Healthcare Worker Pay Guide — Salaries, Penalties & Salary Packaging

Average Healthcare Salaries

Healthcare salaries in Australia vary enormously depending on profession, classification level, and years of experience. Nurses and midwives are covered by state-based enterprise agreements that specify salary bands, while doctors progress through a separate classification system. Allied health professionals (physiotherapists, pharmacists, occupational therapists) fall under their own award or enterprise agreement structures.

The nursing rows are not survey averages. They are the lowest and highest figures actually published in the six state pay scales below, and each one is traceable to a named enterprise agreement, certified agreement or state award. The doctor and allied health rows are indicative market bands and should be treated as such. Use the Average Salary Australia page to compare healthcare pay against other industries.

These figures are base salaries before penalty rates and allowances. Nurses and doctors who work regular evening, night and weekend shifts can earn 15–30% more than the base salary through penalty rate loadings.

Nurse & Midwife Pay by State

Most Australian nurses and midwives are paid under their state public health system's own agreement, not under the federal award — and the classification structures are genuinely different in each state. NSW pays a “Registered Nurse/Midwife 1st Year”, Queensland a “Nurse Grade 5 pay point 1”, Victoria an “RN Grade 2 Year 1”, Western Australia a “Registered Nurse/Midwife Level 1.1”, South Australia a “Registered Nurse/Midwife (Level 1) 1st increment” and Tasmania a “Registered Nurse Grade 3 Year 1”. They are all entry registered nurse roles and they are all on different money.

Pick your state for the full published scale — every grade, every increment, the instrument the figures come from, the effective date and the shift penalties.

Not published yet: Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. Their instruments have not been read, and we would rather publish nothing than a guess.

The Nurses Award 2020 — What It Is and Who It Actually Covers

The Nurses Award 2020 (award code MA000034) is the federal modern award for nurses. It is the single most searched-for nursing pay document in Australia, and it is also the most misread: it is a safety net, not a pay scale. It sets the minimum below which no nurse in the country may lawfully be paid. It does not describe what most nurses are paid.

If you work in a state public hospital, the award is almost certainly not your rate. Every state public health system has an enterprise agreement, certified agreement or state award that pays well above the floor — in some cases by more than $25,000 a year at the entry step. The award matters where no agreement applies: private hospitals, GP and specialist clinics, aged care, and some agency work.

The award has two rate streams, and the difference is large

Following the aged care work value case, the Nurses Award now carries two separate sets of minimum rates: one for employees other than aged care employees (clause 15.1) and a materially higher one for aged care employees (clause 15.3). An aged care registered nurse level 1 in their first year is on $1,571.60 a week against $1,219.50 for the general stream. Anyone quoting “the Nurses Award rate” without saying which stream they mean is quoting a number you cannot use.

Is the “Nurses Award 2020” the same thing as the “Nurses Award”?

Yes. “Nurses Award 2020” is the award's formal name, made in 2020 as part of the modern award review; it is the same instrument people mean when they search for the “nurses award”. Its rates change most years — the general stream was last varied for 1 July 2026 and the aged care stream for 1 August 2026 — so any figure you find without an operative date attached is worthless.

Under the award, ordinary hours on a Saturday pay 150% and on a Sunday 175%; a weekday afternoon shift attracts 12.5% and a weekday night shift 15%. State agreements generally pay more than that, which is a second reason not to use award penalties to check a public hospital payslip. See the state pages above for the loadings that actually apply to you, and the overtime and penalty rates guide for how loadings stack.

Penalty Rates & Shift Allowances

Healthcare workers, particularly nurses and midwives, are paid significant loadings for working outside standard business hours. These are set in each state's own instrument, and they do not follow a common structure — a claim you will see made often and which the table below disproves. Night shift is worth 20% in NSW, 20% in Queensland, 20.5% in South Australia, a flat dollar allowance per shift in Victoria and 35% in Western Australia. Anyone quoting one national set of nursing penalty rates is quoting a number that is wrong in at least four states.

Every cell above is quoted from a named clause of the instrument that sets it — the clause numbers are on the state pages. Blank cells are gaps in what the employer publishes, not zeroes. Weekend rates generally replace the shift loading rather than stacking on top of it, which is the single most common payslip misunderstanding in nursing. See the Overtime Pay Calculator to model a specific roster and the overtime and penalty rates guide for how loadings interact.

Salary Packaging for Health Workers

Salary packaging (also called salary sacrifice) is one of the most valuable financial benefits available to healthcare workers employed in public hospitals and not-for-profit health organisations. It allows you to pay for certain expenses with pre-tax dollars, reducing your taxable income and increasing your take-home pay.

Public Hospital FBT Exemption

Public hospital employees can salary package up to $15,900 per FBT year for general living expenses (rent, mortgage repayments, credit card payments, school fees) without incurring fringe benefits tax. This is a significant advantage over private sector workers, who cannot access this exemption. On top of the $15,900, an additional $2,650 per year can be salary packaged for meal entertainment and holiday accommodation expenses.

Worked Example: Salary Packaging Impact

Consider a registered nurse earning $85,000 per year who salary packages the full $15,900 plus $2,650 meal entertainment:

That is an extra $214 per fortnight in take-home pay simply by structuring existing expenses through salary packaging. Read the full Salary Packaging Guide for eligibility criteria and step-by-step setup instructions.

Take-Home Pay Examples

Take-home pay for FY2026-27 on base salary before penalty rates, worked out with the same engine that drives the site's calculators. Actual take-home is higher for anyone doing shift work. The nursing rows use verified published pay scales; tap a gross figure for the full breakdown.

Frequently Asked Questions