Pay & Wages
Epworth HealthCare Pay Rates 2026: Nurses, Allied Health & Support Staff Pay
What Epworth HealthCare workers should be paid in 2026 — the Health Professionals and Support Services Award floor by classification, casual loading, penalties, and where the Epworth HealthCare enterprise agreements sit.
Who covers Epworth HealthCare workers — award or agreement?
Epworth HealthCare is Victoria's largest not-for-profit private hospital group, with hospitals in Richmond, Geelong, Eastern (Box Hill), Freemasons, Camberwell and other Melbourne sites. It employs nurses and midwives, allied health, theatre and medical support staff, and a large hospital services workforce.
Epworth bargains its own enterprise agreements for nursing, allied health and support streams (listed below where our corpus holds them). The Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 — tabled below — and the Nurses Award are the safety net underneath.
The federal awards relevant to Epworth HealthCare roles:
- Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (MA000027)
- Nurses Award 2020 (MA000034)
Workforce snapshot. In its 2024-25 report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Epworth Foundation declared 8,063 employees — 27.7% casual and 75.7% women, with 283 in management roles. Source: WGEA 2025 Public Data File, data.gov.au (CC-BY 3.0 AU).
Health Professionals and Support Services award floor (1 July 2026)
The Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (MA000027) adult minimums for the roles that sit on it are:
| Classification | Permanent | Casual (incl. 25%) |
|---|---|---|
| Support services Level 1 (cleaning, kitchen hand) | $26.97/hr | $33.71/hr |
| Support services Level 2 (orderly, catering assistant) | $28.03/hr | $35.04/hr |
| Support services Level 3 (ward support, admin/clerical, pathology collector) | $29.11/hr | $36.39/hr |
| Support services Level 4 (cook, senior admin) | $29.45/hr | $36.81/hr |
| Support services Level 5 (trade-qualified, team senior) | $30.45/hr | $38.06/hr |
| Support services Level 6 | $32.09/hr | $40.11/hr |
| Support services Level 7 | $32.67/hr | $40.84/hr |
| Health Professional Level 1 — AQF 5/6, 1st year (from 1 Oct 2026) | $32.44/hr | $40.55/hr |
| Health Professional Level 1 — AQF 7 (e.g. physiotherapist), 1st year (from 1 Oct 2026) | $34.44/hr | $43.05/hr |
| Health Professional Level 2.1 — senior clinician, specialist, supervisor (from 1 Oct 2026) | $51.19/hr | $63.99/hr |
| Health Professional Level 3 — advanced clinician, section manager (from 1 Oct 2026) | $52.19/hr | $65.24/hr |
Nurses and midwives are on the Nurses Award 2020 instead — current classification and pay-point figures are on our Nurses Award pay rates page. Weekend, shift and public holiday penalties apply on top of the figures above.
Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.
The Epworth HealthCare enterprise agreements
Enterprise agreements set rates above the award, with their own classification structures and allowances. Current Epworth HealthCare agreements in our corpus (5 in total):
- Epworth Medical Imaging Support Services Enterprise Agreement 2024 — approved June 2024, nominal expiry 28 June 2028.
- Epworth HealthCare Health and Allied Services Enterprise Agreement 2022 — approved November 2023, nominal expiry 14 November 2027.
- Epworth HealthCare Nurses and Midwives Enterprise Agreement 2024 — approved June 2025, nominal expiry 30 September 2027.
- Epworth HealthCare Allied Health Professionals Enterprise Agreement 2022 — approved May 2023, nominal expiry 1 May 2027.
- Epworth Medical Imaging Health Professionals Enterprise Agreement 2022 — approved January 2024, nominal expiry 30 December 2025.
We don't reproduce agreement dollar figures here — the agreement covering your site, state and stream is the document to read. Find your agreement, then your classification, then your pay point, and compare it with your payslip. The award tables on this page are the floor every one of these agreements must beat.
Hospital pay issues worth checking on any payslip
General award-compliance issues that come up across the hospital sector. This is a checklist for your own payslip, not a finding about Epworth HealthCare:
- Frozen pay points — increments that should step annually but don't, especially after payroll migrations.
- Stream misclassification — admin, ward-support and collector staff left at Level 1–2 while doing Level 3 work.
- Unpaid handover — clinical and shift handover before and after rostered hours is work time.
- Weekend and night loadings dropped when rosters change or systems are replaced.
What to do if your pay looks wrong
Match your payslip to your classification in the agreement (or the award tables above), and price any gap with our back-pay calculator. Raise it in writing with payroll or your manager first — most underpayments are fixed at that step. Unresolved, the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) recovers underpayments at no cost, up to six years back, and your union can run the claim for you. Not sure which instrument covers you? Ask our AI advisor with your role and location.
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FairWork Mate is an independent Australian publisher of workplace-rights information. Our content is prepared with AI assistance and draws on primary sources — the Fair Work Act, modern awards, and Fair Work Commission and Fair Work Ombudsman material. It is general information, not legal advice.