Aged Care Worker Pay Rate 2026-27
Aged care work is split across two awards, and where the care is delivered decides which one applies. This page publishes both: the Aged Care Award for residential aged care, and the SCHADS Award home care scale for care in a person's own home.
Two awards, split by where the care happens
Residential aged care is covered by the Aged Care Award 2010 (MA000018). Care in a person’s own home is covered by the home care aged care scale of the SCHADS Award (MA000100). Check the setting before comparing a payslip against either table.
Neither award prints an hourly or casual rate. Every hourly figure here is the weekly rate divided by 38, and every casual figure adds the 25% loading to it.
The short answer
In a residential aged care home, a direct care employee is paid from $32.61 an hour at level 1, or $1,239.00 a week full-time, rising to $40.58 an hour at level 6. A casual at level 1 is paid $40.76 an hour, including the 25% casual loading. Care delivered in a client’s own home sits on the SCHADS Award home care scale instead, from $32.61 to $40.58 an hour.
Award floor
$32.61
Level 1, Introductory, an hour
Top of direct care
$40.58
Level 6, Team Leader, an hour
Casual, at the floor
$40.76
Includes the 25% loading
Take-home a year
$53,291
$2,050 a fortnight, at the floor
These are legal minimums set by a modern award, not a market average. This site does not publish average or advertised salaries, because the number that matters on a payslip is the floor an employer cannot go below. Many employers pay more, and an enterprise agreement can set a higher rate again.
Aged care rates, residential and home care.
Three tables from the Aged Care Award 2010 for residential care, then the home care scale from the SCHADS Award. Match your work to the setting first, then to your level.
Residential aged care, direct care
1 July 2026 · PR799299
Aged Care Award 2010 (MA000018), clause 14.3. Direct care employees in a residential aged care facility.
| Classification | Weekly | Hourly | Casual hourly | Take-home a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1, Introductory | $1,239.00 | $32.61 | $40.76* | $53,291 |
| Level 2, Direct Carer | $1,307.80 | $34.42 | $43.03* | $55,724 |
| Level 3, Qualified | $1,376.70 | $36.23 | $45.29* | $58,160 |
| Level 4, Senior | $1,431.80 | $37.68 | $47.10* | $60,108 |
| Level 5, Specialist | $1,486.80 | $39.13 | $48.91* | $62,053 |
| Level 6, Team Leader | $1,541.90 | $40.58 | $50.73* | $64,002 |
Residential aged care, general
1 July 2026 · PR799299
Clause 14.1 of the same award, for employees in the general stream rather than direct care.
| Classification | Weekly | Hourly | Casual hourly | Take-home a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | $1,055.40 | $27.77 | $34.71* | $46,799 |
| Level 2 | $1,097.20 | $28.87 | $36.09* | $48,277 |
| Level 3 | $1,139.40 | $29.98 | $37.48* | $49,769 |
| Level 4 | $1,152.80 | $30.34 | $37.93* | $50,243 |
| Level 5 | $1,191.80 | $31.36 | $39.20* | $51,622 |
| Level 6 | $1,256.00 | $33.05 | $41.31* | $53,892 |
| Level 7 | $1,278.60 | $33.65 | $42.06* | $54,691 |
Residential aged care, most senior food services employee
1 July 2026 · PR799299
Clause 14.2. A higher rate at general levels 4 to 7 for the single most senior food services employee at a site.
| Classification | Weekly | Hourly | Casual hourly | Take-home a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 4 | $1,287.00 | $33.87 | $42.34* | $54,988 |
| Level 5 | $1,330.70 | $35.02 | $43.78* | $56,534 |
| Level 6 | $1,402.50 | $36.91 | $46.14* | $59,072 |
| Level 7 | $1,427.50 | $37.57 | $46.96* | $59,956 |
Home care, aged care (SCHADS Award)
1 July 2026 · PR799380
Schedule F of the SCHADS Award, for employees providing aged care services to a person in a private residence.
