Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award

From 1 July 2022, the SCHADS Award introduced specific broken shift allowances, and from 1 July 2025, the Annual Wage Review increased all minimum award rates and allowances by 3.5%.

In this guide, we’ll break down who the Award covers, how to classify roles, and the key pay and conditions you need to apply.

The SCHADS Award: A Quick Summary for Busy Managers

Short on time? This section covers the essentials.

The Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award 2010 [MA000100] sets minimum pay rates and conditions for many roles in social and community services, crisis accommodation, family day care schemes, disability services, and home care.

To stay compliant, managers must consider:

• Award coverage: Whether the role is covered by SCHADS rather than a more specific award (e.g., Aged Care, Nurses, Children’s Services, or Health Services).
• Employee type: Whether the employee is full-time, part-time, or casual (this affects loading, minimum engagement, and overtime triggers).
• Employee classification: Which SCHADS schedule and level applies (Schedules B–F, with some streams using pay points within levels).
• Hours and timing of work: Whether work is on weekends/public holidays, shiftwork, overtime, or broken shifts (these can change pay rates).

Also, watch out for common compliance slip-ups:

• Home Care—Aged Care rates are now set by levels (with Schedule G transition rules for some employees), plus minimum engagement and broken shift rules can also change what you owe.
• Most underpayments happen when employers pick the wrong schedule or level, miss weekend/public holiday or overtime rules, or forget to apply common allowances (like vehicle, on-call, or broken shift).

Coming up: Award dates and deadlines you need to know

Award Basics

The Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award [MA000100] sets the minimum pay rates and key working conditions for many employees working in Australia’s social and community services, crisis accommodation, home care, and family day care scheme sectors. It typically covers roles delivering services such as social/community support, disability services, and home care (personal care, domestic assistance, or home maintenance in a private residence).

The Award helps ensure staff are paid fairly and receive the correct core entitlements. That includes minimum base rates, penalty rates, overtime, breaks, rostering rules, allowances, and leave-related conditions set out in the Award.

The Award operates alongside the National Employment Standards (NES) (the minimum standards that apply to most Australian employees). Under the Award, the NES and the Award together contain the minimum conditions of employment for covered employees.

Who’s covered under the SCHADS Award?

Businesses covered

You’re generally covered by the Award if your business fits within the Award’s classifications and operates in one of these sectors: 

• Crisis assistance and supported housing services.
• Social and community services, including work like social work, recreation work, welfare work, youth work, or community development work.
• Home care (personal care, domestic assistance, or home maintenance for an older person or a person with disability in a private residence).
• Family day care scheme services.

Employees covered

Examples include:

• Clerical/admin employees (in the family day care and social/community services sectors)
• Social workers
• Community development workers
• Welfare workers
• Youth workers
• Crisis accommodation workers
• Supervisors in a group home
• Home-based personal care/aged care/nursing assistant roles

The Award can also cover labour hire businesses and their employees when they’re placed with an organisation in the sectors above.

Who isn’t covered under the SCHADS Award?

The Award generally doesn’t cover family day care educators or carers who provide child care. It’s more commonly used for roles in family day care schemes (like coordinators and admin).

The Award also doesn’t apply when the employer or employee is covered by one of these awards:

• Aged Care Award
• Children’s Services Award
• Health Services Award
• Nurses Award

Coverage self-check: Does the SCHADS Award apply?

Consider whether the following statements apply to your business and the role you’re checking:

• I operate in social and community services, crisis accommodation/supported housing, home care, or a family day care scheme (e.g., a disability support provider, homelessness service, home care provider, or family day care scheme operator).
• The employee does work covered by SCHADS classifications (e.g., community or welfare worker, crisis accommodation worker).
• The employee is not better covered by another Award (e.g., Aged Care).
• There’s no enterprise agreement/instrument (or enterprise award) covering the employee.

If most of these apply, the employee is likely covered by the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award.

Determining Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award [MA000100] Requirements

Under the SCHADS Award, employees are usually grouped in 2 main ways:

1. By employment type (full-time, part-time, or casual), which affects things like rostering and minimum engagement.

2. By classification. This is based on what the employee does day-to-day, as well as the skills, training, and responsibilities the role requires. 

The Award uses 5 main classification streams: 

• Social and Community Services
• Crisis Accommodation
• Family Day Care
• Home Care—Disability Care
• Home Care—Aged Care 

Employees are then classified into levels (e.g., Levels 1–8 for the Social and Community Services stream).

