What a registered nurse earns in Victoria
On the Registered Nurse Grade 2 scale, the bottom step (Year 1 (graduate year)) pays $84,188 a year and the top step (Year 8) pays $107,510. Those annual figures are weekly rate x 52, which is what 26 fortnightly pays comes to — the agreement publishes weekly and hourly, not annual. Base pay is only part of the picture: nursing is a rostered, round-the-clock job, and shift and weekend loadings routinely add a double-digit percentage on top.
Those buttons go to the nearest published take-home page, which is rounded to the closest $5,000. For your exact figure — including HECS-HELP, salary packaging and extra super — use the take-home pay calculator.
What makes VIC different
- Victoria pays a flat dollar night shift allowance rather than a percentage — $114.00 a shift Monday to Thursday, $196.10 on Sunday nights.
- Weekend ordinary hours are time and a half from midnight Friday to midnight Sunday, the same rate on both days.
- Grade 2 Year 1 is the graduate year, and its rate does not move at every step — the agreement repeats it across consecutive wage columns.
- The current column is the first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026; the next rise lands on 30 November 2026.
Victorian public health services nursing and midwifery pay scales
Each table below uses the classification names the instrument itself prints. Classifications are not the same between states and this page does not translate them: a Queensland Nurse Grade 5 and a Tasmanian Registered Nurse Grade 3 are both entry registered nurse roles, but they are not the same classification and they are not on the same money.
Registered nurses and midwives
Registered Nurse Grade 2(RN Grade 2 Year 1–8)
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 — rates effective first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | A year (tap for after tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 (graduate year) | $1,619.00 | $42.61 | $84,188 — see take-home pay on $85,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 2 | $1,665.00 | $43.82 | $86,580 — see take-home pay on $85,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 3 | $1,717.00 | $45.18 | $89,284 — see take-home pay on $90,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 4 | $1,773.90 | $46.68 | $92,243 — see take-home pay on $90,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 5 | $1,836.90 | $48.34 | $95,519 — see take-home pay on $95,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 6 | $1,900.00 | $50.00 | $98,800 — see take-home pay on $100,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 7 | $1,968.20 | $51.79 | $102,346 — see take-home pay on $100,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 8 | $2,067.50 | $54.41 | $107,510 — see take-home pay on $110,000(weekly x 52) |
Grade 2 is the base registered nurse grade in Victoria. Grade 1 is a historical classification and does not appear in the current wage table.
Midwives (separate scale)
Midwife Grade 2(Midwife Gr 2 Yr 1–8)
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 — rates effective first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | A year (tap for after tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 (graduate year) | $1,619.00 | $42.61 | $84,188 — see take-home pay on $85,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 2 | $1,665.00 | $43.82 | $86,580 — see take-home pay on $85,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 3 | $1,717.00 | $45.18 | $89,284 — see take-home pay on $90,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 4 | $1,773.90 | $46.68 | $92,243 — see take-home pay on $90,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 5 | $1,836.90 | $48.34 | $95,519 — see take-home pay on $95,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 6 | $1,900.00 | $50.00 | $98,800 — see take-home pay on $100,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 7 | $1,968.20 | $51.79 | $102,346 — see take-home pay on $100,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 8 | $2,067.50 | $54.41 | $107,510 — see take-home pay on $110,000(weekly x 52) |
Victoria gives midwives their own classification codes, but the base rate is identical to the equivalent RN Grade 2 year. Endorsed midwife and sole midwife allowances are paid on top under Appendix 2 Part 2.
