Nurses Award 2020(MA000034)

Why this matters for your practice

If you employ a practice nurse, you are running two awards at once. The nurse sits under the Nurses Award 2020 (MA000034), while your receptionists, administrators and many allied health staff sit under the Health Professionals and Support Services Award (MA000027). Paying a nurse from the wrong award is one of the most common underpayment findings in the health sector, and it usually runs for years before anyone notices, because nothing in a payroll system objects.

The exposure is not trivial. Underpayments are recoverable by the employee for up to six years, the Fair Work Ombudsman actively targets health, and since 1 January 2025 intentional underpayment can be a criminal offence. See wage theft.

Who the award covers

The Nurses Award covers nursing employees in the private sector, graded across four classification streams:

• Nursing assistants and assistants in nursing (outside aged care, see the exclusion below).
• Enrolled nurses, graded by pay point and qualification.
• Registered nurses, levels 1 to 5, covering everything from a graduate RN through clinical nurse, nurse manager and nurse educator roles.
• Nurse practitioners, who sit at the top of the structure.

In a general practice, a practice nurse is almost always a registered or enrolled nurse under this award, regardless of how administrative their day-to-day work looks. The instrument follows the qualification and the role, not the setting.

The exclusion that catches aged care employers. From 1 January 2025, the Nurses Award no longer covers nursing assistants who provide care services to older people in residential aged care or home care. Those employees moved to the Aged Care Award and the SCHADS Award. If you run an aged care service and your payroll still has nursing assistants on MA000034, that is a live misclassification.

The 1 August 2026 pay increase, and who actually gets it

A further increase to minimum pay rates took effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 August 2026, under the final determination pr812118. It is the last of the staged increases flowing from the Fair Work Commission's Work Value Case for nurses and midwives, following earlier steps on 1 March 2025 and 1 October 2025.

Read the scope carefully before you budget for it. The Fair Work Ombudsman's wording is that the additional increases apply to eligible enrolled nurses and registered nurses working in aged care, within the registered nurse - aged care employees stream. This is not a general nursing pay rise, and a practice nurse in a suburban general practice is very unlikely to be in scope. Practices that read the headline and applied it across the board have created a different problem: an overpayment they cannot easily claw back, and a new baseline they may not be able to reduce.

Two structural changes came with the same case and are easy to miss:

• From 1 March 2025, annual progression through pay points was removed for registered nurse aged care levels 1, 2 and 3, and grades were removed for levels 4 and 5. Increments now apply at levels 1 and 2 instead.
• Enrolled nurses working in aged care moved to a single higher minimum rate, with the previous pay points removed.

A new Schedule F translation arrangement governs how existing employees map onto the changed structure. If you employ nurses in aged care, that schedule, not your historical pay point, is what determines the correct rate.

What the Fair Work Ombudsman expects

• The right award for each person. Match the instrument to the role before setting pay, and reassess when someone's duties change.
• The right classification level within it, based on qualification, registration division and experience, documented so the reasoning survives the person who made it.
• Penalty rates, shift loadings, overtime, on-call and recall allowances applied on top of the base rate. Nursing has more of these than most awards, and they are where flat-rate arrangements fail.
• The Annual Wage Review increase each year from the first full pay period on or after 1 July, plus any award-specific increase such as the 1 August 2026 one.
• Records and payslips that make the calculation auditable, and the Fair Work Information Statement to new starters.

If you pay an annualised salary, it must cover everything the nurse would have earned under the award for the hours actually worked, including penalties and overtime, and it needs periodic reconciliation rather than an annual assumption.

Common mistakes

• Paying a practice nurse under the Health Professionals Award because everyone else in the practice is on it.
• Applying the 1 August 2026 increase to nurses outside aged care, on the strength of a headline that did not carry the scope caveat.
• Leaving aged care nursing assistants on the Nurses Award after their coverage moved on 1 January 2025.
• Relying on removed pay points, where a rate was historically derived from annual progression that no longer exists.
• Flat hourly rates that look generous until weekend, night and public holiday penalties are added up.
• Treating a part-time nurse's roster changes as informal, when the award requires agreed patterns and pays overtime outside them.

Frequently asked questions

Which award covers a practice nurse in general practice?

The Nurses Award 2020 (MA000034). Registered and enrolled nurses employed in a medical practice sit under this award, not the Health Professionals and Support Services Award that covers the practice's reception, administration and many allied health staff. The award follows the person's nursing qualification and role rather than the type of workplace.

Did all nurses get a pay rise on 1 August 2026?

No. The increase from the first full pay period on or after 1 August 2026 applies to eligible enrolled nurses and registered nurses working in aged care, in the registered nurse aged care employees stream, under final determination pr812118. Nurses outside aged care still receive the Annual Wage Review increase each 1 July, but not this one.

Are nursing assistants still covered by the Nurses Award?

Not in aged care. From 1 January 2025 the Nurses Award stopped covering nursing assistants who provide care services to older people in residential aged care or home care settings. Those employees are covered by the Aged Care Award and the SCHADS Award instead. Nursing assistants outside aged care can still fall under the Nurses Award.

What is the difference between the Nurses Award and the Health Professionals Award?

They cover different people in the same building. The Nurses Award (MA000034) covers registered nurses, enrolled nurses, nurse practitioners and some nursing assistants. The Health Professionals and Support Services Award (MA000027) covers receptionists, administrators, practice support staff and many allied health professionals. A practice employing both runs both instruments simultaneously.

Do doctors fall under the Nurses Award?

No. Medical practitioners are generally award-free, engaged under common-law employment contracts or as independent contractors, and salaried doctors often sit above the high income threshold that puts them outside modern award coverage. Their engagement still has to be lawfully structured and correctly characterised for tax and superannuation.

How far back can a nurse recover an underpayment?

Generally up to six years. The Fair Work Ombudsman can also pursue penalties against the employer and, in some cases, individuals involved in the contravention. Since 1 January 2025 intentional underpayment can be a criminal offence, so a misclassification discovered late is a materially worse problem than one corrected early.

Last reviewed 11 August 2026