Aged Care Award 2025: What Employers Need to Know

The Aged Care Award 2025 introduces important updates that impact wages, classifications, and compliance. Here’s what you need to know:

📈 Pay Increases

✅ From 1 January 2025: Minimum wages increased by 3%.
✅ From 1 October 2025: Some employees may receive additional increases, based on their classification.

🔢 New Classification Structure

A simplified 6-level system replaces the old 7-level structure for direct care workers:

1️⃣ Introductory (Level 1)
2️⃣ Direct Carer (Level 2)
3️⃣ Qualified (Level 3)
4️⃣ Senior (Level 4)
5️⃣ Specialist (Level 5)
6️⃣ Team Leader (Level 6)

🏠 Coverage Changes

🔹 Nursing assistants in residential care (previously covered by the Nurses Award) will now be covered under the Aged Care Award.

🚀 Progression Rules

📌 Level 1 → Level 2: After 3 months of experience.
📌 Level 3 (Qualified): Requires a Certificate III in Individual Support (Ageing) or equivalent.
📌 Level 4 (Senior): Requires 4 years of experience at Level 3 (only counting from 1 Jan 2025 onwards).

📋 Updated Role Definitions

The new Aged Care Award includes:
🔹 A clearer definition of direct care employees
🔹 Updated classification schedules with indicative duties and qualifications

🛠️ What Employers Need to Do

To stay compliant, employers should:

✔ Review & update employment contracts
✔ Reclassify staff under the new system
✔ Apply the new pay rates under the Aged Care Award 2025

📢 These changes aim to ensure fair pay and career progression for aged care workers. Employers should prepare now to stay compliant.

✅ Compliance Made Easy with Fairtime

Fairtime automates payroll compliance, so you never have to worry about manual calculations or wage errors.

💡 How Fairtime Helps:
⚡ Automatically applies Aged Care Award rates
🔄 Syncs with Xero, MYOB, and other payroll systems
📉 Reduces payroll errors and admin time

🚀 No more compliance headaches—just accurate payroll, every time!

📥 Download the latest Aged Care Award pay rates below