What Does a New Grad Exercise Physiologist Cost a Clinic?

The same wage has to be earned from a cheaper hour.

A new graduate exercise physiologist costs a clinic at least $76,200 a year in wages and super from February 2027, and about $122,700 by mid-2030 on an assumed 4% annual wage review, with no promotion. By default, the award applies AQF 7 to every new exercise physiologist, including the many who qualify through a master's degree. What sets exercise physiology apart is the price side: its NDIS hourly limit is the lowest of the professions in this series that have an NDIS item, $161.99, so the same wage has to be earned from a cheaper hour.

The short answer

	February 2027	Mid-2030
Wages + super, full-time award minimum	$76,200 a year (determined rate)	$122,700 a year (forecast)
Billings needed at 45% wages+super	$169,400 a year	$272,700 a year (forecast)
Per billable hour at 45%	$154	$248 (forecast)

Forecast figures assume a 4% Annual Wage Review each year from 2027, no promotion, and 44 revenue-generating weeks of 25 billable hours. The 40% and 50% ratios, every dated step, the costs that sit on top of wages and the evidence for each figure follow below.

Which rate applies

The Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (MA000027) covers employers in the health industry and their employees in its classifications (cl 4.1(a)), and any employer engaging a health professional employee in those classifications (cl 4.1(b)). The second limb is occupational: it can reach a health professional employed outside a clinic, such as by a disability provider or a school, unless another award or agreement applies. The award's terms do not apply where an enterprise agreement applies, and an employee earning above the high income threshold under a guarantee of annual earnings is outside the award's terms. Where an employer is covered by more than one award, the employee falls under the classification most appropriate to their work and where they do it (cl 4.7).

Schedule B of the award lists exercise physiologist at one level, AQF 7. Under cl B.2(a) a new graduate exercise physiologist starts at Level 1, AQF 7, 1st year: $1,308.80 a week full-time from 1 October 2026, the same floor as a physiotherapy or occupational therapy graduate.

The qualification held is often higher than the level applied. Exercise & Sports Science Australia, the profession's accrediting body, recognises two main routes to accreditation as an Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP): a four-year accredited bachelor degree, which is AQF 7 or, with honours, AQF 8; or a three-year exercise science degree followed by an accredited Master of Clinical Exercise Physiology, which is AQF 9. Because the award lists the profession at AQF 7 only, a graduate holding the master's degree is still classified at AQF 7 unless the employer requires the higher qualification for the role (cl B.2(d)). Expect master's graduates to ask about this at the offer stage; the award answer is AQF 7, and anything above it is your offer.

Accreditation, not Ahpra. Exercise physiology is not registered under the national Ahpra scheme. It is self-regulated through ESSA, and AEP accreditation is what the NDIS exercise physiology items require. The cost of maintaining accreditation, and who pays it, is a contract term.

One graduate, eight dates

When	Experience band	What changes	Base wage	With 12% super	Status
February 2027	1st year	Starts	$68,100	$76,200	Determined
Late June / July 2027	1st year	Award stage 2, plus the July review	$74,300	$83,200	Projected
February 2028	2nd–3rd year	Experience band moves	$79,500	$89,100	Projected
Late June / July 2028	2nd–3rd year	Award stage 3, plus the July review	$86,100	$96,500	Projected
February 2029	2nd–3rd year	No band change	$86,100	$96,500	Projected
Late June / July 2029	2nd–3rd year	Award stage 4, plus the July review	$93,200	$104,400	Projected
February 2030	4th–6th year	Experience band moves	$101,900	$114,100	Projected
Late June / July 2030	4th–6th year	Award stage 5, plus the July review	$109,600	$122,700	Projected

Full-time, 38 ordinary hours a week, rounded to the nearest $100, commencing in the profession in February 2027. On the assumed reviews that is a 61.0% rise in wages plus super with no promotion: the award's staged increases from 30 June, the Annual Wage Review from 1 July, and the experience bands on the anniversary of the employee's experience in the profession.

Determined, published and projected

Three kinds of number sit in every table on this page, and they carry different weight.

Determined. The 1 October 2026 Level 1 rates are in the award now, set by Fair Work Commission determination PR814029 (made 7 September 2026 with [2026] FWCFB 231) and printed inclusive of the 2026 Annual Wage Review. Only the February 2027 row rests on a determined rate alone; every later row adds an assumed review to a published stage rate, so the tables mark it Projected.
Published, not yet operative. The Commission decided in [2026] FWCFB 123 that the new rates phase in over five stages, and its appendix at [2026] FWCFB 216 publishes the rate for every stage to 30 June 2030. Each later stage still has to be put into the award by its own determination. The appendix prints those figures before any later Annual Wage Review.
Projected. The 4% a year for 2027 to 2030 is our assumption, not a determination. Every figure from July 2027 carries it and moves if the actual reviews differ. Read the shape of the curve as the finding and each figure as a planning estimate. Figures are nominal, as payroll will show them.

