New-Grad Wage Calculator
What a new grad will cost you
The new award rates phase in to 2030. A graduate you hire later starts on a higher rung than one you hire now. Pick the profession, set the year, the hours, and your wage-review assumption.
Hourly rate
Per week
Per year (base)
It is the award minimum for a first-year clinician
These rates apply from 1 October 2026. Before that, the old pay-point structure is in force.
A new graduate sits in the "1st year" band. The rate they start on depends on when you hire them, because the new structure climbs in five steps from 1 October 2026 to 30 June 2030 — and each step after the first lands on 30 June, so from 2027 onward a July hire starts one step higher than a January hire in the same year. Hire in early 2027 and they start on the first step. Hire in 2031 and they start on the last.
We start from what is locked in
Two of the five stages are settled rather than proposed. The 1 October 2026 rate comes from the determination the Commission has already made, and the 30 June 2030 rate is its published end point; both are in today's dollars, with the confirmed 4.75% review applied and your own assumption compounding on top. From there, each year adds the next phase-in step plus your assumed annual review. The 4.75% is real. Everything past it is your assumption — drag the slider to test it.
The three steps in between — 2027, 2028 and 2029 — follow the Commission's own staging method, which is equal annual increments with a minimum 3% increase at each of the middle stages and the balance paid at the last. Those three figures appear in a draft determination issued on 14 August 2026 and have not been finalised yet, so read them as the Commission's stated intention rather than as settled rates.
These are base wages, before on-costs
The hourly and weekly figures are the award minimum, exclusive of super. The headline cost adds 12% super. It does not include leave loading, workcover, weekend or evening penalties, or any bonus — those sit on top.
Why these professions and not others
The award sets the Level 1 rate from a qualification level. For the professions in this picker it lists one level each, so the profession settles it and the picker can set it for you. Others are listed at more than one level — speech pathology, dietetics, social work, counselling, orthoptics and prosthetics/orthotics among them. For those, the level follows the qualification the individual actually holds rather than the profession, so placing someone takes their testamur in front of you and this calculator has no way to ask for one. That is why they are not in the list. The profession-by-profession list is on our AQF levels by profession page.
That's the number. Now design it.
The calculator shows you what a grad costs. Building the pay structure on your actual team — your roles, your margins, your hires — is the work that protects the profit. That's what the advisory is for.
Fix My WagesAbout this information
These figures model a new graduate starting on the first-year rate — don't use them to set pay for anyone already on your team, because an existing employee keeps their old rate as a floor where it's higher, and this calculator doesn't check that.
Culture of One is a business advisory firm, not a law firm. This is general information about the Health Professionals and Support Services Award — not legal or workplace-relations advice — and it doesn't take account of your clinic, your contracts, or any individual's circumstances. Forward dollar figures are estimates, not final rates. The FY2027–FY2029 steps come from a draft determination the Fair Work Commission issued on 14 August 2026 and have not been finalised. The 1 October 2026 and 30 June 2030 rates are settled, but every figure on this page is in today's dollars and rises again each year as the annual wage review is applied on top. Before you change anyone's classification or pay, get advice on your own situation.
Current as at 14 August 2026.
Pay great wages and run a great business. — Culture of One