Aged Care Award Pay Rates 2024

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has announced a pay rise of up to 25% for Aged Care Award employees. This represents a significant shake up for Aged Care businesses and their staff. The pay increase gives plenty of cause for excitement but changes also have the potential to create confusion for industry stakeholders. This means careful planning in regards to Aged Care Award Pay Rates.

The latest changes to Aged Care Award Pay Rates are in force from 1 July 2024. You can access current rates using the form below:

Why are Pay Rates Changing?

The FWC made significant findings in the ‘Work Value Case.’ These findings will have far-reaching consequences throughout the Aged Care sector. Employers need to prepare their business for the changes.

Marking a pivotal moment for the sector, it is widely welcomed by aged care workers, advocates, and industry stakeholders alike. Understandably, employers are nervous about the implications it will have on their day to day business operations.

 

Who does the Pay Rise impact?

The Aged Care pay rise is a positive development for the industry because employees can expect greater reward for their efforts. In time employers stand to benefit from increased staff retention and access to a larger talent pool from which to hire from. Higher wages the potential to attract more people to the industry.

The decision to implement the Aged Care Pay rise from July 2024 represents a significant step towards achieving fair and equitable wages for aged care staff.

Along with the aged care award wage increase, new changes to how direct care workers are classified are expected to have flow-on positive impacts for attracting new talent into aged care who are looking for acknowledgement of their hard work, often under challenging circumstances with limited resources.

This will be a major step forward in addressing the ongoing workforce shortages affecting the industry. This is a problem that has existed for years and was only exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

What is the Aged Care Award?

The Aged Care Award governs the relationship between employers and employees working in the Aged Care industry around Australia. If you are a business employing staff under this Award, then you need to ensure that your employment contracts abide by the regulations set out in this particular Award.

 

The Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) is the regulatory body appointed by the Federal Government to enforce and apply Modern Award rules.

What do the changes mean for the Aged Care industry?

The 25% pay rise for aged care workers may pose challenges to employers and payroll teams due to the need to ensure compliance with the Aged Care Award rates as well as the Nurses Award and the SCHADS Award. 

For employees under these Awards already receiving above-Award salaries, employers must ensure their pay remains at least at the level mandated by the Award. This requires precise rate adjustments to avoid any reduction in compensation. 

While existing Enterprise Agreements won’t automatically reflect the aged care wage increase, they must still adhere to the new minimum Award rates. This may require renegotiating to ensure compliance moving forward.

The process should be undertaken by working closely with a legal professional. Teams can then accurately implement changes whilst preserving fairness, commerciality and legality in the remuneration structures. 

 

There is a 25% Pay Increase for Aged Care Staff

The FWC’s decision to implement a 25% aged care pay rise for staff in the sector is a positive step for the industry. But these changes come with confusing new rules for classifying staff.

Fairtime is here to help Aged care employers through this transition. 

We believe that every Aged Care provider has their own unique set of business challenges. Where compliance is rigid and tiresome, Fairtime has resources on hand to guide you and help you solve problems that may flow from these changes.

What is Fairtime?

Fairtime is timesheet and payroll compliance software designed to help Australian employers pay staff at the right rate.

What does it do?

When an employee enters their work hours into Fairtime, our pay rate engine converts their timesheet into a payslip with one click. Any employee, any shift pattern and at any Award classification.

We track leave and TOIL balance with custom pay calendars and pay rates. Employers often sync Fairtime with XERO or MYOB so that their pay slips become instantly available, saving them hours of manual entry.

 

How to use Fairtime

This is the most comprehensive A to Z compliance option for businesses in the Aged Care and SCHADS space. Our dedicated support team is on hand to help you during implementation and beyond.

Fairtime can also be customised to help you carry out wage remediation. You can engage accountants to manually review payslips line by line to confirm an underpayment OR you can upload historical hours into Fairtime and we’ll calculate the right rate of pay.