The award bands Level 1 by years of experience in the profession. The model counts whole years from a February 2027 start with no prior experience, which is why nothing moves at the February 2029 anniversary. How a particular person's experience is counted can move the dates.

Without any future review, the published stage schedule alone takes the same person to about $104,900 a year with super by mid-2030, a 37.6% rise on the starting floor.

The floor, not the payroll. Every figure here is the award minimum for a full-time employee on 38 ordinary hours. A clinic already paying above it starts from its own offer, and the contract sets how that offer moves. The floor still rises by these steps underneath it, and the margin between the offer and the floor narrows at every step unless the offer moves too.

What wages and super leave out

The tables are annualised rates in force at each date, not cash paid across a calendar year, and they cover base wages and super only. The fully loaded cost of employing the same person is higher. Some of the gap is fixed by the award; the rest depends on your state, your insurer and the way you run the role.

Cost	What sets it	How to size it
Annual leave loading	Award cl 27.3: 17.5% on four weeks' leave	About 1.35% of base: $916 a year at the AQF 7 starting rate
Workers compensation premium	Your state scheme and insurer	Each 1% of premium rate is about $681 a year at the AQF 7 starting base
Payroll tax	Your state, once total wages cross its threshold	Same arithmetic: each 1% of rate is about $681 a year at the AQF 7 starting base
Vehicle allowance	Award cl 23.3(h)(i): at least $1.01 a km when the employee is required to use their own car	100 km a week across 44 working weeks is $4,444 a year
Supervision time	Your model	One hour a week of a Level 2.1 clinician's time is at least $51.19 an hour in wages from 1 October 2026, about $2,523 a year with super over 44 weeks, before the billings that hour no longer produces
Registration, indemnity insurance, CPD	The profession's regulator or professional body, and your contract	Who pays is a contract term, not an award entitlement
Recruitment and onboarding	Your process	Time to fill the role and the months before the diary fills

Where they apply, these costs sit on top of the table above. A model built on wages and super alone is built short.

Evenings and Saturdays: which span of ordinary hours applies is a question to confirm for your practice and roster. For a day worker, ordinary hours fall between 6.00 am and 6.00 pm, Monday to Friday, "unless otherwise stated" (cl 13.2(a)). In "private medical, dental, pathology, physiotherapy, chiropractic and osteopathic practices" they fall between 7.30 am and 9.00 pm Monday to Friday and 8.00 am and 4.30 pm on Saturday (cl 13.2(b)). The award defines that phrase as "the practice of any practitioner, such as" a list of examples that includes medical centres, general practices and physiotherapy, chiropractic and osteopathic practices, and excludes medical imaging practices, hospitals and hospices (cl 2). Exercise physiology is not among the examples, but the list is illustrative: not being named does not by itself place a exercise physiology practice outside the definition, and nothing in it expressly places one inside. This page does not resolve it either way: confirm how it applies to your practice and roster before you set the after-hours diary.

What turns on the answer is the cost of an evening hour. Inside the extended span, evening hours are ordinary time. Outside it, work after 6.00 pm is overtime at 150% for the first two hours (cl 25.2) or, for an employee regularly rostered to work ordinary hours outside the span, shiftwork at 115% (cl 2 definition of shiftworker, cl 26.3); at the AQF 7 first-year rate a 150% hour costs at least $17.22 more than a weekday ordinary hour. Ordinary hours worked on a Saturday are paid at 150% (cl 26.1). Until it is confirmed, price any after-hours sessions both ways.

The billings the role has to produce

Wages+super as % of billings	Billings needed, Feb 2027	Per billable hour, Feb 2027	Billings needed, mid-2030	Per billable hour, mid-2030
40%	$190,600	$173	$306,800	$279
45%	$169,400	$154	$272,700	$248
50%	$152,400	$139	$245,400	$223

Per billable hour assumes 44 revenue-generating weeks of 25 completed, revenue-producing hours: 1,100 hours a year. 44 weeks is our planning assumption for the weeks a clinician actually produces billings: a 52-week year less four weeks of annual leave, public holidays, sick leave and training. It is not a statutory figure. The wages and super above are still costed the way the award and the National Employment Standards require, on the full 52-week year, because paid leave is still paid; only the billings side is divided by 44. Cancellations and empty slots come out of the 25 hours, not the 44 weeks, so no absence is counted twice. The hourly figure moves the moment either assumption changes.

