Aged Care Award: Pay Rates, Classifications and Obligations

The Fair Work Commission’s Aged Care Work Value case led to increased minimum rates from 1 January 2025 for many aged care roles, with further changes later in the year.

On top of that, the Annual Wage Review increased modern award minimum wages by 3.5% from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2025, so you have to double-check your classification levels, allowances, and any shift or overtime rates you use in payroll.

This guide breaks down who the Award covers, how to classify roles, and the key pay and rostering rules to factor in—so you can pay people correctly and reduce the risk of back pay issues later.

Award Basics

The Aged Care Award 2010 sets the minimum pay rates and working conditions for many employees working in Australia’s aged care sector. It covers a wide range of roles commonly found in aged care workplaces, including support roles (such as administration, cleaning, laundry, food services, and maintenance) and direct care roles (such as personal care workers).

The Award helps ensure staff are paid fairly and receive the appropriate core entitlements. That includes minimum base rates, higher rates that can apply when work is done outside ordinary hours (including overtime and some shiftwork, weekends, and public holidays), plus breaks, allowances, and leave alongside the general rights set out in the National Employment Standards (NES), which are the minimum standards that apply to most Australian employees.
Employees are grouped into 2 main classification streams: 

• Aged care employee—general.
• Aged care employee—direct care. 

The general stream runs across Levels 1 to 7 and covers many non-direct-care and support roles. The direct care stream runs from Level 1 (Introductory) through to Level 6 (Team Leader) and is used for hands-on care roles.

Who’s covered under the Aged Care Award?

The Aged Care Award 2010 generally covers employers operating in the aged care industry. If your main business provides accommodation and care services for older people in a residential aged care setting, there’s a good chance this Award applies.

Businesses covered

The Fair Work website says the aged care industry includes providing accommodation and care services for older people in places like:

• Nursing homes
• Hotels
• Aged care independent living units
• Aged care serviced apartments
• Garden settlements
• Retirement villages
• Any other residential accommodation facility

It also covers labour hire businesses (and their employees) when they’re placed with an organisation in the aged care industry. 

Employees covered

Examples of employees covered include:

• Personal care workers
• Nursing assistants
• Cleaners
• Laundry hands
• Drivers
• Food services employees (including cooks)
• Receptionists and administrative staff
• Grounds maintenance employees (including handypersons and gardeners)
• Activity coordinators (unqualified)
• Interpreters

Who isn’t covered under the Aged Care Award?

These are typical examples of employers/employees not covered by the Aged Care Award:

• Health professionals, such as:
  • Nurses
  • Physiotherapists
  • Occupational therapists
• Rehabilitation centres that aren’t specifically dealing with aged persons.
• Home care services that assist aged persons.

If you fall into one of the “not covered” examples, these other Awards are often relevant:

• Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award
• Nurses Award
• Health Services Award

Aged Care Award Classifications and Levels

Under the Aged Care Award, employees are generally grouped in 2 main ways:

• By classification (based on the work they do and the skills, training, and responsibilities their role requires). As mentioned above, this Award uses 2 main classification streams: aged care employee—general and aged care employee—direct care.
• By employment type (full-time, part-time, or casual).

Key classifications

Stream 1: Aged care employee—general (Levels 1–7)

These are many of the “support” and operations roles in an aged care facility (like admin, cleaning, laundry, food services, gardening, maintenance, and some interpreting).

The Award uses the tasks below as examples to help match a role to the right level.

Note: In this context, “ton” is a way of describing a vehicle’s weight capacity (e.g., ​​size/weight-rated type of vehicle the driver is responsible for).

Stream 2: Aged care employee—direct care (Levels 1–6)

This stream is for employees whose main job is providing direct care to residents. Levels are based on experience and qualifications (especially Cert III / Cert IV).

Employment types

The Fair Work Aged Care Award includes 3 main types of employment: full-time, part-time, and casual. 

Full-time

Full-time employees work 38 hours per week, or an average of 38 hours per week (over 4 weeks). They must be rostered or paid for 4 hours per engagement. They’re ongoing staff and generally get the standard entitlements, including paid leave (like annual leave and personal/carer’s leave) and public holiday rights under the NES. 

