Health Services Award Pay Rates 2026-27: Both Streams

The Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (MA000027) sets minimum rates in two separate clauses and this page publishes both. Clause 16, support services employees, runs from $26.97 an hour and $1,024.70 a week at level 1 up to $39.42 an hour at level 9 pay point 3, 21 rates in three tables. Clause 17, health professional employees, runs from $30.89 an hour and $1,174.00 a week at level 1 pay point 1 up to $71.19 an hour at level 4 pay point 4, 19 pay points across four levels. That is 40 rates in total, all effective from 1 July 2026.

It depends which of the award's two rates clauses covers the work, and this is where published figures for this award most often go wrong. A support services employee at level 1 under clause 16 is paid $1,024.70 a week and $26.97 an hour. A health professional employee at level 1 pay point 1 under clause 17 is paid $1,174.00 a week and $30.89 an hour. Both are called level 1 and they are $3.92 an hour apart. Quoting $30.89 as the award's level 1 rate, or $26.97 as a health professional's, is the same error in opposite directions. Both tables are above, each under its own clause.

Check your state award or enterprise agreement first, because for most allied health workers in Australia this award is not the instrument that applies. Allied health is overwhelmingly employed by state and territory health services, under state awards and enterprise agreements that pay above the federal floor, and no figure for any of those is published here. There is no separate allied health modern award. If you are employed in the national system, in private practice for instance, the clause 17 health professional ladder above is the floor: $30.89 an hour at level 1 pay point 1, $32.09 at pay point 2, up to $71.19 an hour at level 4 pay point 4.

The award's classification definitions decide it, and the dividing line is the qualification the role is entered on. The clause 17 level 1 pay points are named by that qualification: Pay point 1 (UG 2 qualification), Pay point 2 (3 year degree entry), Pay point 3 (4 year degree entry), Pay point 4 (Masters degree entry), Pay point 5 (PhD entry). The clause 16 support services levels are not defined that way. If the role required a relevant degree to start, read clause 17 first. At level 1 the two clauses are $3.92 an hour apart, so the classification is worth getting right before comparing a payslip against either table.

Yes, until 31 December 2026, which is the date in the award's own headings for both tables. A dental assistant is graded by qualification and industry experience from $29.11 to $31.67 an hour. A pathology collector is graded the same way, from $30.45 to $32.67 an hour. Those 8 rates are the ones on this page that are not cross-checked against Schedule C, 8 of 40, because the rates clause and the schedule name the same rows differently. They were read a second time by hand instead, and the award publishes no casual rate for any of them, so all 8 casual figures in those two tables are derived and marked. After 31 December 2026 both tables stop applying.

No. MA000027 is a national instrument, so a support services employee at level 1 is paid at least $26.97 an hour in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and every other state and territory. What differs is which instrument covers the employer. Most public hospital and state health service employees are covered by a state award or an enterprise agreement instead, such as the Health Professionals (State) Award in New South Wales or a Queensland Health practitioner agreement, and those pay above the federal floor. This page publishes no figure for any of them, so a public sector payslip should be checked against its own agreement rather than against these tables.