Exercise physiology is funded both as individual sessions and as group sessions priced per participant, and the mix changes what an hour earns. That is why this page states the requirement per billable hour and does not convert it into a per-appointment figure; your own session mix does that conversion.

Completed billable hours a week (44 weeks)	20	25	30
Per billable hour needed by mid-2030 at 40%	$349	$279	$232
Per billable hour needed by mid-2030 at 45%	$310	$248	$207
Per billable hour needed by mid-2030 at 50%	$279	$223	$186

We treat 50% as the ceiling rather than the target. In our planning, wages plus super should be no more than half of a clinician's billings, so the role bills at least twice its cost; clinics with different overheads or owner pay will set their own line. Clearing it is not profit; the other half still has to carry rent, admin, equipment and the owner's margin. Our approach to timing is that the first year's target should already point at the end state. We don't set goals for year one that will be redundant by year two.

Where exercise physiology's prices are set for you

The billings table is a target per hour. Some payers set or cap the price instead. Where a scheme fixes or caps what an hour or a service pays, the question becomes how many minutes of the graduate's time that price pays for. The figures below are the schemes' published prices set against the hourly billings this role needs; none of them is a fee recommendation, and private health insurance sets no fee at all. NDIS figures are the national price limits; the schedule sets higher limits for remote and very remote areas.

Payer	Published price	What it pays for at 45% in Feb 2027	By mid-2030
NDIS, exercise physiology items (from 24 Sep 2026)	$161.99 an hour, maximum	If every billable hour were NDIS at the limit, wages+super would be 42.8% of billings	68.9% of billings
Medicare CDM, item 10953	$63.40 benefit a service (min 20 min)	about 24.7 minutes	about 15.3 minutes
DVA, EP11 subsequent consultation (1 Jul 2026)	$77.10 a consultation, expected to run at least 20 minutes	about 30.0 minutes	about 18.7 minutes
NSW workers compensation, EPA002 (example state)	$100.90 a subsequent consultation, maximum	about 39.3 minutes	about 24.4 minutes

This is where exercise physiology differs from physiotherapy. The award minimum is the same, because both start at AQF 7, but the NDIS pays less for the hour.

NDIS. Exercise physiology has the lowest NDIS therapy price limit of the professions in this series that have an NDIS item: $161.99 an hour, against $183.99 for physiotherapy and $193.99 for occupational therapy and speech pathology. The limits became an enforceable maximum on 24 September 2026 for agency-managed and plan-managed participants. A full diary of 25 NDIS hours at the limit keeps the graduate's wages+super at about 42.8% of billings in February 2027. By mid-2030 the same diary sits at 68.9%, and holding 45% would take about 38.3 completed billable hours a week, on the current limit. The schedule's provider-travel item is priced at 50% of the hourly limit. The limit is reviewed each year; the arithmetic holds the current figure still.
Group sessions are where the economics can change, because the hour is shared. DVA pays group exercise physiology per participant for sessions of at least 30 minutes with two to twelve participants, and the NSW Fees Order prices groups per participant. What a group earns depends on numbers you control, so it is not modelled here.
GST. DVA's 2026 exercise physiology schedule lists the consultation items as taxable, where the other five professions' items are GST-free. That is reported as published; how it applies to your services is a question for your accountant.

What to look at now

The question is not only whether a clinic can pay the starting wage, but whether the role still works once the bands change and the stages land. Most of these levers are easier to move before the increases arrive than after.

Fee schedule. A fee rise that only tracks inflation does not close a gap in which the cost of the same person climbs by band as well as by review.
Payer mix. Where the role's hours are funded at a fixed price, the hourly figure in the billings table has to fit under that price.
Diary design and ramp plan. When in the first year the role is expected to reach the billings the table implies, and which hours count as billable.
Service mix. Where growing experience can be matched to work the clinic can charge more for.
The hiring decision itself. The offer sets one number. Who is hired has a large bearing on whether the role reaches the billings the table implies.

Free guide

What your new grad will really cost you

A worked example on one page for a graduate physiotherapist at Level 1, AQF 7, which is the same award path and the same wage figures as a new grad exercise physiologist: the dated table, the billings at three ratios and the costs that sit on top of the wage. Its payer examples are physiotherapy's; for exercise physiology's NDIS, Medicare and DVA prices, use the figures on this page.

