Adam Coulter is an accountant, business owner of Geelong Neuro Centre, and the Community Manager for splose. Driven by a passion for supporting the healthcare industry, a journey sparked alongside his wife, an Occupational Therapist, Adam combines financial expertise with modern practice management tools to help healthcare professionals streamline their businesses and maximise their time with clients.
Today Adam is here to walk us through the nuances of the rising minimum pay rates for exercise physiologists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and speech pathologists. All of which are about to start climbing from October 2026 and keep maintaining their ascent for the next four years.
What rules are actually changing
The Fair Work Commission has finalised a five-stage overhaul of the Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (HPSS Award), correcting what it found was a gender-based undervaluation of these professions. Stage 1 lands on the first full pay period on or after 1 October 2026. From here four more stages have been mandated each year on 30 June until 2030.
Many Allied Health practices are currently paying above Award rates driven by tight labour market competition or to meet the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) under enterprise agreements. But business owners must review these upcoming adjustments carefully to guarantee their rates remain above the revised minimums.
All figures below are expressed as 1.0 FTE annual earnings, including the 12% superannuation guarantee. Together, they represent the total employment cost of a full-time role, not just the take-home award wage.
What the salary increase means for your practice
For a sector where fees are largely set by Medicare schedules, NDIS price caps, DVA rates and private health insurer agreements, this is a cost increase most practices cannot simply pass on.
If your revenue per session has been flat for a while, the new salary increases can be a cause for concern. Your minimum labour cost is about to climb by close to 20% over four years. This means your back office has to get leaner in the immediate short term. It also means clinical productivity has to see deliberate lifts by career stage. This piece sets out the actual numbers so that conversation can start from facts rather than guesswork.
Where salary rates sit today
Under the current (pre-reform) structure, here’s how much a full-time AQF7 clinician on the common four-year-degree entry pathway is paid, depending on where they sit in the old pay-point structure:
| Current pay point | Annual base | Total incl. 12% super |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1, PP3 (typical first-year entry) | $63,216 | $70,802 |
| Level 1, PP4 | $65,390 | $73,237 |
| Level 1, PP5 | $71,235 | $79,783 |
| Level 1, PP6 | $73,762 | $82,613 |
| Level 2, PP1 | $74,162 | $83,062 |
| Level 2, PP2 | $76,861 | $86,085 |
These six rows are illustrative of the four-year-degree entry pathway specifically. Employees who entered via a three-year or Master's pathway, and anyone at Level 2.1 and above (senior clinician, specialist, advanced clinician, section manager, practice manager), sit on different current pay points. The Commission's determination doesn't map these pay points in a single comparable table. However, the underlying truth still holds at every level: today's minimums are about to be replaced by a new structure that pays materially more, in most bands, from day one.
What rules definitely change on 1 October 2026
The new structure abandons pay points entirely in favour of classification by AQF qualification level plus years of experience. These Stage 1 rates are legally confirmed and have been set out in the Commission's final determination. They apply from the first full pay period on or after 1 October 2026:
AQF Level 7 — Exercise Physiology, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Pathology (base qualification)
| Experience | Total annual cost incl. super |
|---|---|
| 1st year | $72,771 |
| 2nd–3rd year | $78,339 |
| 4th–6th year | $87,034 |
| 7th year+ | $93,935 |
Speech Pathology — higher qualification bands
| Experience | AQF8 (Honours) | AQF9 (Masters) |
|---|---|---|
| 1st year | $74,343 | $80,336 |
| 2nd–3rd year | $80,336 | $85,910 |
| 4th–6th year | $88,111 | $92,252 |
| 7th year+ | $95,712 | $97,575 |
Senior clinical and management bands (all four professions)
| Classification | Total annual cost incl. Superannuation |
|---|---|
| Level 2.1 — Senior Clinician / Specialist / Supervisor / Educator (<5 yrs in role) | $108,163 |
| Level 2.2 — same roles (5+ yrs in role) | $110,266 |
| Level 3 — Advanced Clinician / Senior Specialist / Section Manager | $110,266 |
| Level 4 — Manager | $138,949 |
Comparing the tables above, the day-one increase for a typical four-year-degree entrant ranges from around +2.8% (1st year) to as much as +13.1% for a clinician who was sitting near the top of the old Level 2 structure. This means it now translates into the new 7th-year-plus band. A pay-protection rule means nobody's rate falls on translation. Anyone already paid above their new minimum simply doesn't move at Stage 1, which is why the impact lands unevenly across a team rather than as a flat percentage everyone feels the same way.
Where the money is actually going by 2030
This is the number that should be in every practice's five-year forecast. Only Stage 1 (above) is a confirmed, published rate. Stages 2 through 5 have not yet been set. The Commission has said they'll be released after the 2026 Annual Wage Review, described only as "approximately equal annual instalments" toward a provisional 2030 target it identified during the case.
