MA000027 · Award resource hub
One table for every dated change to the award's classification structure and minimum rates — the July wage increase, the 1 October 2026 reclassification of health professionals, and the staged increases running to 2030 — plus the reason the October reclassification never reaches your front desk.
The health professional reclassification takes effect from 1 October 2026. It reaches each employee from the start of their first full pay period beginning on or after that date, so a clinic whose fortnight begins on 5 October changes on 5 October.
Culture of One · Written by Shane Gunaratnam, Founder · Last updated 24 September 2026
MA000027 — the Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 — is the award a private allied health practice in Australia is normally covered by. It covers employers in the health industry for the classifications set out in its Schedule A, and it covers health professionals occupationally. Coverage attaches to those classifications rather than to everyone an employer happens to engage, so the practice's industry is not on its own the answer for every role on the payroll. The list of professions the award names in Schedule B.3 is indicative: the Fair Work Commission has said that schedule does no more than provide an indicative list of common health professionals and their qualifications, and that it does not define the extent of the award's coverage.
Source: MA000027 clause 4.1; [2026] FWCFB 123 at [20] (held)
The single most useful thing to know about MA000027 in 2026 is that it holds two separate classification structures, and only one of them is changing.
Which half of that split you are in decides everything else on this page.
| Date | What happens | Who it reaches | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 July 2026 | The Annual Wage Review increase to the award's minimum rates took effect, from the first full pay period that started on or after 1 July 2026. The current figures are published in the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay Guide for MA000027, effective 1 July 2026. | Both streams | Fair Work Ombudsman Pay Guide, MA000027, effective 01/07/2026, published 24 June 2026 |
| 1 October 2026 | The new health professional classification structure and the first stage of the new minimum rates come into operation. For any individual employee the change takes effect from the start of their first full pay period starting on or after 1 October 2026 — so if your pay period does not begin on 1 October, it starts later that month. | Health professionals | [2026] FWCFB 123 at [80] (held); the determination, Part B |
| 1 October 2026 | Every health professional employed on 30 September 2026 translates into the new structure, at that same first full pay period. For an employee classified at Level 1 or Level 2 on 30 September, the award does the translation in the fourteen tables at cl J.4.1(a)–(n), one per AQF level and qualification entry pathway: take the table for the AQF level their profession carries under Schedule B and the pathway they entered on, then read across from the classification and pay point they held on 30 September. Where that pay point does not reflect their years in the profession — not years with that employer — the clause’s own words govern and the table’s answer has to be checked against them. An employee classified at Level 3 or Level 4 is classified on the roles and duties they perform and how long they have performed them. No award minimum falls: the minimum for that employee becomes the higher of the minimum for their translated classification and the minimum that applied to their previous classification under the award on 30 September 2026. | Health professionals | MA000027 cl J.4.1 (previous Levels 1–2), cl J.4.2 (previous Levels 3–4) and cl J.4.3 (the higher-of-two-minimums rule), all inserted by PR814029 ppc 01Oct26 and now in the consolidated award |
| 30 June 2027 | Second of the five stages of the phased increase to health professional minimum rates. | Health professionals | [2026] FWCFB 123 at [80] (held) |
| 30 June 2028 | Third stage of the phased increase. | Health professionals | [2026] FWCFB 123 at [80] (held) |
| 30 June 2029 | Fourth stage of the phased increase. | Health professionals | [2026] FWCFB 123 at [80] (held) |
| 30 June 2030 | Fifth and final stage. From this date the new minimum rates are fully in. | Health professionals | [2026] FWCFB 123 at [80] (held) |
| Every 1 July | Where the Annual Wage Review varies modern award minimum wages, the variation applies to this award as it does to any other. The staged health professional increases sit on top of it: the Commission rejected any submission that they be absorbed into Annual Wage Review increases, because absorbing them would defeat the purpose of the correction. | Both streams | [2026] FWCFB 123 at [76] (held) |
| No change | None of the October change and none of the phase-in reaches employees classified in the award's Support Services stream — reception, administration, clerical and cleaning staff. The new classification structure and the AQF schedule are written for Health Professional employees. Clause 16.1 continues to apply to Support Services staff and the Commission made no findings that would require it to be amended. Their award minimum rates move once a year, with the Annual Wage Review. | Support Services | [2026] FWCFB 123 at [73] (held); determination cl B.2; MA000027 clause 16.1 |
One thing the table cannot settle. The 1 October 2026 figures published with the May 2026 decision are stated before the 2026 Annual Wage Review, and the Commission said a further determination would be published after that review to incorporate any changes flowing from it. Read the published determinations and the Pay Guide for operative figures rather than computing them from the decision's tables.
