‍Aged care providers with nurses on the Nurses Award face a second payroll date this year that the Aged Care Award alone doesn't require.

Ask an aged care provider which award covers their workforce and the honest answer, for many, is "it depends on who you ask." A personal care worker in a residential aged care facility will generally be covered by the Aged Care Award. A registered nurse in the same building will generally be covered by the Nurses Award. A home care disability support worker at the same organisation may be covered by the SCHADS Award. Three awards, one employer, and in 2026, a set of compliance obligations that do not all land on the same date.

The organisations that manage this well have one thing in common: they treat each award as a separate obligation with a separate timeline. The organisations that get into trouble treat "the July wage increase" as a single event they can action once and move on from.

Why the award coverage question matters more than usual this year

The 2026 Annual Wage Review handed down by the Fair Work Commission on 2 June 2026 increased modern award minimum wages by 4.75% from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. That baseline increase applies across all three awards that commonly cover aged care workforces. So far, straightforward. What is not straightforward is what sits on top of that baseline for two of the three awards, and on different dates.

The Aged Care Award: July only

For employees covered by the Aged Care Award, MA000018, the 1 July 2026 increase is the complete picture for this year. Direct care workers and general care workers covered by this award received staged increases as part of the Aged Care Work Value Case in January 2025 and October 2025. Those tranches are complete. The obligation for July 2026 is to apply the standard 4.75% annual wage review increase to all Aged Care Award classifications from the correct pay period start date. Check your pay cycle calendar. The increase does not apply from midnight on 1 July but from the first full pay period that begins on or after that date.

The Nurses Award: July and August

Registered and enrolled nurses working in aged care settings are covered by the Nurses Award, MA000034, not the Aged Care Award. That distinction matters because the Nurses Award carries an additional obligation in 2026 that the Aged Care Award does not. From 1 July 2026, all Nurses Award rates increase by 4.75% as part of the annual wage review. This applies to all nurses covered by the award, including those in aged care.

From the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 August 2026, eligible registered and enrolled nurses working in aged care receive a further pay increase as the final tranche of the Work Value Case for nurses and midwives. This is a separate determination from the annual wage review. It arises from a multi-year case run by the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation to correct longstanding gender-based undervaluation of nursing work in aged care.

The sequence since 2023 illustrates how significant this case has been. Following the interim 15% increase awarded in 2023, further staged increases have been implemented through subsequent Fair Work Commission determinations, with the August 2026 tranche representing the final instalment of the work value process for eligible aged care nurses. The exact percentage for the August increase had not been published by the Fair Work Ombudsman at the time of writing, with the pay guides flagged for update closer to the date. Employers should check the Fair Work Ombudsman website at fairwork.gov.au for the confirmed rate before the August pay run.

Two payroll updates are required for Nurses Award aged care employees: one before the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2026, and a second before the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 August 2026. Missing the August date is a compliance failure regardless of whether July was handled correctly.

A Note on Nursing Assistants: The Award Has Changed

One classification change that caught some employers off guard in early 2025 is worth repeating here.

From 1 January 2025, nursing assistants who provide care services to older people in residential aged care or home care settings are no longer covered by the Nurses Award. These employees are now covered by either the Aged Care Award or the SCHADS Award, depending on the employer's industry and the nature of the work performed. If your payroll system was still applying Nurses Award rates to nursing assistants in aged care after 1 January 2025, it has been applying the wrong award. The correct award and the correct translation of their classification should be verified before any future pay review or compliance update.

What This Looks Like Across a Single Organisation

An aged care provider operating residential and home care services might have the following award obligations active simultaneously in the second half of 2026.

Personal care workers in residential care: Aged Care Award, 4.75% increase from the first full pay period after 1 July 2026. Registered and enrolled nurses in residential and home care: Nurses Award, 4.75% increase from the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2026, plus a further increase from the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 August 2026.

Home care disability support workers: SCHADS Award, 4.75% increase from the first full pay period commencing on or after 1 July 2026, with some aged care classifications also affected by separate work value increases. See our SCHADS Award update article for details.

That is four separate compliance dates across three awards for one organisation. Each requires a different configuration update, a different rate verification, and a different sign-off before payroll closes.

Related reading: The SCHADS Award Just Got More Complicated: What Employers Must Do Before October

Where Employers Get Into Trouble

The most common failure is assuming that because the July wage review has been applied, the compliance work is done for the year. For aged care organisations with nurses on the Nurses Award, it is not. The August date is a separate obligation that requires a separate action, and it will not be prompted by the same annual wage review reminder that triggered the July update.

The second failure is misclassification.

The boundary between the Nurses Award, the Aged Care Award, and the SCHADS Award has shifted in the past eighteen months. Organisations that have not reviewed award coverage since before January 2025 may be applying the wrong rates to nursing assistants who moved to different award coverage under the Aged Care Work Value Case changes.

The third failure is treating the August increase as "TBC" and deferring preparation until the updated pay rates are published.

Employers already know that a further increase is scheduled for eligible aged care nurses in August 2026, even if the final pay guides and rates are not yet available. Payroll teams that wait for the exact figures to be published and then discover they need to action configuration changes in the same pay period as payroll closing dates are placed under unnecessary pressure.

The preparation should happen now.

The Practical Response

Aged care organisations should run a complete award coverage audit across their workforce. Confirm which award applies to each employee classification, verify that nursing assistants have been correctly transitioned from the Nurses Award where required, and map out the compliance dates that apply to the organisation. For organisations carrying multiple award obligations, OAHI's Award Managed Service provides ongoing management of award updates, classification changes, and configuration adjustments. When a new determination lands, the update is assessed, applied, and confirmed before the next payroll cycle closes. For organisations managing the Nurses Award, the Aged Care Award, and the SCHADS Award simultaneously, that removes the risk of missing a date that does not come with its own obvious reminder.

The complexity in aged care payroll compliance is not new. What is new in 2026 is the density of change across multiple awards in a short window. The employers who manage it well will be those who planned for it as a programme, not an event.

OAHI helps organisations manage award interpretation, payroll compliance, and workforce management across Australia. For support with aged care award obligations, contact the OAHI team or learn about the OAHI Award Mangaed Service HERE

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