← Hospitality and personal services

ANZSCO 3621Skill level 4Hospitality and personal services

Florist

Design and produce floral arrangements for retail, weddings, events and corporate clients.

Salary

Cited figures from Job Outlook and QILT. ExamExplained does not publish predictive earnings or projections.

FigureAUDSource
Full-time weekly earnings$1100Job Outlook (2025-06-01)

How far does this stretch in each city?

What a florist actually does

Florists work in retail shop fronts, online studios, and on the road for weddings, events and corporate installations. A typical day starts before sunrise on the first stock day of the week with a trip to the Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane flower markets or a wholesale delivery. Back at the shop you process stems: stripping leaves, cutting on the bias, and standing flowers in buckets of conditioned water. Through the day you build orders: hand-tied bouquets, sympathy tributes, posies, table centres and large-scale installations. Phone and online orders need a quick consult with the customer, a card written by hand, and either a delivery run or a courier pickup before cut-off. Weddings and events are the peak earners, with set-up usually starting Friday afternoon and bump-out late Saturday night. Most florists work 35-45 hours a week with a peak around Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, debutante balls and the spring wedding season. Pay sits under the General Retail Industry Award 2020 for shop-based work, with weekend and public holiday penalty rates. The work is physical: lifting buckets of water, standing all day, and working with thorns, sap and cold water on your hands.

Typical tasks

  • Manage flower stock and care.
  • Design and assemble arrangements.
  • Coordinate event installations.

Skills you'll use

  • Floral design (hand-tied bouquets, sympathy tributes, installation work)
  • Flower identification, seasonality and conditioning
  • Wholesale flower buying at market or through suppliers
  • Customer service over the phone, in store and online
  • Costing and pricing arrangements to a profit margin
  • Wedding and event styling and installation
  • Wiring, taping and mechanics (foam, frogs, chicken wire)
  • Time-sensitive delivery scheduling

How to become one

  1. 1Finish Year 10 at minimum; Year 12 is helpful if you plan to run your own business
  2. 2Get a casual or part-time job in a busy florist shop to test if the work suits you
  3. 3Enrol in a Certificate III in Floristry as either an apprentice or a full-time TAFE student
  4. 4Step up to a Certificate IV in Floristry or a Diploma of Floristry if you want to lead a studio or freelance for weddings
  5. 5Build a portfolio of weddings and event work to use when you go out as a freelancer or open your own shop
  6. 6Get an ABN, public-liability insurance and a basic business set-up if you decide to go solo

Where you can work

  • High-street retail flower shops
  • Online and studio-only florists delivering by courier
  • Hotel and corporate weekly contract florists
  • Wedding and event-specialist florists
  • Funeral-tribute specialists working with funeral directors
  • Supermarket and convenience-store floristry counters
  • Self-employed sole trader running a market or pop-up stall
  • Flower wholesalers and growers' direct outlets

Career progression

Typical stages and salary bands. Salary figures are sourced from Job Outlook, QILT or industry bodies; brackets are 25th-75th percentile not absolute floors or ceilings.

  1. Apprentice or junior florist
    0-3 years
    Typical roles: Floristry apprentice, Junior florist, Shop assistant
    Salary band: $38,000 - $55,000 per year (source, sourced 2026-05-21)
  2. Qualified florist
    3-7 years
    Typical roles: Florist, Wedding and event florist, Studio florist
    Salary band: $55,000 - $70,000 per year (source, sourced 2026-05-21)
  3. Shop owner or lead designer
    7+ years
    Typical roles: Shop owner, Lead floral designer, Freelance event florist

Is this for you?

You might love this if

  • You enjoy designing with your hands and have a strong sense of colour and form
  • You can stand for long hours and lift wet buckets without complaint
  • You're a friendly customer-facing person who likes hearing personal stories
  • You can handle peak weeks of long hours around Mother's Day and Valentine's Day
  • You're organised enough to manage stock, orders and deliveries at once

This might not suit you if

  • You want to sit at a desk in a heated office
  • You hate early starts (4am market runs are real)
  • You're allergic to pollen or sensitive to wet hands all day
  • You want every Saturday off (weddings live on weekends)

Three ways in

Uni, TAFE and trade routes for florist. Not every career has all three; we only list pathways that actually lead to this occupation.

University

Bachelor degrees that lead to this career.

No direct undergraduate pathway. Consider postgraduate study after a related bachelor degree.

TAFE / VET

Nationally accredited Certificate and Diploma qualifications.

Apprenticeship trade

Earn while you learn through an Australian Apprenticeship.

Sources

ExamExplained does not publish predictive salary figures. For current Australian earnings data check Job Outlook directly. Career classifications follow the ABS ANZSCO 2022 release.