Employment types

The Award uses 3 main employment types: full-time, part-time, and casual.

Full-time

A full-time employee works 38 ordinary hours per week, averaged over a maximum of 4 weeks.
Ordinary hours can be rostered as: 

• 5 x 8-hour shifts per week, 76 hours over a fortnight (10 x 8-hour shifts).
• 152 hours over 4 weeks (19 x 8-hour shifts), and by agreement, can be worked up to 10 hours per shift.

For day workers, ordinary hours are 6.00 am to 8.00 pm, Monday to Sunday.

Full-timers are ongoing staff and usually get the standard entitlements that apply to permanent employees (like paid annual leave).

Part-time

A part-time employee works less than 38 hours per week (or an average of less than 38) and has reasonably predictable hours. Employees generally receive the same core conditions as full-time employees, but key entitlements such as annual leave are paid based on hours worked.

Employees must be paid for a minimum number of hours each time they work. For Social and Community Services employees, this minimum is 3 hours per shift (or per part of a broken shift), unless they’re doing disability services work.

For all other employees, the minimum payment is 2 hours per shift.

Casual

Casual employees are paid an hourly rate (1/38th of the weekly rate) plus a 25% casual loading. The same minimum shift payment rules for part-time employees also apply to casuals.

SCHADS Award classifications streams and levels

SCHADS award levels explained:

In the SCHADS Award, levels group employees by the complexity of their work and the skill, training, and responsibility required for the role, which determines their minimum pay.

Below are 2 examples (out of the 5 streams):

Social and Community Services

The Social and Community Services stream groups employees into levels 1–8. Below, we highlight Levels 1 and 2 as examples.

You can find full details in Schedule B of the Award.

Home Care—Disability Care

The Home Care—Disability Care stream groups employees into levels 1–5. Below, we highlight Levels 1 and 2 as examples.

You can find full details in Schedule E of the Award. 

If you employ staff in other SCHADS streams, the Award sets out separate level definitions for each stream in its own schedule.

• Schedule C—Crisis Accommodation (Levels 1–4): Work supporting people in short-term or emergency housing services (e.g., crisis support worker, residential support worker, shelter/team leader).
• Schedule D—Family Day Care (Levels 1–5): Work in a family day care scheme/service (not the educator providing care), helping run, coordinate, and support carers (e.g., family day care coordinator, field/visiting officer, admin/support officer).
• Schedule F—Home Care—Aged Care (Levels 1–6): Work providing care and support to older people in their own home (e.g., home care worker/personal carer, domestic assistant, home care team leader).

SCHADS Award Pay Rates and Entitlements

Under the SCHADS Award, the pay rates and entitlements set the minimum standards for what you must pay covered employees, as well as the key rules for hours, overtime and penalty rates, allowances, and leave.

Minimum base rates

The Award sets minimum base rates for each classification, which are the minimum weekly and hourly pay rates you must pay employees.

Pay points are the “steps” within a classification level (e.g., Level 1—pay point 1, pay point 2). They’re used in some SCHADS streams to reflect progression within the same level.

Note: Home Care—Aged Care employees now use levels only (Levels 1–6) in the main pay table (not pay points).

Further, Schedule G is a transition table for employees who were already covered by SCHADS on or before 31 December 2024 (and for some who moved across from the Nurses Award 2020), so their old classification or pay structure can be translated to the new level system without losing the correct minimum rate.

Let’s look at how levels and pay points are organised for 2 of the streams in this Award:

Social and Community Services

Home Care Employees—Aged Care

Let’s see how the minimum base rate works, using a Social and Community Services employee (Level 1, pay point 1).

If they worked full-time, they’d earn the current minimum weekly rate of $999.40/week. If they worked 20 hours per week part-time, you’d pay them $26.30/hour, which would total $526/week (20 × $26.30).

If they were engaged as a casual employee, they’d earn the same base rate of $26.30/hour, plus a 25% casual loading ($6.58/hour), which brings their casual rate to $32.88/hour. So over 20 hours, they’d earn $657.60/week (20 × $32.88).

For the full list of levels, pay points, and other SCHADS Award pay rates, refer to the SCHADS Award Pay Guide.

Penalty rates

Penalty rates are higher pay rates that apply when an employee works certain shifts or times (e.g., weekends, public holidays, or late/overnight shifts).