Source: [2026] FWCFB 123 at [97] (held)
Everything on this page is free, and none of it is behind a form. The table above is the whole schedule, and the articles below it work through what each change means.
The work the table cannot do for you is the one-employee-at-a-time part: placing each health professional the award covers into the new structure, running the higher-of-two-rates comparison for each of them, and arriving at the award minimum rate their new classification produces from their first full pay period after 1 October 2026. That is what REBUILD is — the same worksheets used with private clients, self-paced, one payment.
Start from the person you are asking about, not from the change.
The October reclassification applies to them. Three pages cover it end to end.
None of the October change reaches them. If that is the whole of your question, one page answers it and nothing else here applies to you.
Support Services staff are on the ordinary Annual Wage Review track. The next scheduled movement in their award minimum rate is 1 July, not 1 October.
Three free tools, no sign-up on any of them.
What a new graduate physiotherapist costs in wages and super, and the award settings that move the number.
How a new graduate's award minimum pay progresses year by year, and what that does to a wage-to-billings ratio as they move up.
Pick a level to read the award's own duty definitions for it, compare all nine levels side by side, and only then read the rate. It sits inside the admin and receptionist rates page, because duties decide the level and the rate follows.
The tools above tell you where a role lands. The room is the other half of it — ninety minutes on getting the reclassification actually done before the new rates reach your payroll: what has to be finished and in what order, a guided audit you run against your own staff list, the scenarios that turn up on nearly every list, and the traps in the first pay periods after the change.
Thursday 1 October, 12:30pm AEST. An encore sitting of the REBUILD Room — ninety minutes, live, and recorded, the same session run a second time. There is no separate ticket and no second price — owning REBUILD is what gets you in the room.
Newest first. All of it is free and open.
The wider picture these sit inside — what the award does to a clinic's economics rather than what the rule says — is evidence-based economics for clinic owners.
Every answer on this page, and on every article and calculator it links to, is free and open. Nothing is behind a form or a download. The answers are the deliverable.
REBUILD is the other thing. It is the October reclassification worked end to end — every clinician translated, floored and repriced, with the same worksheets we use with private clients. Self-paced, and built for a weekend rather than an afternoon, because doing this properly across a team is a project.
Buy REBUILD before 1 October and you are in the room: ninety minutes, live with Shane, working through the October implementation with the other owners in the room. The recording sits with the nine segments afterwards, so the replay is yours either way — but the questions only get answered on the day.
Thursday 1 October, 12:30pm AEST. An encore sitting of the REBUILD Room — ninety minutes, live, and recorded, the same session run a second time. There is no separate ticket and no second price — owning REBUILD is what gets you in the room.
No. The 1 October 2026 reclassification under the Health Professionals and Support Services Award (MA000027) applies to health professionals. Reception, administration, clerical and cleaning staff are classified under the award's Support Services stream, which keeps its existing classification structure. Clause 16.1 continues to apply to Support Services staff and the Fair Work Commission made no findings that would require it to be amended ([2026] FWCFB 123 at [73]). Support Services award minimum rates move with the Annual Wage Review each 1 July.
The determination comes into operation on 1 October 2026, but it does not take effect in relation to a particular employee until the start of that employee's first full pay period that starts on or after 1 October 2026 (PR814029, Part B). A clinic whose fortnight begins on 5 October changes on 5 October, not on the 1st.
The new health professional minimum rates are phased in over five stages. The first stage commences with the new classification structure on 1 October 2026. The remaining four take effect from 30 June in each of 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030 ([2026] FWCFB 123 at [80]). Each stage's figures are set by the Fair Work Commission's published determinations.
No. For an employee classified under the award on 30 September 2026, the award minimum becomes the higher of two award minimums: the minimum for the classification they translate into, and the minimum that applied to their previous classification under the award as it stood on 30 September 2026 (MA000027 cl J.4.3, inserted by PR814029; the old pay-point minimums are listed at cl J.4.3(b)). That provision is why no award minimum falls on 1 October, including where a translated classification would otherwise produce a minimum below the pay point the employee currently sits on. It is a test between two award minimums, not a comparison against what an employee is actually paid — pay above the award is governed by the contract, and cl J.4.3 does not speak to it.
