Radiologist Salary Australia 2026 — Earnings, Staff Specialist Pay and Take-Home

Which award or agreement sets a radiologist's pay?

Radiologists employed by state public hospitals are staff specialists, paid under their state's specialist award or agreement. The NSW, Victorian and Queensland scales are further down this page.

A radiologist employed by a private hospital, or by another employer in the settings the Medical Practitioners Award lists in clause 4.2, is a specialist under that award, with a minimum of $121,535 a year from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026 (cl 16.1(h)).

Private medical imaging practices are not among the settings clause 4.2 lists, and a radiologist who owns part of a practice or contracts to one is not an employee, so no award minimum applies to them.

Every Medical Practitioners Award level, from intern to senior principal specialist, is on our doctor pay rates page.

Radiologist salary in Australia: the ATO’s 2023–24 figures

Every year the ATO publishes what people earned, grouped by the occupation they put on their tax return. The 2023–24 figures (released on 17 June 2026) are the most recent. For occupation code 253917, Diagnostic and interventional radiologist, 2,525 people reported an average taxable income of $500,262 and a median of $430,250. Those who were paid a salary or wage had an average of $383,218 and a median of $271,780 from it.

Taxable income is everything a person earned — salary, business and contracting income, investments — less their deductions; the ATO’s averages and medians for it include everyone in the occupation, whatever hours they worked. Salary or wages is only what employers paid, and its figures cover only the people who were paid one. Neither is a full-time salary rate.

What full-time employed radiologists earn

Jobs and Skills Australia puts median full-time earnings for Other Medical Practitioners (ANZSCO 2539) at $5,013 a week ($101 an hour), about $260,676 a year. It also reports that 77% of people in the group work full-time hours, and that full-time workers average 46 hours a week.

This is the median for the whole ANZSCO group radiologists belong to, which also counts dermatologists, emergency medicine specialists, ophthalmologists, pathologists and other specialists — so it is not a radiologist figure, and it covers employees only.

Median weekly pay of full-time, non-managerial adult employees before tax and salary sacrifice, from the ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours (May 2025) as published by Jobs and Skills Australia. It reflects what employers actually pay, including people on enterprise agreements or above-award salaries, so it is a market figure, not a legal minimum.

Public hospital staff specialist salaries

A radiologist employed by a state public hospital is a staff specialist, paid on the same salary scale as every other specialty in that state. The scales below are the base salaries each state publishes, before the allowances most staff specialists also receive. We show only the states whose schedule we have read from the official source.

Salary packaging in a public hospital

Public hospital employees can package part of their salary before tax under a $17,000 grossed-up fringe benefits tax cap — about $9,010 a year of everyday expenses such as rent or a mortgage. On a $197,583 salary, packaging the full amount leaves about $4,121 more to spend each year, before the packaging provider’s fees. It lowers the taxable income on your payment summary but raises your reportable fringe benefits, which count towards HELP repayments and the Medicare levy surcharge. See the salary packaging guide for how it works.

Radiologist salary after tax

What each figure above leaves after income tax and the Medicare levy at 2026–27 rates, treating it as taxable income with no deductions. The ATO figures are from 2023–24, so this shows what the same income takes home today, not what it took home then.

2026–27 resident tax rates with the low income tax offset and the 2% Medicare levy, assuming private hospital cover (without it, the Medicare levy surcharge adds up to 1.5% at these incomes — check yours with the Medicare levy surcharge calculator). The last column is the compulsory repayment if you still have a HELP debt; it comes out of take-home pay on top of tax. Super is paid on top by an employer at 12%. Above $250,000 of income plus concessional super, an extra 15% applies to your super contributions — billed by the ATO after your tax return, not withheld from pay (see Division 293 tax).

For the full breakdown at the median, see take-home pay on $400,000 (the nearest step to $430,250), or put in your own salary below.

What a radiologist’s pay looks like on a payslip

An employed radiologist gets a payslip each pay day showing gross pay, the PAYG tax withheld (which already allows for the Medicare levy), any HELP repayment withheld, and the super the employer paid on top. Check the tax withheld against the tax withheld calculator and each line against understanding your payslip.

In NSW, the private practice level a staff specialist chooses decides which allowances are paid on top of base salary: the 17.4% special allowance at Levels 1 to 4, and a private practice allowance of 20%, 14% or 8% at Levels 1 to 3. Each is pay, taxed through PAYG withholding with the salary.

A radiologist who reports for a private practice as a contractor, or takes a share of a practice's profit as an owner, is not paid through payroll: tax on that income is paid through PAYG instalments or at tax time.

Contracting rather than employed? Compare the two with the contractor pay calculator.

What this page does not show

• State figures for radiologists alone: the ATO's state table groups them with other specialists.
• Staff specialist scales for WA, SA, Tasmania, the ACT and the NT, and Queensland's L22 to L29, which we have not read from an official source.
• Private radiology practice salaries and contractor rates: no primary source publishes them.
• Rights of private practice earnings and visiting medical officer arrangements, which depend on the individual arrangement.

Radiologist salary questions

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