The ARA (Australian Retailers Association) has given out a warning to retailers to speed up the new award salary payments, as the Fair Work Ombudsman starts its rounds on randomly picked stores across Australia.

Russell Zimmerman, executive director of the Australian Retailers Association, said they are receiving about 250 calls each day from bemused retailers and much more are making use of ARA's salary transition tools to comprehend the sophisticated revisions to the retail awards.

"The new retail award is already in operation, so if retailers haven't already sought advice from their employer association about new hourly rates, casual loadings, penalties and allowances, they need to do so now," Mr. Zimmerman said.

"With the Fair Work Ombudsman out and about targeting the retail sector with visits to over 1500 randomly selected stores across the country, retailers need to be on the front foot.

"The five-year incremental transition between old state-based awards and the modern award system, also taking into account the new minimum wage, is a highly complex process and for retailers to be certain they are complying with new wage laws they should be seeking expert help," he said in a statement.

The ARA has created several online salary transition tools that determine which category from the old awards associate with the new awards categories; obligations of wage rates for each territory and state by category; the type of loading, allowance, and penalty for each retail salary classification in the General Retail Industry Award; and some FAQs with set examples and solutions.