| Classification | Weekly | Hourly | Casual hourly | Take-home a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | $1,239.00 | $32.61 | $40.76* | $53,291 |
| Level 2 | $1,307.80 | $34.42 | $43.03* | $55,724 |
| Level 3 | $1,376.70 | $36.23 | $45.29* | $58,160 |
| Level 4 | $1,431.70 | $37.68 | $47.10* | $60,105 |
| Level 5 | $1,486.80 | $39.13 | $48.91* | $62,053 |
| Level 6 | $1,541.90 | $40.58 | $50.73* | $64,002 |
Hourly figures are the weekly rate over 38 ordinary hours. Take-home is an estimate for a single Australian resident for tax purposes with no study loan debt and no Medicare levy surcharge, worked out with the same Wage Calculator used across this site. Superannuation is paid by your employer on top of these rates and is never deducted from them. A casual figure marked * is not published in the award and is the minimum hourly rate plus the 25% loading.
Which award covers aged care work.
Aged care is one of the clearest cases in the award system of the same job title sitting under two different instruments. What decides it is not the employer or the funding stream but where the care is delivered.
Care delivered in a residential aged care facility falls under the Aged Care Award 2010 (MA000018), which splits its classifications into a direct care stream and a general stream. Assistants in nursing in the same homes have been on the direct care rows since 1 January 2025, as Assistant in Nursing Pay Rate sets out. Its weekend and public holiday rates for both streams are on Aged Care Award Pay Rates. Care delivered in a person’s own home falls under the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 (MA000100), on the home care aged care scale in Schedule F. Both are published above. Disability support work sits in the same award on scales of its own, set out on Disability Support Worker Pay Rate. So does social work in a community organisation, on the social and community services scale, which Social Worker Pay Rate sets beside the rate in a private hospital.
A third case sits outside both. An enrolled or registered nurse working in aged care is covered by the Nurses Award, not by either of the awards above, and is paid on the nursing scale for the setting. If that is your role, the Enrolled Nurse Pay Rate page has those figures. The registered nurse scales, the aged care one included, are on Nurses Award Pay Rates.
Within each scale, level is set by the work: the qualification it calls for, the degree of direction you work under, and whether you co-ordinate rosters or supervise other staff. If your duties have moved beyond your level, that is a reclassification question and worth raising in writing, separately from a question about the rate itself.
Every classification in this award, including the ones this page leaves out, is listed on the SCHADS Award Pay Rates page.
What $32.61 an hour leaves on a payslip.
A full-time week at the Level 1, Introductory rate is $1,239.00 before tax. The ATO weekly withholding schedule for 2026-27 takes $215.00 from it when the tax-free threshold is claimed, so $1,024.00 reaches your account. Paid fortnightly, it is $2,048.00.
| 38 hours a week | Gross a week | Tax withheld | Take-home a week | Take-home a fortnight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full-time$32.61 an hour | $1,239.00 | $215.00 | $1,024.00 | $2,048.00 |
| Casual, same hours$40.76 an hour | $1,548.88 | $314.00 | $1,234.88 | $2,469.76 |
Withholding is the payslip figure, not the year’s tax: the schedule rounds each pay to the dollar and leaves offsets to the tax return, which is why it differs a little from the take-home a year above. Super is paid on top. For a different number of hours, the Weekly Pay Calculator opens with $32.61 and 38 hours filled in, and the Overtime Calculator adds hours at time and a half and double time to the same rate, before any award-specific overtime rules.
Where these figures come from.
Provenance
Verified- Award
- Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 (MA000100)
- Effective from
- 1 July 2026
- Consolidated to
- 2026-09-01
- Determinations
- PR799380, PR813674
- Retrieved
- 6 September 2026
- Ordinary hours
- 38 a week
- Also from
- Aged Care Award 2010 (MA000018)
- Effective from
- 1 July 2026
- Consolidated to
- 1 September 2026
- Determinations
- PR799299, PR813673
- Retrieved
- 6 September 2026
Every rate above was read from the award text at the Fair Work award library and nothing on this page is copied from another pay site. Rates change from the first full pay period on or after the effective date, so a payslip covering the changeover can lawfully carry the older figure for part of the period.