Enrolled nurses
Enrolled Nurse Level 1(EN 1.1–1.6)
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 — rates effective first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | A year (tap for after tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $1,291.60 | $33.99 | $67,163 — see take-home pay on $65,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 2 | $1,318.10 | $34.69 | $68,541 — see take-home pay on $70,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 3 | $1,344.20 | $35.37 | $69,898 — see take-home pay on $70,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 4 | $1,370.90 | $36.08 | $71,287 — see take-home pay on $70,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 5 | $1,423.50 | $37.46 | $74,022 — see take-home pay on $75,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 6 | $1,467.50 | $38.62 | $76,310 — see take-home pay on $75,000(weekly x 52) |
Enrolled Nurse Level 2 (Certificate IV)(EN 2.1–2.6)
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 — rates effective first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | A year (tap for after tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $1,387.10 | $36.50 | $72,129 — see take-home pay on $70,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 2 | $1,417.90 | $37.31 | $73,731 — see take-home pay on $75,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 3 | $1,449.20 | $38.14 | $75,358 — see take-home pay on $75,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 4 | $1,480.10 | $38.95 | $76,965 — see take-home pay on $75,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 5 | $1,511.00 | $39.76 | $78,572 — see take-home pay on $80,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 6 | $1,526.80 | $40.18 | $79,394 — see take-home pay on $80,000(weekly x 52) |
The Diploma stream starts one pay point higher: EN Level 2 Diploma Year 1 is paid at the Certificate IV Year 3 rate of $1,449.20 a week and tops out at $1,542.00 (EN 2.7).
Enrolled Nurse Level 3(EN 3.1–3.3)
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 — rates effective first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | A year (tap for after tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 3 (SA) | $1,619.40 | $42.62 | $84,209 — see take-home pay on $85,000(weekly x 52) |
| Level 3 with 4 routes | $1,677.40 | $44.14 | $87,225 — see take-home pay on $85,000(weekly x 52) |
| Level 3 with 5 routes | $1,704.50 | $44.86 | $88,634 — see take-home pay on $90,000(weekly x 52) |
Clinical nurse, specialist and consultant grades
Clinical Nurse Specialist / Clinical Midwife Specialist(CAPR 1)
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 — rates effective first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | A year (tap for after tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| All years | $2,151.50 | $56.62 | $111,878 — see take-home pay on $110,000(weekly x 52) |
Clinical Nurse Consultant / Clinical Midwife Consultant(CAPR 3.1–6)
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 — rates effective first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | A year (tap for after tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grade A | $2,340.30 | $61.59 | $121,696 — see take-home pay on $120,000(weekly x 52) |
| Grade B | $2,463.50 | $64.83 | $128,102 — see take-home pay on $130,000(weekly x 52) |
| Grade C Year 1 | $2,586.50 | $68.07 | $134,498 — see take-home pay on $135,000(weekly x 52) |
| Grade C Year 2 | $2,648.00 | $69.68 | $137,696 — see take-home pay on $140,000(weekly x 52) |
| Grade D | $3,079.50 | $81.04 | $160,134 — see take-home pay on $160,000(weekly x 52) |
| Grade E | $3,227.10 | $84.92 | $167,809 — see take-home pay on $170,000(weekly x 52) |
Unit managers and nursing management
Associate Nurse Unit Manager / Associate Midwife Unit Manager(ANUM / AMUM, NM 1.1–1.2)
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 — rates effective first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | A year (tap for after tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $2,315.70 | $60.94 | $120,416 — see take-home pay on $120,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 2 | $2,393.70 | $62.99 | $124,472 — see take-home pay on $125,000(weekly x 52) |
Nurse Unit Manager / Midwife Unit Manager(NUM, NM 2–4)
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 — rates effective first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | A year (tap for after tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | $2,636.80 | $69.39 | $137,114 — see take-home pay on $135,000(weekly x 52) |
| Level 2 | $2,732.80 | $71.92 | $142,106 — see take-home pay on $140,000(weekly x 52) |
| Level 3 | $2,829.10 | $74.45 | $147,113 — see take-home pay on $145,000(weekly x 52) |
Nurse practitioners
Nurse Practitioner(CAPR 7.1–7.2)
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 — rates effective first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | A year (tap for after tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $2,870.40 | $75.54 | $149,261 — see take-home pay on $150,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 2 | $2,924.90 | $76.97 | $152,095 — see take-home pay on $150,000(weekly x 52) |
Assistants in nursing and undergraduate students
Registered Undergraduate Student of Nursing / of Midwifery(RUSON / RUSOM)
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 — rates effective first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | A year (tap for after tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $1,319.40 | $34.72 | $68,609 — see take-home pay on $70,000(weekly x 52) |
Trainee Enrolled Nurse(TEN 1–2)
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 — rates effective first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | A year (tap for after tax) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $1,090.40 | $28.69 | $56,701 — see take-home pay on $55,000(weekly x 52) |
| Year 2 | $1,180.10 | $31.06 | $61,365 — see take-home pay on $60,000(weekly x 52) |
Which agreement covers you
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028
- Rates effective
- first full pay period on or after 11 May 2026
- Next change
- first full pay period on or after 30 November 2026 (+1.06%)
- Made or approved by
- Fair Work Commission
- Reference
- AE526693, matter AG2024/3737, approved 8 November 2024, [2024] FWCA 3908
Victorian public health is in the federal system, unlike NSW and Queensland. Appendix 2A prints eight dated wage columns running to 29 November 2027.
Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028 (AE526693)Nurses Award 2020 vs the VIC agreement
The Nurses Award 2020 (MA000034) is a federal minimum wage instrument, not a pay scale for public hospital staff. It sets the floor below which no nurse in Australia may lawfully be paid. Almost nobody in Victoria's public health system is actually paid on it, because the instrument above pays well over the floor. The award is what governs pay in private hospitals, GP and specialist clinics, aged care and agency work where no enterprise agreement applies.
| Rate | Weekly | Hourly | A full year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nurses Award 2020 — RN level 1 pay point 1 (the floor) | $1,219.50 | $32.09 | $63,414 |
| Nurses Award 2020 — RN level 1 pay point 8 | $1,465.50 | $38.57 | $76,206 |
| VIC public health — entry registered nurse (Year 1 (graduate year)) | — | — | $84,188 |
Award rates above are the minimum rates operative from 1 July 2026 (PR799315) for employees other than aged care employees. The award now carries a second, higher set of minimum rates for aged care nurses, operative from 1 August 2026 (PR812118) — an aged care registered nurse level 1 in their first year is on $1,571.60 a week, well above the $1,219.50 general rate. If someone quotes “the Nurses Award rate” without saying which of the two streams they mean, the number is unusable.
| Nurses Award 2020 penalty | Rate |
|---|---|
| Afternoon shift, Monday to FridayShift starting at or after 12 noon and finishing after 6.00 pm (clause 20.1(a)). | +12.5% |
| Night shift, Monday to FridayShift starting at or after 6.00 pm and finishing before 7.30 am (clause 20.1(b)). | +15% |
| Saturday ordinary hoursMidnight Friday to midnight Saturday (clause 21.1). | 150% |
| Sunday ordinary hoursMidnight Saturday to midnight Sunday (clause 21.2). | 175% |
| Casual loadingShift loadings are worked out on the minimum hourly rate, then the casual loading is added to the penalty rate (clause 11.4). | +25% |
Full award pay-guide style tables for other awards are on the award pay rates page.
Shift penalties and weekend loadings in Victoria
Nursing pay is penalty-driven. A nurse on a rotating roster with regular nights and weekends can be paid materially more than the base rate on this page, and the difference does not show up in any “average nurse salary” figure. Check these against your payslip line by line.
From clause 48 (weekends) and Appendix 2 Part 2 (shift allowances) of the Nurses and Midwives (Victorian Public Sector) Single Interest Employer Agreement 2024-2028.
| When you work | What it pays |
|---|---|
| All ordinary hours, midnight Friday to midnight SundayCasuals are paid 187.5%. Victoria pays the same weekend rate on Saturday and Sunday — most states pay more on Sunday. | Time and a half |
| Morning shift allowanceFlat dollar amount, not a percentage. | $36.60 a shift |
| Afternoon shift allowance | $36.60 a shift |
| Night shift allowance, Monday to Thursday | $114.00 a shift |
| Night shift allowance, Friday and Saturday | $126.60 a shift |
| Night shift allowance, Sunday | $196.10 a shift |
| Night shift allowance, casuals | $101.40 a shift |
| On call, Monday to Friday | $86.90 per 12-hour period |
| On call, Saturday | $130.50 per 12-hour period |
| On call, Sunday or weekday public holiday | $147.90 per 12-hour period |
Allowance amounts are the FFPPOOA 11 May 2026 column of Appendix 2 Part 2 and step up again on 23 November 2026. Public holiday and overtime rates sit in clauses 49 and 56 and are not reproduced here.