No. The Fair Work Commission rejected any submission that the increases to health professional minimum rates be absorbed into future Annual Wage Review increases, on the basis that absorbing them would substantially vitiate the correction the increases exist to make ([2026] FWCFB 123 at [76]). The staged increases sit on top of the Annual Wage Review, not inside it.
Coverage is set by clause 4.1 of MA000027 read with the classification definitions in its Schedule A. The award's own list of professions is indicative — it is the table at Schedule B.3, which since 24 September 2026 is in the consolidated award itself as well as in determination PR814029. The Fair Work Commission has said that schedule does no more than provide an indicative list of common health professionals and their qualifications, and does not define the extent of the award's coverage ([2026] FWCFB 123 at [20]). A profession's absence from that list therefore does not decide the question either way.
For someone hired on or after 1 October 2026, classification is set on commencement by the AQF level for their profession, and then by their years of experience in the profession. Where the award lists a profession at more than one AQF level, the level of the qualification the employee actually holds decides. For someone already employed on 30 September 2026 the route depends on their classification that day: previous Levels 1 and 2 translate through the cl J.4.1 tables, read across from the classification and pay point they held on 30 September in the table for their AQF level and qualification entry pathway; previous Levels 3 and 4 translate on the roles and duties they perform (MA000027 cl B.2, cl J.4.1 and cl J.4.2, as consolidated to 1 October 2026; the same clauses are in determination PR814029).
Clause J.4.2 is correct. It sits in Schedule J of the Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020, and until recently it could not be found there: the consolidated award on the Fair Work website carried amendments only up to 1 April 2026, and its Schedule J ended at J.3.2. In late September 2026 the Commission re-issued the consolidated award, which now carries amendments up to and including 1 October 2026 and runs to J.4.4. Clauses J.4.1 and J.4.2 translate existing health professionals into the new structure and clause J.4.3 is the retained-rate floor. The J.3.2 you may have found is a real but unrelated clause: it is the minimum rate of pay retained for dental assistants and pathology collectors, not a health professional translation rule. The same clauses are in the determination that varies the award — PR814029, issued 7 September 2026, operative 1 October 2026 — where clause J.4 starts on page 17 and clause J.4.2 on page 25. Two things to watch. Earlier drafts numbered these rules J.3.1 to J.3.3 and they were renumbered to J.4 before the final determination issued, so a citation to J.3.x for a health professional is working from a superseded draft. And the clause 17 rate tables in the re-issued consolidated award are the October rates: clause 17 is substituted by PR814029 with effect from 1 October 2026 and carries no pay points at all, and Schedule C summarises those October rates too. The rates payable before then survive in one place in the document — clause J.4.3(b), the retained-rate floor, which lists the minimum rates applicable as at 30 September 2026 for Level 1 pay points 1 to 6, Level 2 pay points 1 to 4, Level 3 pay point 5 and Level 4 pay point 4. Those are the rates you must pay until the first full pay period starting on or after 1 October 2026, and they are printed there as a floor rather than as a rate table, so it is an easy page to walk past.
Work out which of your employees are health professionals under the award and which are Support Services, classify each health professional under the new structure, compare the minimum that produces against the minimum that applied to their previous classification on 30 September 2026 (cl J.4.3(b)) and use the higher of the two as their award floor, check that what you actually pay each person clears it, and confirm each employee's classification in writing. The award requires an employee to be advised of their classification in writing on starting and when it changes (MA000027 clause 12.2). The order of those steps is our reading of what the award's requirements mean in practice; the award does not set out a checklist.
One email when the reclassification goes live, pointing at what changed. Nothing else.
Nothing on this page is behind it — the answers stay free whether you subscribe or not.
The dates and rules on this page come from four documents: the Health Professionals and Support Services Award as currently published, the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay Guide for it, the Fair Work Commission's decision of 26 May 2026, and the determination of 7 September 2026 that varies the award from 1 October. The October classification and translation rules are in that determination, and the consolidated award was re-issued in late September 2026 carrying them too, which is why this page cites both. Where this page describes what a change means for a clinic rather than what those documents say, it says so. If a decision about a real employee turns on what you read here, read the sources.
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 does not take account of your clinic, your contracts or any individual's circumstances. The award and the Fair Work Commission's determinations are the authority; where this page and those documents differ, those documents govern. Before you change anyone's classification or pay, check the published determinations and get advice on your own situation.
Last updated 24 September 2026.