What this page does not cover.
Listed as plainly as what it does, because a rate page that hides its gaps is how the wrong number ends up on a payslip.
Nursing classifications
Enrolled and registered nurses in aged care are paid under the Nurses Award, on a scale that differs from both aged care awards.
Transitional and retained rates
Both awards carry transitional provisions for employees reclassified in recent work value changes. Those individual arrangements are not in these tables.
Penalty rates
Evening, weekend, public holiday, overtime and shiftwork loadings are set separately in each award and are not in these tables.
Travel between clients
Home care work attracts a travel time and vehicle allowance under the SCHADS Award. Both are published on the award page rather than here.
Enterprise agreements
A registered agreement can set higher rates and different conditions, and where one applies it displaces the award rate.
Market or advertised pay
This page publishes the award floor only. It is not an average, a median, or what a given provider actually offers.
Aged Care Worker Pay Rate questions, answered.
What is the hourly rate for an aged care worker?
In a residential aged care home, a direct care employee under the Aged Care Award 2010 (MA000018) is paid from $32.61 an hour at level 1 to $40.58 an hour at level 6, or $1,239.00 to $1,541.90 a week for 38 ordinary hours. Care delivered in a client's own home is paid on the home care aged care scale of the SCHADS Award instead, from $32.61 to $40.58 an hour.
What is the hourly rate for a home care aged care worker?
Under the home care aged care scale of the SCHADS Award, rates run from $32.61 an hour at level 1 to $40.58 an hour at level 6. Weekly, that is $1,239.00 to $1,541.90 for 38 ordinary hours. These figures apply to aged care work delivered in a person's own home.
Do home care and residential aged care pay the same?
Almost, but they are set by different awards, so check the one that covers your work. Direct care levels 1 to 6 under the Aged Care Award 2010 sit beside home care levels 1 to 6 under the SCHADS Award. They differ at level 4, where residential is $1,431.80 a week and home care $1,431.70. At every other level the weekly rates are currently identical. Each award is varied on its own timetable, so the two can move apart.
What is the casual rate for an aged care worker?
A casual is paid one thirty-eighth of the weekly rate for their classification plus a loading of 25 per cent. Neither award prints a casual rate, so every casual figure here is worked out that way: $40.76 an hour at residential direct care level 1, and $40.76 an hour at home care level 1. The loading replaces paid annual leave, paid personal leave and notice of termination, which casual employees do not get, and the Annual Leave Calculator works out what that leave is worth to a permanent employee on the same hours.
What are aged care award rates for general and support staff?
Roles outside direct care in a residential facility are paid on the general stream of the Aged Care Award 2010, from $27.77 an hour at level 1 to $33.65 an hour at level 7. The award also sets a higher rate at general levels 4 to 7 for the single most senior food services employee at a site, starting at $33.87 an hour. A cleaner employed by a cleaning contractor rather than by the home is on the Cleaning Services Award instead, as Cleaner Pay Rate sets out. That award starts at $27.08 an hour at Level 1, and all three of its levels are on Cleaning Services Award Pay Rates.
What level is a home care worker on?
The home care aged care scale has six levels and no pay points, so there is no automatic annual step within a level. Your level follows the work itself: the qualification it requires, how much direction you work under, and whether you co-ordinate or supervise other staff. A change in duties, not time served, is what moves you up.
When do aged care award rates change?
Minimum rates change from the first full pay period on or after 1 July each year, following the Fair Work Commission Annual Wage Review. Separate determinations can vary rates or allowances part-way through a year, which is why the tables on this page carry both an effective date and the determination they came from.
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