Note: If someone works on a public holiday, you pay the public holiday rate instead of any weekend or shift penalties. 

For broken shifts, the day can span up to 12 hours. If it goes beyond 12 hours, the extra time is paid at double time (200%). This rule applies whenever a broken shift is worked (it’s not limited to specific days of the week).

These weekend penalties don’t apply to overtime worked on Saturday/Sunday. In that case, you pay the applicable overtime rate (not the weekend penalty rate), and they’re not added on top of shift premiums.

Now, let’s understand how the rates work. Let’s say a Home Care—Aged Care (Level 2) employee earns $32.86 per ordinary hour.

If they work ordinary hours on Saturday, they’re paid 150%, which is $49.29/hour ($32.86 × 1.5). Minimum payment is 2 hours’ pay per shift (or per period in a broken shift).

If they work ordinary hours on Sunday, they’re paid 200%, which is $65.72/hour ($32.86 × 2). Minimum payment is 2 hours’ pay.

For casuals, weekend rates are already inclusive of the 25% loading (e.g., Saturday is 175%, which is $57.51/hour), so you pay the casual weekend rate, not “casual loading + weekend penalty.”

For more details (including other penalty rules that may apply), refer to the Award.

Overtime rules and rates

SCHADS Award overtime is the higher pay rate that applies when an employee works approved hours outside their ordinary hours (e.g., extra hours on top of their rostered ordinary hours).

Overtime rates are as follows:

Note: Overtime worked on a Sunday is paid at double time (200%). So if the Sunday hours are overtime hours, you pay 200% overtime (not the Sunday penalty for ordinary hours).

To put overtime into practice, let’s say a Social and Community Services employee (Level 1, pay point 1) earns $26.30 per ordinary hour.

If they work 2 hours of overtime on Thursday, you pay 150% for those hours (150% for the first 3 hours), which is $39.45/hour ($26.30 × 1.5).

After the first 3 overtime hours that day, any further overtime is paid at 200%, or $52.60/hour ($26.30 × 2).

For casuals, overtime is worked out on the casual hourly rate (which already includes the 25% casual loading), so you don’t add casual loading again on top of overtime.

For more overtime rules (including the break after overtime and time off in lieu), it’s worth checking the Award directly.

Breaks

Under the SCHADS Award, breaks are the rest periods employees must be given during their work (like meal and tea breaks).

For full details on breaks, check the Award.

Allowances

Allowances are extra payments (or reimbursements) that may be applied on top of the minimum base rate when someone works under specific conditions, incurs work-related costs, or takes on additional responsibilities.

Full current allowance amounts are listed in the Allowances Sheet.

Leave entitlements

Most leave comes from the NES, which applies no matter which award an employee is under. The SCHADS Award then adds some extra annual leave rules for certain employees. 

Annual leave

Let’s look at the key information for annual leave:

• Who gets annual leave: Full-time employees get 4 weeks paid annual leave each year. Part-time employees get the same entitlement based on hours worked. Casual employees don’t get paid annual leave (they’re paid casual loading instead).
• Special rule for some nursing assistants (moved from Nurses Award): If someone was covered by the Nurses Award 2020 on 31 December 2024 and became covered by SCHADS as a nursing assistant, they keep the same annual leave quantum as under the Nurses Award (which includes an additional week).
• Annual leave loading: 17.5% of the ordinary rate (on top of ordinary pay).
• Annual leave in advance: Annual leave may be taken early with a written agreement specifying the amount of leave and the start date.
• Cashing out annual leave: Only by written agreement. Employees must keep at least 4 weeks of accrued leave and can cash out up to 2 weeks in any 12 months.
• Excessive leave accruals: The Award has extra rules for managing large annual leave balances. “Excessive” is more than 8 weeks (or 10 weeks for shiftworkers).

For full details (including shiftworker annual leave rules), refer to the Award.

Other NES leave

The NES also provides other types of leave that apply to most employees, including those under this Award. These include:

• Personal/carer’s leave and compassionate leave
• Parental leave
• Family and domestic violence leave
• Community service leave
• Long service leave
• Ceremonial Leave

How To Determine SCHADS Award Coverage

Correct Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Award coverage helps you pay people properly from day 1, including identifying the right classification level, minimum rates, and penalty or overtime rules, and reduces the risk of payroll mistakes later.

