Kinds of work in Australia

Two people with the same job title can end up with completely different pay, leave, and security — because "job" actually covers a few legally different arrangements, each with its own trade-offs, and knowing which one you've been offered changes what you should check before you accept.

Work out which of the two broad categories below you're actually being offered, then check the specific type against what you were told.

Employee arrangements

• Casual — paid per hour worked, usually with a casual loading on top of the base rate to compensate for no guaranteed hours and no paid leave. Flexible around a timetable, but income varies week to week.
• Part-time / full-time (ongoing) — a set minimum number of hours, with paid annual and personal (sick) leave, and a notice period if either side ends it.
• Fixed-term contract — ongoing-style entitlements (pro-rata leave, notice), but for a set period or until a project ends, not indefinitely.
• Graduate programs — structured one-to-two year programs at larger employers, usually with rotations across teams; applications typically open around a year before you'd start, well before you finish your degree.
• Internships & clerkships — can be paid or unpaid, but unpaid is only lawful where it's a genuine, structured vocational placement tied to your course (for course credit). If you're doing real productive work with no course link, it should be paid — that's a Fair Work Ombudsman matter, not a judgement call for the employer to make unilaterally.

Not-quite-employee arrangements

• Independent contracting (ABN-based) — you invoice for your own business; no employee entitlements (leave, minimum wage protections in the usual sense), but more control over how and when you work. See the ABN guide before agreeing to this arrangement for what should be an ordinary job.
• Gig-platform work (food delivery, rideshare, and similar) — usually structured as independent contracting through the platform, though recent workplace-relations reforms have extended some minimum-standards protections to these "employee-like" workers. The protections are real but different from standard employee rights, so don't assume they're the same.
• Volunteering — not employment at all, no wages. See the volunteering guide.

If you're an international student, remember your visa's work-hour conditions apply regardless of which of these an offer is — check your visa grant notice, not just the offer letter.

The Fair Work Ombudsman's pay and conditions tools are the authoritative source for minimum wage and entitlements by award and arrangement — worth checking before you accept, and worth raising in a query if something in an offer doesn't match what you find there.