Aged care pay and the Quality Standards: two rulebooks, one workforce

Short version: employment in aged care is governed by Fair Work rules — usually the Aged Care Award 2010 (MA000018) for residential aged care, the SCHADS Award (MA000100) for home care, and the Nurses Award 2020 (MA000034) for registered and enrolled nurses. Care quality is governed separately by the Aged Care Act 2024, under which the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards have applied since 1 November 2025. Both depend on the same accurate workforce records, but neither substitutes for the other.

Part 1 — Paying aged care staff

Which award applies?

Two points cause most of the confusion. First, MA000100 is the SCHADS Award — it is not a stream of the Aged Care Award. Second, nursing assistants working in residential aged care who were covered by the Nurses Award moved to the Aged Care Award from 1 January 2025. A provider running both residential and home care will often apply more than one award to the same workforce, and where an enterprise agreement covers an employee, the award generally does not apply. The rest of Part 1 covers the Aged Care Award only; SCHADS and the Nurses Award have their own rules, so do not carry these figures across.

Classifications and rates

The Aged Care Award has two streams: general employees (levels 1 to 7 — for example cleaning, laundry, food services and administration) and direct care employees (levels 1 to 6, from Introductory through to Team Leader). The level depends on the work, qualifications and responsibility in the award’s classification definitions. Rates have moved repeatedly — through the Fair Work Commission’s aged care work value case, with changes from the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2025 and further increases from 1 October 2025, as well as each annual wage review — so always use the current pay guide rather than an old figure.

Casual, part-time and minimum engagement

• Casual loading: 25% of the ordinary hourly rate, paid instead of the paid leave entitlements that full-time employees accrue.
• Minimum engagement: full-time employees are paid at least 4 hours for each engagement of ordinary hours; part-time and casual employees at least 2 hours.

Shifts, weekends and public holidays

• Shift allowances, paid for the entire shift on top of the ordinary rate: 10% for an afternoon shift starting from 10.00 am and before 1.00 pm; 12.5% for one starting from 1.00 pm and before 4.00 pm; 15% for a night shift starting from 4.00 pm and before 4.00 am; and 10% for one starting from 4.00 am and before 6.00 am. Employees working fewer than 38 hours a week get these only where the shift starts before 6.00 am or finishes after 6.00 pm.
• Weekends: ordinary hours are paid at 150% on Saturdays and 175% on Sundays for permanent employees, instead of shift allowances. Casuals are paid 175% on Saturdays and 200% on Sundays, instead of the casual loading.
• Public holidays: full-time and part-time employees who work receive an extra 150% for the hours worked or the same hours added to annual leave, by an election made at the start of employment and each anniversary. Casuals are paid 275%, instead of the casual loading and weekend rates.
• Casual overtime has its own rates in this award — for example 187.5% for the first two hours from Monday to Friday and 250% after that.

Broken shifts, sleepovers and allowances

• Broken shifts can be worked by casual and part-time employees by mutual agreement, with unpaid breaks (other than a meal break) totalling no more than four hours and a span of no more than 12 hours. They are paid at ordinary pay with the usual penalty rates and shift allowances — this award has no separate broken shift allowance.
• Sleepovers have their own conditions, including a span of between 8 and 10 hours.
• Allowances include uniforms (supplied, or a uniform allowance), a laundry allowance where the employer does not launder them, and leading hand, meal, nauseous work, tool and travel or vehicle allowances.

Casual employment, super and records

Since 26 August 2024, the Fair Work Act has defined a casual by the absence of a firm advance commitment to continuing and indefinite work, and casuals move to permanent work through the employee choice pathway in the National Employment Standards: after 6 months (12 months with a small business), a casual who believes they no longer meet the definition can give written notice, and the employer must consult and respond in writing within 21 days. See casual vs part-time work in labour hire.

From 1 July 2026, the super guarantee is 12% of an employee’s qualifying earnings, paid for each payday and reaching the fund within 7 business days (with some exceptions); the ATO says casual loading and shift penalties count, but overtime does not where the award clearly identifies ordinary hours. Employers must keep time and wages records for 7 years and give pay slips within one working day of payday.

Part 2 — Aged care regulation

The Aged Care Act 2024 and the strengthened Quality Standards

The strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards are part of the Aged Care Act 2024 and have applied since 1 November 2025. They are more detailed and measurable than the standards they replaced, and there are seven:

1. The individual
2. The organisation
3. The care and services
4. The environment
5. Clinical care
6. Food and nutrition
7. The residential community

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission audits providers against them when they apply to register in, or add, registration categories 4, 5 or 6, and each provider must meet the standards that apply to it.

Worker screening

All aged care workers and responsible persons (such as a CEO or board member) need either a police certificate no older than 3 years that does not record certain offences, or an NDIS worker screening check. The registered provider must assess the police certificate for those offences. Other workforce requirements — vaccinations, specific training or qualifications — depend on the service, the role and other laws, so do not assume one national list applies to every worker.

Care minutes

Residential care homes must deliver an average number of direct care minutes to residents each quarter, set for each home. The requirement is based on a sector-wide average of 215 minutes of care per resident per day, including 44 minutes of direct registered nurse care. Care minutes count care from registered nurses, enrolled nurses, personal care workers and assistants in nursing, and residential homes also have a 24/7 registered nurse responsibility.

Serious incidents

Under the Serious Incident Response Scheme, providers must notify the Commission of Priority 1 reportable incidents within 24 hours of becoming aware of them, and Priority 2 incidents within 30 days.

Where the two rulebooks meet

The obligations are separate, but they draw on the same records. Who worked, in what role, for how many hours and with which current checks feeds the pay run, care minutes reporting and screening records alike — and incident follow-up often needs to show who was on shift. A record built after the fact, from rosters rather than what actually happened, is weak evidence for any of them.

Where OnCrew fits, and where it does not

OnCrew does not decide which award applies, classify workers, calculate award pay, loadings or penalties, produce care minutes reports, lodge SIRS notifications, or verify anyone with a police service or screening unit. It does not make a provider compliant with the Fair Work rules or the Quality Standards — those stay with the provider’s governance, payroll and advisers.

What OnCrew handles is the operational record:

• Credentials with expiry tracking. Police checks, NDIS worker screening, first aid, CPR, manual handling, medication administration, infection control and vaccination records are among the credential types OnCrew can record, with document number, issue date and expiry date. Uploads from workers wait for your office to review, expiry dates are rechecked automatically, and where SMS reminders are switched on workers are texted before a lapse.
• Requirements per site. Each site can carry its own required credentials, each set to warn or to enforce; where one enforces, a worker without it is blocked from that site’s shifts unless an admin deliberately overrides it, which is logged.
• Onboarding with an office review. Workers onboard from their phone, and are placed only after your office marks them ready to work.
• Shifts, clock-in and approval. Each clock-in is location-checked against the site — one from outside the boundary is flagged for review rather than blocked — and clock-out is time-stamped but not location-checked. Supervisors approve hours, and approved hours export to your payroll system, which applies the award.
• Internal incident records. Supervisors and the office can record incidents against a site. These are internal records — not a SIRS notification to the Commission.

More on healthcare and aged care staffing and credential expiry tracking.

Official sources checked for this guide (October 2026): Aged Care Award 2010 (consolidated to 1 September 2026) · SCHADS Award 2010 · Fair Work Ombudsman — MA000018 summary · Fair Work Ombudsman — aged care work value case changes · Fair Work Ombudsman — becoming a permanent employee · ATO — qualifying earnings · Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission — strengthened Quality Standards · Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — screening requirements · Department — care minutes · Commission — reportable incidents (SIRS)