Nurse Salaries in Australia 2026: Pay Rates by State and Award

How nurse pay is structured in public hospitals

Every state pays registered nurses on an incremental scale: you move up one step for each year of experience until you reach the top. NSW runs from 1st year to 8th year and thereafter, Victoria from Grade 2 Year 1 to Year 8, Queensland from Grade 5 pay point 1 to pay point 7 (pay point 8 arrives on 1 December 2027), WA from Level 1.1 to 1.8 and SA from the 1st to the 9th increment. Registered midwives are paid on exactly the same scale as registered nurses in all five states.

Enrolled nurses have their own shorter scale (five or six steps), and assistants in nursing sit below that. Clinical nurse specialist, clinical nurse consultant, nurse unit manager and nurse practitioner are positions you apply for and are appointed to, not steps you reach by service. That is why a 15-year RN who stays at the bedside earns the same base rate as one who has just reached the top increment, and why penalty rates and qualification allowances matter so much to total pay.

Shift penalties differ more between states than base pay

Two nurses on the same step and the same roster can be paid very differently because each agreement sets its own loadings:

• WA pays a 35% night-shift loading, the highest of the five states, and 175% on Sundays.
• NSW lifted night shift from 15% to 20% from July 2025 and pays 175% on Sundays.
• Victoria pays flat dollar shift allowances instead of percentages (for example $114.00 for a Monday–Thursday night shift), and Sunday is paid at the same 150% as Saturday.
• Queensland pays double time for all ordinary hours on a Sunday under EB12, and 20% for night shift.
• SA pays 120.5% for night shift and 175% on Sundays.

Worked example: a graduate RN fortnight with penalty rates

Take a new-graduate RN working a full-time fortnight of ten 7.6-hour shifts: three weekday day shifts, two afternoon shifts, three weeknight night shifts, one Saturday and one Sunday. In NSW base pay for the fortnight is $3,133.40; with this roster it is $3,791.41. Over a year that is $98,848 gross and $76,697 after tax, $11,666 more take-home than base pay alone. The same roster in each state (Victoria's figure counts only the afternoon and night allowances, not any morning shift allowance):

Nurse pay rises coming up

* Queensland and SA rates are the latest we could confirm (see each state page). Scheduled and pending changes as of October 2026:

• NSW: +3% on 1 July 2027, with the rates already published by NSW Health (RN 8th year $2,265.60 a week).
• Victoria: +1.06% on 30 November 2026, +3% on 10 May 2027 and +9.43% on 29 November 2027 for most classifications (graduate Year 1 gets smaller or no rises).
• Queensland: +2.5% on 1 April 2027 plus a CPI uplift of up to 1%, then +3% on 1 December 2027.
• WA: new rates from 12 October 2026, with restructure rises of up to 7.3% on Level 1.4 to 2.4.
• SA: members rejected the government offer in July 2026 and the new agreement is with the SA Employment Tribunal for arbitration; a 2% interim rise was announced for October 2026.
• Nurses Award: the ANMF work value case (AM2024/11) for nurses outside aged care seeks about 35%. It was heard in June 2026 and had no decision at 8 October 2026. A win would lift private hospital and GP clinic minimums, not state public rates.