To model a specific roster — a fortnight of nights, a weekend block, an overtime call-back — use the overtime pay calculator, and read the overtime and penalty rates guide for how loadings interact with ordinary hours.
Moving up a step, and what each step is worth
Two different things move nursing pay. Within one classification you move through increments — usually annually for full-time staff, and by accumulated hours for part-time and casual staff. Between classifications you move by being appointed to a position, not by time served: nobody becomes a clinical nurse consultant or a unit manager by waiting.
The increments are worth checking. On the VIC registered nurse scale, the gap between consecutive steps is a real pay rise every year that you should be able to see land on a specific pay period. If your increment date has passed and the rate has not moved, that is a payroll question worth asking. Use the pay rise calculator to see what a step is worth after tax, and the back pay calculator if the increment was applied late.
Salary packaging, and why it changes your take-home but not your grade
Public hospital employees can salary package living expenses out of pre-tax income under the public hospital fringe benefits tax exemption. On a nursing salary that is worth several thousand dollars a year in extra take-home pay, and it is one of the largest single differences between public and private sector nursing pay once you look past the base rate.
What it does not do is change your classification, your increment or your gross pay. It changes how much of your gross pay is taxed. That distinction matters when you are comparing a public hospital offer against a private one, and when you are checking whether your payslip has the packaging deduction applied correctly. The mechanics, caps and eligibility are in the salary packaging guide; the salary sacrifice calculator shows the effect on a specific salary.
What this page does not show
This is a money page, so it says what it left out rather than filling gaps with estimates.
Published, but not reproduced here
These rows exist in the source and can be read at the link in the sources below:
- District nurse, community health nurse and community health midwife scales
- Research nurse and research midwife levels 1 to 4
- Hospital in the Home / Post Acute Care nurse levels
- Nurse and midwife educator, ADON and DON campus-size grades (NM 5A–9A)
- Bank (casual pool) classifications, which mirror the permanent rates
- Qualification, RIPRN, sole midwife, hyperbaric, lead apron and uniform allowances
Not published anywhere we could verify
Nothing below appears on this page in any form. No figure here has been estimated, interpolated or carried across from another state:
- Public holiday penalty rates and overtime multipliers
- The Victorian Public Mental Health Services Enterprise Agreement 2024-2028, which covers mental health nurses on a separate scale
Nurse pay in the other states
Every state runs its own classification structure and its own agreement. Comparing the raw numbers across states is misleading unless you also compare the classifications and the penalty structures.
Not yet published: Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory. Their instruments have not been read, and we would rather publish nothing than a guess.
Frequently asked questions
How these figures were checked▼
Every rate on this page was read on 28 August 2026 from the instrument or employer wage schedule linked below, and nothing was estimated, averaged or interpolated. Where a source publishes a rate for a classification we publish it; where it does not, the row is omitted and listed under “what this page does not show”.
Victorian public health services publishes no annual salary in this instrument. Annual figures here are weekly rate x 52, which is what 26 fortnightly pays comes to — the agreement publishes weekly and hourly, not annual, and the arithmetic is stated wherever a converted figure appears. Hourly rates are published by the source and are reproduced as printed.
Take-home links round to the nearest published $5,000 salary page and do not account for HECS-HELP, salary packaging, extra super or the Medicare levy surcharge. Use the take-home pay calculator for a figure specific to your circumstances. Nothing here is financial or industrial advice — check your own payslip and your own agreement.
Sources & References
- 1
- 2Nurses & Midwives Enterprise Agreement 2024-2028 and rates of pay— Western Health (a covered Victorian public health service)
- 3Nurses Award 2020 [MA000034] — consolidated award text— Fair Work Ombudsman
Last verified: 28 August 2026. Our content is based on the latest information from official Australian government sources.