University of Melbourne Pay Rates 2026: Professional & Academic Staff Pay

The University of Melbourne is Victoria's largest university employer, with academic staff at every level and a professional workforce across teaching support, research administration, libraries, facilities and student services. In December 2024 the university entered an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman to provide $72 million in back payments to over 25,000 staff (FWO media release). The FWO has also brought Federal Court proceedings against the university (Fair Work Ombudsman v University of Melbourne [2024] FCA 330).

Staff are covered by the University of Melbourne enterprise agreement (below), negotiated with the NTEU. The federal awards underneath — the Higher Education Industry—Academic Staff—Award 2020 and the Higher Education Industry—General Staff—Award 2020 — are tabled below, including casual academic rates for lectures, tutorials and marking.

The federal awards relevant to University of Melbourne roles:

• Higher Education Industry—General Staff—Award 2020 (MA000007)
• Higher Education Industry—Academic Staff—Award 2020 (MA000006)

Workforce snapshot. In its 2024-25 report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, University Of Melbourne declared 15,313 employees across 3 reporting entities — 21.2% casual and 60.4% women, with 1,530 in management roles. Source: WGEA 2025 Public Data File, data.gov.au (CC-BY 3.0 AU).

Professional (general) staff sit on the Higher Education Industry—General Staff—Award 2020 (MA000007). The first pay point of each HEW level is:

Casual professional staff add the 25% loading. University enterprise agreements set their own HEW scales above these figures.

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

Academic staff sit on the Higher Education Industry—Academic Staff—Award 2020 (MA000006). Step 1 of each level:

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

Casual academics are paid piece rates for each activity under the award. The most common:

The associated-work hours built into each rate are the crux of the sector's underpayment cases — if you are paid for the delivery hour only, or marking is capped below the time it takes, the award is not being met.

Enterprise agreements set rates above the award, with their own classification structures and allowances. Current University of Melbourne agreements in our corpus (3 in total):

• Melbourne Theatre Company - Production and Theatre Service Employees - Agreement 2024-2027 — approved November 2025, nominal expiry 30 June 2027.
• University of Melbourne Enterprise Agreement 2024 — approved April 2024, nominal expiry 10 April 2026.
• University of Melbourne Student Union Agreement 2023- 2025 — approved December 2024, nominal expiry 31 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.

General award-compliance issues that come up across the university sector. This is a checklist for your own payslip, not a finding about University of Melbourne:

• Casual academic piece rates that don't cover the work — paid for the delivery hour only, or marking capped below the time it takes.
• Wrong HEW level for the duties actually performed.
• Rolling fixed-term contracts where the work is ongoing.
• Increments and step progression missed after contract changes.

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.