Note — general guidance only: Pricing, award conditions and customer expectations differ by venue. Confirm all figures with the Fair Work Commission, ACCC guidelines and your accountant before setting surcharges.



Anzac Day combines solemn dawn services with a hospitality rush once the march ends. Many clubs and cafés add a public-holiday surcharge to cover penalty-rate wages—yet few know whether the surcharge truly protects profit. Here’s a step-by-step method to find your real margin before April 25 arrives.

Why Public-Holiday Margins Shrink Fast

• Higher labour cost:
most hospitality classifications attract a 225 %-250 % penalty rate on public holidays.

• Reduced trading windows:
liquor restrictions after dawn services mean fewer operating hours to recover costs.

• Menu hack-jobs:
limited menus speed service but may lower average spend per head.



Five-Step Margin Calculator for Anzac Day

• Step 1 — Work out wage uplift:
multiply the standard hourly rate for each rostered employee by the applicable public-holiday multiplier (e.g., 2.5). Add superannuation and payroll tax where relevant.

• Step 2 — Set the surcharge:
most venues pick 10 %-15 % to stay palatable. Ensure the surcharge notice meets ACCC wording rules.

• Step 3 — Forecast patronage:
use last year’s POS data or the Sunday prior as a baseline, then adjust for local parade size and weather outlook.

• Step 4 — Model gross profit:
apply expected food-and-beverage sales, then add the surcharge income. Subtract the uplifted labour cost plus incremental public-holiday outgoings (extra cleaning, security).

• Step 5 — Stress-test scenarios:
run best-case and worst-case patronage models. If the worst case still breaks even, your surcharge is likely defensible.



Margin-Protection Tips

• Tighten cost of goods:
swap slow-moving draught for packaged beer with longer shelf life; waste reduction equals profit retention.

• Use a set-menu bundle:
fixed-price offers lift spend-per-head and simplify kitchen prep under penalty rates.

• Stage staff clock-ins:
overlap key roles only during peak waves after the march and two-up sessions.

• Track real-time wage-to-sales ratio:
monitor POS dashboards hourly; if sales lag, trim non-essential roles before overtime kicks in.



Final Bugle Call

Calculating the true margin on Anzac Day is more than slapping a 15 % surcharge on the till. Crunch the labour uplift, model sales scenarios and fine-tune menus now—so the ode to profit rings as clearly as the bugler at dawn.