Part-time

Part-time employees work fewer hours than full-time staff, on a regular, agreed-upon pattern, and must be paid for 2 hours per engagement. They get the same types of entitlements as full-time employees, but on a pro-rata basis (e.g., if they work half the hours of a full-time employee, they’ll usually get about half the annual leave and other entitlements).

Casual

You engage casual employees as needed. They have no guaranteed hours from week to week, but there are still limits on their ordinary hours (covered later in this guide). Their minimum engagement per shift is 2 hours.

Instead of paid leave and the ongoing certainty of permanent employment, casuals receive a higher hourly rate called casual loading. The casual loading is 25% on top of the ordinary hourly rate.

Casuals are paid an hourly rate based on their classification. In simple terms, the Award works out the base hourly rate as 1/38th of the weekly rate for that classification (because a full-time week is 38 hours). Then the 25% casual loading is applied on top (we’ll walk through an example later).

So, for weekday ordinary hours, casuals are paid their base hourly rate plus 25%, or in other words, 125% of the base hourly rate.

Casual employees may, in some cases, request conversion to permanent (part-time or full-time) employment under the NES. To check eligibility rules, timeframes, and the process for making a request, refer to the NES and Fair Work’s guidance.

Ordinary Hours

Understanding ordinary hours makes applying pay rates and entitlements easier. Ordinary hours are the standard hours an employee can work before overtime applies. These are the hours you can roster as “ordinary time” across a roster cycle (a repeating period the Award lets you average hours over, such as 4 weeks), within the Award’s limits.

How ordinary hours work 

For full-time employees, ordinary hours are 38 hours per week, or an average of 38 hours per week.

The Award lets you average this over different roster cycles, like:

• 76 hours per fortnight
• 114 hours over 21 days
• 152 hours over 4 weeks

The Award also allows ordinary hours to be arranged in different roster patterns, including a 28-day roster cycle with set workday limits, or as 8-hour day shifts or 10-hour night shifts.

When can ordinary hours be worked?

A day worker’s rostered hours fall within the standard daytime span, as follows:

• Monday to Friday: Between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm.

Employees who are regularly rostered to work ordinary hours outside that span are generally treated as shiftworkers.

Rest breaks between shifts

To help manage fatigue, employees should usually have at least 10 hours off between shifts.

By mutual agreement, the break can be reduced to 8 hours between shifts.

For complete details, including broken shifts, refer to the Award.

Pay Rates and Entitlements

Under the Aged Care Award, pay rates and entitlements set the minimum standards for how much you’re required to pay your employees and what conditions they’re entitled to.

Minimum base rates

Below are the Aged Care Award rates for permanent employees:

Aged care employee—general 

Note: The Award flags that a higher pay rate may apply to general Levels 4–7 if the employee is the single most senior food services employee at the facility/site. For complete details, refer to the Award.

Aged care employee—direct care

To understand how this works, let’s take a full-time Aged care employee—general. If they’re classified at Level 2, they earn the current minimum weekly rate of $1,047.40.

If a part-time employee is classified in the same stream and level and works 20 hours per week, you’d pay them $27.56/hour, which equals $551.20/week (20 × $27.56). This is because part-time rates are paid pro rata, and the weekly rate is based on a 38-hour full-time week.

As another example, a casual Level 2 employee’s base hourly rate is worked out from their classification as 1/38th of the weekly rate (so $1,047.40 ÷ 38 = $27.56/hour, rounded). They then get a 25% casual loading of $6.89/hour on top. This brings their casual rate to $34.45/hour, so over 20 hours, they’d earn $689. 

The Award also includes apprentice pay rates. For a comprehensive view, download the official Aged Care Award Pay Guide.

Penalty rates

Penalty rates are the higher rates that can apply when ordinary hours are worked at certain times. For the Aged Care Award, it helps to think of them in 2 buckets: shift penalties and weekend/public holiday penalties. We’ll cover shift penalties in this guide. For more information on weekend and public holiday rates, it’s best to check the award.

Shift penalties

The shift penalty is based on the shift start time. 

To see how this works in practice, let’s look at a full-time/part-time Aged care employee—general Level 2. Their minimum base rate is $27.56/hour. If they work an afternoon shift starting at 2:00 pm, the shift penalty is 112.5%, so their shift rate is $31.01/hour ($27.56 × 1.125).

