VPS Salary Bands 2026 — Victorian Public Service Pay Scale (VPS 1–7)

Who sets these rates

Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2024. Grades and value ranges are defined in Schedule C, and the classification and value range standard descriptors sit alongside the salary table.

The agreement sets four annual increases of 3% each, operative from 1 May 2024, 1 May 2025, 1 May 2026 and 1 May 2027 — 12% over the life of the agreement. The rates on this page are the 1 May 2026 column, which applies until the 1 May 2027 increase.

Across the schedule below, published salaries run from $56,677 to $263,771. Every figure on this page is transcribed from the instrument named beside it and was checked on 28 August 2026. Where a level could not be read from a primary source it is left out and listed further down rather than estimated.

VPS pay scales

How progression between pay points works

Progression through the steps inside a value range is not automatic. Clause 31 of the agreement ties it to the annual performance cycle: you are eligible to be considered when you have been employed in the VPS continuously for 12 months at the end of the cycle, have been at your current classification and progression step for 12 months, and have a current performance and development plan in place.

If you are already on the top step of your grade or value range and you achieve progression, you receive a top of grade or value range payment instead — a lump sum of 1.5% of your salary as at 30 June of that performance cycle. It replaced a 1% payment from the cycle ending 30 June 2024.

Moving between value ranges (from 3.1 to 3.2, for example) is a different mechanism again. It follows a job resizing review that assesses the work the employer requires and your performance of it against the classification and value range standard descriptors — it is a change in work value, not a time-served increment. The agreement is explicit that progression steps themselves are not points of defined work value.

Because the value ranges overlap at the top, the last step of one grade can pay more than the first step of the next: VPS 4.1.7 pays $114,476 while VPS 5.1.1 pays $116,413, a gap of under $2,000, so a promotion from the top of grade 4 to the bottom of grade 5 is a smaller pay rise than a single step inside grade 4.

Superannuation on top of the band

The VPS agreement does not set an above-guarantee employer contribution. Clause 41.2 requires the employer to contribute enough to avoid the superannuation guarantee charge, which means the ordinary Superannuation Guarantee rate applies to VPS salaries. That is a real difference from the APS, where the median employer contribution is 15.4%: on a VPS 5 salary of about $128,000 the gap between the Superannuation Guarantee rate of 12% and 15.4% is worth about $4,350 a year in total remuneration.

The Superannuation Guarantee minimum is 12.0% from 1 July 2025, so a public sector employer contribution above that rate is real money you should count when you compare offers. Our superannuation calculator and superannuation guide work through the difference over a career.

What the band is worth after tax

The salaries above are gross. To check a payslip you need the figure after income tax, the Medicare levy and any study loan repayment. The mid-band link in each row opens the nearest published take-home page, and the calculators below take your exact salary:

• Income tax calculator — tax and Medicare levy on an exact salary.
• Take-home pay calculator — weekly, fortnightly and monthly net pay.
• Fortnightly pay calculator — most public service payrolls pay fortnightly, and the classification tables above are published as fortnightly rates.
• Pay rise calculator — what an increment or an agreement increase is worth in the hand.
• Salary sacrifice calculator — public sector employers commonly offer packaging; this shows the tax effect.
• Understanding your payslip — how a classification and pay point appear on the payslip itself.

What this page does not cover

These are the rates we could not read from a primary source. Nothing here is estimated in their place:

• Non-VPS-aligned adaptive structures in Section II of the agreement — custodial officers, sheriff's officers, fisheries officers and similar — which reference the VPS table but carry their own tables. Check the relevant appendix of the agreement rather than reading across from the VPS grade.
• The separate Legal Officer, Allied Health and Science adaptive structures at Schedules D, E and F. They use the same value range mechanism but publish their own salary points.
• Victorian public sector employers outside the VPS — Victoria Police, teachers, nurses and the wider public sector — bargain separate agreements and are not covered by Schedule C.
• Department head (Secretary) and Victorian Public Sector Commissioner remuneration, which the Tribunal sets separately from the SES bands.

VPS pay questions