshold from 110 to 125 per cent of the award rate, and redefined the minimum commission-only share as 31.5 per cent of gross commission in place of 35 per cent of net commission. The Commission declined at the time to add a top-up payment for commission-only employees whose earnings fell short. It chose the annual review instead: an arrangement that no longer meets the test stops, with no back payment required.
## What it means for agents and agencies
For a salesperson on a wage, the change is direct. The minimum weekly rate for their level rises 4.75 per cent from the first full pay period in July. Commission and bonus arrangements above the minimum are a matter for each employment agreement, and the award requires that any method or formula for calculating commission be recorded in writing.
For an agent paid by commission alone, nothing changes in how each sale is paid. What changes is the bar they must have cleared, and must keep clearing, to stay on that footing. The award entitles them to paid leave at no less than the base rate for their classification, which is the weekly minimum wage for their level, so that figure rises too.
For principals, the federation's article reads as a checklist. Award rates and allowances need updating in payroll. Each commission-only agreement needs to be tested against $72,938. And Mr Wilcox encourages employers to use the date to look at employment agreements, remuneration structures and position descriptions as a whole.
In Queensland, where the Real Estate Institute of Queensland has in past years urged principals to review employment contracts after each wage decision, the practical burden falls hardest on small offices. A two-partner agency with three salespeople has no payroll department, and its remuneration mix may include a wage earner, a wage-plus-commission agent and a commission-only agent in the same room.
## Other changes arriving the same day
The award increase does not arrive alone. Mr Wilcox lists two further changes that take effect on 1 July 2026.
The first is payday super. Superannuation contributions move from a quarterly deadline to one tied to each pay run. He writes that the financial obligation is the same but its administration becomes considerably more frequent. For agencies that pay commission as sales settle, the timing of super follows the timing of pay.
The second is the extension of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing law to real estate businesses. Mr Wilcox notes that reporting entities must appoint a compliance officer, and that the appointment has employment consequences of its own, including how the role is documented in a position description.
Neither changes how much commission an agent is owed. Both add to what an agency must administer around it.
## The dates that follow
The new award rates and the new threshold apply from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. An agency that pays fortnightly may therefore see the change in a pay run that starts some days into the month.
The threshold then holds until the next wage review takes effect, which under the Commission's annual cycle falls on 1 July of the following year. The annual income review of each commission-only employee runs on its own calendar, from the date of each agreement.
The conditions themselves are unchanged by this year's decision. The 125 per cent multiple, the 31.5 per cent minimum share, the licence and experience requirements and the age limit are all terms of the award, and altering any of them would take a separate application to the Fair Work Commission. What moved on 2 June was the wage table underneath them.