Many casual workers aren't getting paid much more than their permanent counterparts, and some are even making less, new research has found.
The peak body for unions claims the research has "blown apart the myth" from the business lobby that casuals are paid a significant premium for the loss of leave rights and job security.
A casual loading, usually of 25 per cent, is provided for in many awards and agreements but the Australian Council of Trade Unions paper says many casuals aren't receiving that premium.
The ACTU used Australian Bureau of Statistics data analysed by Joshua Healy, a senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Workplace Leadership.
In 2016, he compared median hourly wages for workers based on ordinary earnings and hours of work in 10 occupations which have the highest casual density and account for half of all employees in the classification.
In most of these occupations, there is a casual wage premium of about four to five per cent.
