Grad Progression Calculator
What your grad costs as they grow
Hire a graduate physio in 2027 and slide forward. Each year they gain experience and climb the award bands — and the new rates phase in underneath them. One hire, watched over time.
Hourly rate
Per week
Per year (base)
Two things lift the cost at once
These rates apply from 1 October 2026. Before that, the old pay-point structure is in force.
As the grad gains experience they move up the bands — 1st year, then 2nd–3rd, then 4th–6th, then 7th year and beyond. At the same time, the new award rates phase in from 1 October 2026 to 30 June 2030. The person climbs and the rates climb, so the cost rises faster than either on its own.
The jumps are the band crossings
Most years are a steady single-digit rise. The big steps land when they cross a band — around year 4 (into 4th–6th) and year 7 (into 7th year+). A grad is not a fixed cost. They are an escalating one, and the steps are the part owners do not see coming.
What is locked, and what is your call
Two of the five stages are fixed. The 1 October 2026 rate is set by the Fair Work Commission's determination of 7 September 2026 (PR814029), operative 1 October 2026, and the 30 June 2030 rate is its published end point; both are in today's dollars, with the confirmed 4.75% review applied and your own assumption compounding on top. The three steps in between — 2027, 2028 and 2029 — follow the Commission's own staging method, which is equal annual increments with a minimum 3% increase at each of the middle stages and the balance paid at the last. Those three figures follow the Commission's published staging, confirmed by a determination each year: each year's dollar figure is made by a determination after that year's annual wage review. Everything past 4.75% is your inflation assumption — drag the slider. The first step lands on 1 October 2026; the four after it land on 30 June, so from 2027 onward the back half of a year runs one step higher than the front half. Figures are base wage plus 12% super; leave loading, penalties and bonus sit on top.
The cost only climbs. Get ahead of it.
The calculator shows you where a grad's pay lands in five years. Designing for that now — the structure, the roles, the margin — is how you stay profitable while the rates rise. That's what the advisory is for.
Fix My WagesAbout this information
These figures model a new graduate starting on the first-year rate. Don't use them to set pay for someone who was already on your team before 1 October 2026 — they keep their old rate as a floor where it's higher, and this calculator doesn't check that.
Culture of One is a business advisory firm, not a law firm. This is general information about the Health Professionals and Support Services Award — not legal or workplace-relations advice — and it doesn't take account of your clinic, your contracts, or any individual's circumstances. Forward dollar figures are estimates, not final rates. The FY2027–FY2029 steps follow the Fair Work Commission's published staging, confirmed by a determination each year. The 1 October 2026 rate is set by the Commission's determination of 7 September 2026 (PR814029), operative 1 October 2026, and the 30 June 2030 rate is its published end point, but every figure on this page is in today's dollars and rises again each year as the annual wage review is applied on top. Before you change anyone's classification or pay, get advice on your own situation.
Current as at 7 September 2026.
The grad you hire today is not the cost you signed up for. — Culture of One