Public Service Pay Scales in Australia

Pay scales by service

How the classification systems work

A public service classification does two things at once: it describes the work level, and it fixes the salary range attached to it. The three services build that structure differently.

• APS (federal). Classifications come from the Public Service Classification Rules 2000 — APS 1 to APS 6, then Executive Level 1 and 2, then Senior Executive Service Bands 1 to 3. The classification is service-wide but the salary is not: each agency’s enterprise agreement sets its own pay points inside the level.
• Victoria (VPS). Grades 1 to 7, each split into value ranges (3.1, 3.2 and so on) that reflect work value, and each value range split into progression steps. One agreement covers the whole service, so the table is the same wherever you work in the VPS.
• Queensland. Four streams — administrative (AO), professional (PO), technical (TO) and operational (OO) — each with numbered levels and numbered pay points inside them, written as AO3/2 or PO4/1. The award sets the floor and each entity’s certified agreement can sit above it.

Why there is no single APS salary

Search “APS 6 salary” and you will be given a number. Treat it carefully: the APS has around 102 agency enterprise agreements and each one sets its own pay points, so the honest answer is a range. Across the whole service at 31 December 2025 the median APS 6 base salary was $108,092, and 90% of APS 6 employees were paid between $97,316 and $115,199. One agency’s agreement — Treasury’s — pays APS 6 across four pay points from $105,260 to $127,521 from 12 March 2026. Both statements are true; neither is “the” APS 6 salary.

Service-wide bargaining has been narrowing the spread since 2023, which the APSC calls reducing pay fragmentation, and the same three-year package delivered 4%, 3.8% and 3.4% increases in March 2024, 2025 and 2026. Until alignment finishes, the number that matters to you is in your own agency’s agreement. The APS pay scales page sets out the service-wide ranges level by level and shows where to look for your agency.

Queensland has a milder version of the same problem, and the Queensland page keeps the two layers apart: the award rate that job advertisements quote, and one entity’s certified agreement schedule shown beside it. Victoria is the exception — one agreement, one table, published in Schedule C.

Comparing levels across services

There is no official mapping between APS levels, VPS grades and Queensland streams, and inventing one would be guesswork. What can be compared is the money. At the same point in the pay range:

• The median APS 6 base salary of $108,092 sits close to VPS pay point 4.1.4 ($107,681) and Queensland’s AO5/2 award rate ($107,721).
• The median EL 1 base salary of $135,701 sits between VPS 5.2.4 ($139,100) and Queensland’s AO7/2 award rate ($136,837).
• The top of the published VPS structure, $263,771 at 7.3.5, is above the median SES Band 1 base salary of $253,804 and below the median SES Band 2 of $321,888.

Similar salary does not mean similar work, and it does not mean similar total remuneration either: the same gross salary is worth more in the APS than in the VPS once the 15.4% employer superannuation contribution is counted.

What a band is worth after tax

Classification tables are gross figures. What lands in your account depends on income tax, the Medicare levy and any study loan repayment, and public service payrolls usually pay fortnightly, which is why the schedules are published as fortnightly rates in the first place. Every band on the jurisdiction pages links to the nearest take-home page, and these calculators take an exact salary:

• Income tax calculator — tax and Medicare levy on your exact classification salary.
• Take-home pay calculator — net pay weekly, fortnightly and monthly.
• Fortnightly pay calculator — matches the way public service pay points are published.
• Pay rise calculator — what an increment or an agreement increase is worth in the hand.
• Superannuation calculator — the effect of an employer rate above the guarantee.
• Understanding your payslip — where the classification and pay point appear on the payslip.

Services not covered yet

Six public services are not on this page. Rather than publish figures we have not read from the primary instrument, here is who sets them:

• NSW Public Service — NSW Public Service Commission and the Crown Employees (Public Sector — Salaries) Award.
• WA public sector — WA Public Sector Commission and the Public Service Award 1992.
• SA public sector — SA Office of the Commissioner for Public Sector Employment and the SA Public Sector Salaried Employees Interim Award.
• Tasmanian State Service — Tasmanian State Service Commissioner and the Tasmanian State Service Award.
• ACT Public Service — ACT Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate enterprise agreements.
• NT Public Sector — NT Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment enterprise agreements.

For state pay and tax questions in the meantime, the state calculators cover income tax and take-home pay wherever you work: Victoria, Queensland, NSW, WA, SA, Tasmania, ACT and NT.

Public service pay questions