A casual Level 2 employee has the same base rate of $27.56/hour, and the casual shift penalty rate (137.5%) already includes the 25% casual loading ($6.89/hour; $27.56 × 0.25). For the same 2:00 pm start, the shift rate is $37.90/hour ($27.56 × 1.375), totalling $227.40 over 6 hours (6 × $37.90).

Note: The shift penalty is based on the shift start time. If an employee works less than 38 hours per week, they only get the shift penalty if the shift starts before 6:00 am or finishes after 6:00 pm.

Overtime rules and rates

Under the Aged Care Award, overtime is any time an employee works beyond their ordinary limits (e.g., extra hours outside their rostered hours, or hours that go over the Award’s daily or weekly limits).

Again, let’s put this into practice. If an adult employee is an Aged Care employee—general Level 3, their minimum base rate is $28.62/hour. Overtime is paid at 150% for the first 2 hours, Monday to Friday ($42.93/hour), and at 200% thereafter ($57.24/hour).

For casuals, the overtime percentages are already inclusive of the 25% casual loading, so the loading isn’t added again on top. 

Breaks

Breaks under the Aged Care Award include:

• An unpaid meal break.
• Paid tea breaks.

Allowances

An allowance is an extra payment (or reimbursement) on top of an employee’s base pay.

For complete allowance rules (including when each allowance applies and any conditions), it’s worth checking the Award.

Leave

Most leave comes from the NES, which applies no matter which award someone is under. The Aged Care Award then adds extra rules about certain leave types.

Annual leave

Who gets annual leave?

• Full-time employees: 4 weeks of paid annual leave per year.
• Part-time employees: The same entitlement, but pro rata (based on the hours they work).
• Casual employees: No annual leave (their casual loading is meant to make up for this).
• Shiftworkers: 5 weeks of paid annual leave per year.

For annual leave purposes, the Award says a shiftworker is someone who’s either:

• Regularly rostered to work ordinary hours outside day-worker hours, and/or
• Works more than 4 ordinary hours on 10 or more weekends.

(A “weekend” here means ordinary hours on Saturday and/or Sunday in a calendar week.)

Annual leave loading

• Non-shift workers: 17.5% annual leave loading on top of ordinary pay while on annual leave.
• Shiftworkers: Receive the higher of:
  • 17.5% loading, or
  • The weekend and shift penalties they’d have earned if they weren’t on leave.

Taking annual leave in advance 

The Award allows annual leave to be taken in advance, but only if there’s a written agreement that sets out the leave amount and start date, and it’s signed (if the employee is under 18, a parent/guardian also signs).

If the employee resigns before accrual, the Award allows a deduction from final pay for the unaccrued portion (in line with the agreement).

Cashing out annual leave

Cashing out this leave (being paid for some of your accrued annual leave instead of taking time off) is allowed only by a separate written agreement each time, and it can’t result in the employee having less than 4 weeks of accrued leave.

The Award also caps cashing out at 2 weeks within any 12-month period. 

Excessive leave accruals

The Award has additional rules for handling “excessive” annual leave balances (e.g., more than 8 weeks or 10 weeks for shiftworkers). For those details, it’s best to check the Award.

For anything not covered here (or if your situation is unusual), it’s safest to cross-check the Award itself and the NES.

Ceremonial leave

The Award also includes up to 10 working days of unpaid ceremonial leave per year for Aboriginal employees who are legitimately required by tradition to be absent for Aboriginal ceremonial purposes (with employer approval).

Other NES leave

Most other leave comes from the NES, and it applies to employees under the Aged Care Award too:

• Personal/carer’s leave and compassionate leave.
• Parental leave and related entitlements.
• Community service leave (e.g., jury duty or emergency service activities).
• Family and domestic violence leave (with extra confidentiality rules around handling records and payslips).

💡 Pro Tip:

You can use theFair Work Ombudsman’s Leave Calculator to check how much leave applies to your role.

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How To Determine the Right Aged Care Award Classification

Classifying someone correctly matters because it affects their minimum pay rate and which extra rates (like penalties) may apply. Here’s a practical way to work it out:

1) First, identify which “stream” the role fits into

This Award groups roles into 2 streams:

• Aged care employee—general (Levels 1–7): Support roles like admin/reception, cleaning, laundry, food services, maintenance, and gardening.
• Aged care employee—direct care (Levels 1–6): Where the employee’s main job is direct care to residents.