Get the free guide →

Change the assumptions. The free New Grad Progression Calculator runs the AQF 7 Level 1 path, which this profession shares with physiotherapy, on your own hours and wage review assumption. The free New Graduate Cost Calculator gives first-year cost for seven professions. Neither determines the pay of someone already on your team.

The team you already have

A new graduate is the clean case: one qualification, one clock, no history. For an employee classified under the award on 30 September 2026, clause J.4.3 of PR814029 sets the new award minimum as the higher of two figures: the minimum for their translated classification, and the minimum for their old classification on that day. It compares two award minimums, not what someone is actually paid, and it runs one person at a time. What the October change does to a wage bill is covered in How exposed is your clinic to the 2026 award changes?

Questions owners ask

How much should I pay a new grad exercise physiologist in 2027?

At least the award minimum. From 1 October 2026 a full-time first-year exercise physiologist at Level 1, AQF 7, has a minimum of $1,308.80 a week, about $68,100 a year before super, until the next stage and wage review in mid-2027.

My graduate has a Master of Clinical Exercise Physiology. Are they AQF 9?

They hold an AQF 9 qualification, but the award lists exercise physiologist at AQF 7 only, so cl B.2(a) classifies them at AQF 7. AQF 9 applies only if you require the master's qualification for the role (cl B.2(d)).

Is a new grad EP paid the same as a new grad physio?

The award minimum is the same: both start at Level 1, AQF 7, and move through the same stages and bands. What differs is the price of the hour, starting with the NDIS limit of $161.99 against $183.99 for physiotherapy.

What does a new grad EP cost after three years?

On an assumed 4% annual review, an exercise physiologist who started in February 2027 enters the 4th–6th year band in February 2030 at about $114,100 with super, against $76,200 at the start.

Can a new grad EP be profitable on NDIS work alone?

On the current limit, a full diary of 25 NDIS hours keeps wages and super at about 42.8% of billings in February 2027 and about 68.9% by mid-2030, before any of the costs beyond wages and super. Whether that works depends on the ratio your clinic runs, how full the diary is and whether the limit moves.

Are exercise physiology services GST-free?

DVA's 2026 schedule lists its exercise physiology consultation items as taxable, unlike the other professions in this series. How GST applies to your services is a question for your accountant.

Sources

Fair Work Commission, determination PR814029, made 7 September 2026 with [2026] FWCFB 231 ("stage 1 final determination"), operative 1 October 2026: Level 1 rates at cl 17.1, printed inclusive of the 2026 Annual Wage Review; Schedule B (qualification levels by profession); cl J.4.3(b) (existing employees).
[2026] FWCFB 216 (14 August 2026), Appendix: the staged Level 1 rates for 30 June 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030, printed before any later Annual Wage Review.
[2026] FWCFB 123 (26 May 2026): the decision to phase the new structure in over five stages. [2026] FWCFB 47 [6]: the staging method.
Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020, MA000027, consolidated to 1 October 2026: cl 2 (definitions), cl 4 (coverage), cl 13.2 (span of ordinary hours), cl 23.3(h) (vehicle allowance), cl 25.2 (overtime), cl 26 (penalty rates and shiftwork), cl 27.3 (annual leave loading).
Australian Qualifications Framework, Second Edition (January 2013): qualification types by AQF level.
NDIA, NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, effective 24 September 2026 (NDIS pricing arrangements), Part 4 definitions and the therapy support tables.
Medicare Benefits Schedule, item 10953, fees from 1 July 2026 (MBS Online).
Department of Veterans' Affairs, exercise physiology fee schedule effective 1 July 2026 (from DVA's dental and allied health fee schedules).
State Insurance Regulatory Authority (NSW), workers compensation fees for health services, Fees Orders for services on or after 1 February 2026, shown as one example of a state scheme.
Exercise & Sports Science Australia: What is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist, How to become an Accredited Exercise Physiologist, and Courses with full or provisional accreditation (retrieved 4 October 2026).

About this information

Culture of One is a business advisory firm, not a law firm. This is an illustrative planning model for a new hire and general information about the Health Professionals and Support Services Award, not legal or workplace-relations advice. It assumes the award covers the employment and no enterprise agreement applies, and it does not assess any individual employee's classification or pay entitlements. Stage rates after 1 October 2026 take effect only when the Commission determines them. Annual Wage Review percentages from 2027, and every figure derived from them, are projections; check the current determination before relying on any forward rate.

Last updated 5 October 2026.