Ramsay Health Care Pay Rates 2026: Nurses & Support Staff

Ramsay is Australia's largest private hospital operator, employing more than 35,000 people. Two awards set the pay floor:

• Nurses Award 2020 (MA000034) — registered nurses, enrolled nurses, and nursing assistants. Private hospital staff are on the standard scale (the higher aged-care rates from the work value case apply only to aged-care employees).
• Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (MA000027) — physios, imaging and allied health professionals, plus cleaners, orderlies, catering, stores, and administration.

In practice most Ramsay staff are on state-based enterprise agreements paying above these floors — see the EA section below. The award still matters as the benchmark your agreement must beat, and as the floor during bargaining gaps.

Adult minimum hourly rates from 1 July 2026, verified against the Fair Work Commission pay database (standard, non-aged-care scale):

Classification	Permanent	Casual (+25%)
Nursing assistant — 1st year	$27.65	$34.56
Nursing assistant — experienced (Cert III)	$29.45	$36.81
Enrolled nurse — pay point 1	$30.00	$37.50
Enrolled nurse — pay point 5	$31.56	$39.45
Registered nurse Level 1 — pay point 1	$32.09	$40.11
Registered nurse Level 1 — pay point 8	$38.57	$48.21
Registered nurse Level 2 — pay point 1	$39.59	$49.49
Registered nurse Level 3 — pay point 1	$42.93	$53.66

RN Level 1 steps through eight pay points with years of service; Levels 2 and 3 (clinical nurse specialist and unit-manager-type roles) each have four. Your pay point must advance with your service — stalled increments are one of the most common nursing payroll faults.

For non-nursing hospital staff:

Classification	Permanent	Casual (+25%)
Support services Level 1 (cleaning, kitchen)	$26.97	$33.71
Support services Level 2 (orderly, catering)	$28.03	$35.04
Support services Level 3 (ward support, admin)	$29.11	$36.39
Health Professional Level 1 — AQF 5/6, 1st year (from 1 Oct 2026)	$32.44	$40.55
Health Professional Level 1 — AQF 7 (e.g. physiotherapist), 1st year (from 1 Oct 2026)	$34.44	$43.05

Health professional rates follow the restructure that applies from the first full pay period on or after 1 October 2026 (FWC determination PR814029); support services rates are from 1 July 2026. Every health professional level is on our Health Professionals Award pay rates page.

Under the Nurses Award, permanent full-time and part-time staff (using RN Level 1 pay point 1 at $32.09/hr as the example):

• Saturday: 150% — $48.14/hr
• Sunday: 175% — $56.16/hr
• Public holiday: 200% — $64.18/hr
• Afternoon shift (Mon-Fri): 112.5% — $36.10/hr
• Night shift (Mon-Fri): 115% — $36.90/hr

Hospital rosters run 24/7, so shift and weekend loadings routinely add 15-30% to a nurse's gross pay. Every one of these should be a separate line on your payslip.

Ramsay bargains state by state and stream by stream. Current agreements in our corpus include:

• Ramsay Health Care Victoria Nurses and Midwives Enterprise Agreement 2026-2030 — the newest, running to April 2030.
• Ramsay Health Care South Australia Nurses Enterprise Agreement 2024.
• Ramsay Health Care Queensland Health Professionals Enterprise Agreement 2024.
• Ramsay Health Care WA HSU, Health Professionals, Administrative, Clerical and Technical Enterprise Agreement 2025.

These agreements set rates above the award figures shown here, with their own classification structures and qualification allowances — we don't reproduce EA dollar figures because the agreement covering your state and stream is the document to read. Find your hospital's agreement, then your classification, then your pay point.

The recurring issues in private hospital pay:

• Frozen pay points — increments that should step annually but don't.
• Qualification allowances missed — postgraduate certificates and specialty qualifications often attract allowances under EAs.
• Wrong classification after promotion — acting or permanent in-charge duties paid at base RN Level 1 rates.
• Weekend and night loadings dropped when rosters change or payroll systems migrate.

Check your rate against your EA (or the award tables above if no EA applies) using our payslip checker, quantify any shortfall with the back-pay calculator, and raise it in writing with payroll. If it isn't fixed within a couple of pay cycles, the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) recovers underpayments at no cost — and for nurses, your union branch will also pursue it.