The table below is a straight-line planning estimate built from that confirmed Stage 1 rate and that provisional target. We recommend treating 2027–2029 as indicative, not contractual, and expect the Commission's actual published figures to move these numbers once they are formally announced.
AQF Level 7 (EP / Physiotherapy / OT / Speech Pathology base) Total annual cost incl. 12% Superannuation
| Experience | 2026 (confirmed) | 2027 (est.) | 2028 (est.) | 2029 (est.) | 2030 (est.) | Four year change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st year | $72,771 | $76,417 | $80,063 | $83,708 | $87,354 | +20.0% |
| 2nd–3rd year | $78,339 | $81,749 | $85,159 | $88,568 | $91,978 | +17.4% |
| 4th–6th year | $87,034 | $90,310 | $93,583 | $96,859 | $100,132 | +15.0% |
| 7th year+ | $93,935 | $97,526 | $101,113 | $104,704 | $108,291 | +15.3% |
That's a 15–20% rise in the fully-loaded cost of every entry-to-senior clinician on your books, on top of ordinary annual wage review increases each July, which the Commission has explicitly said will keep stacking on top of this schedule rather than being absorbed into it.
The Commission hasn't yet flagged an equivalent 2030 destination for the Level 2–4 senior bands or the AQF8/9 Speech Pathology qualifications, so we can't responsibly put a confirmed number on those rows for 2027–2030 today. But there's no reason to expect the senior end of the award to be exempt from the same correction. If anything, a Level 2.1 Senior Clinician on $108,163 today drifting by a similar 15–20% would put that role north of $125,000–$130,000 in fully-loaded cost within four years. With a figure that high, we strongly urge you to model it into your plans, even if the current numbers are placeholders.
"We'll just absorb it" is no longer a viable strategy
By now, the pressure on the model should be obvious. Fee schedules set by third-party payers move slowly, if at all, and rarely in lockstep with Award decisions. Meanwhile, the minimum labour cost which is always guaranteed to move in your P&L is rising by 20% over four years. All before wage reviews are added on top. And it's rising fastest at exactly the entry-level bands that make up the bulk of most Allied Health headcounts. A practice that has been quietly absorbing small annual cost creep for the last few years is about to find that the creep has a name, a schedule, and a compounding effect.
Systems and workflows that were "good enough" when Award growth was tracking ordinary wage inflation stop being effective when one classification band alone is repricing by double digits in a single year. To address this, practices now genuinely need to be lean on the back end. This means administration, scheduling, billing, compliance overhead, and anything that isn't direct clinical delivery has to run at a level of efficiency that a 2022-era practice simply didn't need.
Also, productivity can no longer be treated as a static assumption baked into a fee schedule once and left alone. If a first-year clinician now costs the practice materially more than they did last financial year, the billable output expected of that clinician in terms of sessions per day, utilisation of available hours, caseload mix needs to be reviewed against that new cost base.
And that expectation has to scale by career stage: a seventh-year-plus clinician costing close to $94,000 today and potentially over $108,000 by 2030 needs to be operating at a level of clinical efficiency, complexity of caseload, or leadership contribution that justifies the premium over a first-year hire. If this isn’t the case, the business is simply paying more for the same output, which is margin compression by definition.
Investing in your team is still the right call
None of this is a reason to under-invest in the team. The Commission's finding was that these roles were underpaid relative to their value, and the correction is deserved. It is, however, a very concrete reason to start the planning now rather than in September 2026. Every practice covered by this Award should be running its own staff-by-staff classification exercise today. This includes mapping actual qualifications and experience to the new structure and turning the tables above into an actual four-year cash-flow forecast. If this headcount mix isn’t accounted for now, the first pay period after 1 October 2026 will end up making the decision for your practice.
Sources
Figures are drawn from the Fair Work Commission's final determination ([2026] FWCFB 123, 25 May 2026) and its December 2025 decision on rates and phasing ([2025] FWCFB 297), arising from the Gender-based undervaluation – priority awards review (AM2024/20). Only Stage 1 (1 October 2026) rates are currently confirmed; 2027–2030 figures are planning estimates pending the Commission's further determination, expected after the 2026 Annual Wage Review. Superannuation is modelled at the current 12% Superannuation Guarantee rate. This article is general commentary for business planning purposes and is not legal, industrial relations or financial advice — practices should confirm final classifications and rates against the Commission's published determinations before applying them in payroll or budgets.
Disclaimer: This article contains general information only and should not be considered accounting, taxation or financial advice. Business owners should seek advice from their accountant, bookkeeper or financial adviser regarding their specific circumstances.