2) Match what they do day to day 

Use the employee’s regular, day-to-day duties and match them to the closest level in Schedule B–Classification Definitions (not one-off tasks).

3) Use the key “separators” to pick the level

• General stream: Levels typically increase with skill/responsibility, level of independence, and whether the role is trade/qualified (e.g., qualified maintenance or trade-level cook).
• Direct care stream: Levels mainly step up by experience (less than 3 months, 3 months or more) and qualifications (Cert III, Cert IV), plus whether they supervise/train others.

4) Quick check: Could it be a different Award?

If the role is a nurse or other health professional, the Aged Care Award summary says those roles are generally not covered here, so you’d usually check coverage under awards like the Nurses Award or relevant health services award instead.

Aged Care Award: A practical, real-world example

Let’s take Jess, a full-time employee at a residential aged care facility.

Jess works in an aged care workplace that provides accommodation and care services for older people.

Her role includes:

• Providing hands-on support to residents with day-to-day living tasks as part of their care routine.
• Assisting residents with mobility and comfort needs, following care instructions, and ensuring safe work practices.
• Monitoring residents while providing care, reporting concerns to the appropriate staff, and keeping basic care notes where required.
• Using her aged care training and experience day-to-day to support residents safely and respectfully.

Because Jess’s primary role is direct care for residents, she falls under the Aged Care employee—direct care stream, rather than the Aged Care employee—general stream (which covers support roles such as administration, cleaning, laundry, food services, maintenance, and gardening).

Based on her role and qualification, Jess is best classified as an Aged care employee—direct care—Level 3 (Qualified) because she provides direct care and holds a Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing) (or an equivalent qualification).

As a full-time Level 3 employee, her pay must be at least the Level 3 minimum weekly rate of $1,314.30 per week (which works out to $34.59 per hour when you divide by a 38-hour week).

Employer Obligations, Record-Keeping, and Common Mistakes

Under this Modern Award, you’re expected to:

• Pay at least the minimum rates for each employee’s classification level.
• Pay the correct extras when they apply, such as overtime rates, weekend/public holiday rates, shift penalties, and allowances.
• Give breaks correctly (meal breaks and paid tea breaks), and ensure they’re reflected in rosters and time records.
• Keep written agreements where required (e.g., time off instead of overtime pay, advance annual leave, and cashing out annual leave).

Record-keeping

Good records are one of the easiest ways to stay compliant and avoid disputes:

• Keep time and wage records for 7 years (they need to be legible, in English, and not misleading).
• Issue payslips within 1 working day of payday, showing the pay components clearly. 

For tools and templates, you can use the Fair Work Ombudsman’s free record-keeping and payroll guides.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Misclassifying staff, especially mixing up general vs. direct care roles (or placing someone too low for the duties they actually do).
• Using the wrong pay basis (weekly vs. hourly), or forgetting that casual rates already include casual loading where the Award says they do (e.g., some penalty/overtime tables).
• Missing allowances (uniform/laundry, meal allowance when overtime runs long, vehicle use, leading hand, tools, etc.).
• Not updating rates after Fair Work increases Award wages and allowance amounts.

Resources and Links

For further reading and official resources, visit:

• Aged Care Award 2010 [MA000018]: The official Fair Work Commission Award.
• Fair Work Information Statement (FWIS): A summary of employee rights and employer responsibilities under the NES.
• Annual Leave Cash-Out Agreement (Fair Work Commission): A template employers can use when arranging a lawful leave cash-out agreement with an employee.
• Fair Work “Tools and Resources” Hub: Quick access to calculators (pay, leave, notice/redundancy) and templates in one place.

Disclaimer

The information provided here is a summary only and does not constitute legal advice. While we have made every effort to ensure the information provided is up to date and reliable, we cannot guarantee its completeness, accuracy, or applicability to your specific situation. Laws change frequently, and outcomes may vary depending on your business circumstances. We recommend consulting a qualified employment lawyer before making decisions related to workforce management. Please note that we cannot be held liable for any actions taken or not taken based on the information presented on this website.