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

The University of Sydney is one of the country's largest single employers, with academic staff from casual tutors to professors and a professional workforce spanning student services, IT, libraries, laboratories, facilities and administration. Casual and fixed-term academic employment — and the underpayment of casual academics for marking and preparation — has been the sector's defining pay issue.

University of Sydney staff are covered by the university's enterprise agreement (below), negotiated with the NTEU. The federal awards underneath are the Higher Education Industry—General Staff—Award 2020 (HEW levels) and the Higher Education Industry—Academic Staff—Award 2020; both ladders are tabled below, including the award's casual academic rates for lectures, tutorials and marking.

The federal awards relevant to University of Sydney 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 Sydney declared 18,198 employees — 44.2% casual and 58.3% women, with 1,707 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 Sydney agreements in our corpus (1 in total):

• The University of Sydney Enterprise Agreement 2023-2026 — approved August 2023, nominal expiry 1 June 2026.

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 Sydney:

• 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.