SCHADS Award [MA000100]: A practical, real-world example

To see how the rules stack up in real life, here’s a simple community services scenario:

A 20-year-old part-time community services worker:

• Supports community programs and provides general support under guidance.
• Works 20 ordinary hours across the week.
• Later that week, works an extra 2 hours (pushing total weekly hours above 38).

How the Award applies:

• Coverage: Covered under the SCHADS Award (because the work is in Social and Community Services).
• Classification and base rate: Social and Community Services employee Level 2, pay point 1, with a minimum of $34.58 per hour (ordinary hours).
• Overtime: The extra 2 hours above 38 hours for the week are paid at 150% (time and a half) for part-time employees (first 2 overtime hours). That’s $51.87 per hour ($34.58 × 1.5).

Pay summary:

Common scenarios and compliance tips

1. Not-for-profit hires a “team leader” who mostly does frontline support work

Key checks:

• Coverage under the SCHADS Award likely applies (check Schedule B–F classification streams).
• Classify based on duties actually performed (not the job title).
• Apply the correct minimum rate (level or pay point where relevant) and track progression.

2. Home care provider rosters weekend work for permanent and casual carers

Key checks:

• Apply weekend penalties for ordinary hours (Saturday/Sunday) and public holiday rates when they apply.
• For casuals, use the inclusive weekend/public holiday rates (don’t add loading again).
• Check minimum engagement rules for each shift (and broken shift rules where used).

3. A community services employee works extra hours on a weekday

Key checks:

• Confirm whether the extra hours are overtime under the Award (rules differ by classification stream and employment type).
• Apply the correct overtime rate (e.g., Social and Community Services: 150% for the first 3 hours, then 200% Mon–Sat).
• Remember, overtime rates replace (don’t stack with) weekend/shift penalties.

4. Employer requires staff to use their own car or be on call

Key checks:

• Pay the vehicle allowance when employees are authorised to use their own vehicle for work.
• Pay on-call allowance when employees are required to be on call.
• Keep clear records (kilometres, on-call periods, approvals).

Common employer mistakes to avoid

• Using job titles (e.g., “coordinator”) instead of duties to classify roles.
• Forgetting minimum engagement rules (especially for part-time/casual and broken shifts).
• Double-counting casual loading (adding it on top of inclusive casual penalty rates).
• Applying weekend penalties to overtime, or stacking penalties/shift loadings incorrectly.
• Missing common allowances (vehicle, meal, on-call, broken shift) or not recording them properly.

Glossary

Annual leave quantum

The total amount of annual leave an employee is entitled to (e.g., 4 weeks per year, or 5 weeks for eligible shiftworkers).

Broken shift

A shift split into 2 work periods on the same day, with an unpaid break in between (e.g., 7:00–10:00 am, then 4:00–7:00 pm).

Loading

An extra percentage paid on top of the base rate (e.g., 25% casual loading instead of paid leave).

Ordinary hours

The standard hours an employee is rostered to work at their base rate (before overtime applies).

Roster

A work schedule that sets out an employee’s shifts, start and finish times, and days they’ll work.

Shift premium

An extra percentage paid on top of the ordinary rate when an employee works certain shifts (e.g., extra pay for afternoon or night shifts).

Resources and Links

For further reading and official resources, visit:

• Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 [MA000100]: The official Award text.
• Fair Work Information Statement (FWIS): A summary of employee rights and employer responsibilities under the NES.
• Fair Work Record-Keeping Requirements: Guidance on pay slips, pay records, and what employers need to keep.
• Annual Leave Cash-Out Agreement: A ready-to-use agreement template.
• Annual Leave in Advance Agreement: A template for agreeing to annual leave in advance.

FAQs

What categories are in the SCHADS Award?

The SCHADS Award has 5 main “classification streams”: 

• Social and Community Services
• Crisis Accommodation
• Family Day Care
• Disability Services
• Home Care

What is Level 6 classification in SCHADS?

“Level 6” is a higher classification level within a particular stream (so the duties depend on the stream). For example, in Home Care—Aged Care, Level 6 is typically a team leader role.

What is the hourly rate for a disability support worker in Australia?

It depends on classification, but under SCHADS minimums, a common benchmark is Home Care—Disability Care Level 2, pay point 1: $27.55/hour (ordinary hours) (current as of 1 Oct 2025).

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.