Uniting NSW.ACT Pay Rates 2026: Carer, Nurse & Support Staff Pay

Uniting is the community services arm of the Uniting Church in New South Wales and the ACT, running residential aged care, home care, early learning, disability and family services. It is one of the biggest not-for-profit employers in the state, with personal carers, home care workers, nurses, educators and support workers on its books.

Uniting's aged care homes sit on the Aged Care Award 2010 (with the Nurses Award for nursing staff), its home care and disability services on the SCHADS Award, and its early learning centres on the Children's Services Award. The aged care ladder below is the floor for residential care roles.

The federal awards relevant to Uniting NSW.ACT roles:

• Aged Care Award 2010 (MA000018)
• Nurses Award 2020 (MA000034)

Workforce snapshot. In its 2024-25 report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Uniting (NSW.ACT) declared 11,710 employees — 14.8% casual and 80% women, with 767 in management roles. Source: WGEA 2025 Public Data File, data.gov.au (CC-BY 3.0 AU).

After the aged care work value case, the Aged Care Award 2010 (MA000018) direct-care ladder (personal care workers, assistants in nursing, care team leaders) is:

The FWC publishes these direct-care rates weekly; hourly figures are the weekly rate ÷ 38, matching the Fair Work pay guide presentation.

Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.

Catering, cleaning, laundry, maintenance, lifestyle and administration staff sit on the general stream:

Weekend, shift and public holiday penalties apply on top — the aged care penalty schedule is not tabled here, so check a specific roster with the penalty rates calculator.

Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.

As at 6 September 2026, our corpus of 14,141 federally registered enterprise agreements holds no current agreement for Uniting NSW.ACT. That usually means one of three things: the employer pays on the award (or on individual contracts above it), the agreement covering you is registered under a different entity name (check the employer name on your payslip and search our agreements database), or — for state public-sector employers — pay is set by a state award or agreement outside the federal register. If you have a copy of an agreement that names Uniting NSW.ACT, it beats the award figures above.

General award-compliance issues that come up across the aged care sector. This is a checklist for your own payslip, not a finding about Uniting NSW.ACT:

• Wrong direct-care level — Cert III personal care workers sit at direct care level 3, not level 1 or 2; medication-competent and senior carers higher again.
• Unpaid handover and documentation before and after the rostered shift.
• Sleepovers, broken shifts and short-notice changes paid without the award's allowances.
• Agreement rates frozen below the award's post-work-value floor — the award now overtakes some older agreement grids.

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.