Clinic Owners: Your Second Pay Rise Hits October 1

Q: Should clinic owners give everyone a pay rise to stay safe on October 1?

No. Blanket increases permanently lift the wage bill without establishing anyone's actual entitlement, and they do not protect the clinic if someone is still classified below their lawful minimum. The safe position is knowing each person's minimum entitlement from 1 October 2026, then deciding deliberately what to pay above it.

The 1 October restructure is the second pay change in three months, under a different set of rules. What it is, why it exists, and the two jobs to do this week — before the 30 September snapshot locks in how your team translates.

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You budgeted for one pay rise this year. The second lands 1 October 2026 — and it changes how every clinician in your practice is classified.

The short version

Most clinic owners budgeted for one pay rise this year. There are two: the 4.75% annual wage review, already operating from 1 July 2026, and a full classification restructure from 1 October 2026.
October is not a rise. It is a rebuild. Qualifications stop setting pay points — your profession's AQF level and each person's years of experience set the band instead.
Get it wrong one way and you underpay protected staff, which is a compliance breach. Panic the other way and you hand out pay rises the award never required.
Two jobs this week, before anyone touches a pay rate: put the six published dates in your payroll calendar, and pull your employee list as at 30 September with one extra column — the date each person first worked in the profession, taken from their file, not their graduation year.

You budgeted for one pay rise. There are two.

Every clinic owner knows the July annual wage review. It happens every year, it landed at 4.75% for 2026, and if you set your wage budget in May or June, that is almost certainly the only increase you planned for.

The second change hits on 1 October 2026, and it runs under a completely different set of rules. It is not an increase to the existing pay scale. The classification system underneath the Health Professionals and Support Services Award is being replaced — how your people are classified, how they progress, and what they are owed.

Two pay changes in three months, under two different sets of rules. The distance between getting the second one right and getting it wrong runs from an underpayment claim on one side to a blown wage budget on the other.

The award isn't going up. It's being rebuilt.

The October change is the result of a multi-year Fair Work Commission review of awards covering predominantly female workforces. The Commission compared how those workforces were paid against male-majority workforces, found the work of health professionals had been undervalued on gender grounds, and ordered the rates corrected. (What that finding says about how the profession prices itself is the subject of Evidence-Based Economics.)

Because the correction is large, it is being phased in over five stages to smooth the business interruption: the first on 1 October 2026, then 30 June 2027, 2028, 2029, and the final stage on 30 June 2030. Most of those stages line up with future annual reviews — which is administratively simpler, but also means a bigger combined jump each time one lands.

The basis of pay changes with it. Under the old system, your qualification set your pay point — a three-year degree started you here, a four-year degree there, a masters higher again. From October, the award sets the AQF level by profession, not by person. Schedule B lists each profession against a level. Physiotherapists are AQF 7. Occupational therapists are AQF 7. Osteopaths are AQF 9. Where the award lists one level for a profession, that level is the one you pay against — a physiotherapist who goes and gets a masters is still AQF 7. Some professions have more than one level listed, and there the qualification the person actually holds decides which one applies. From there, people move through experience bands based on years worked in the profession — not years since graduation, and not further study.

The two ways owners get this wrong

Underpaying. The restructure translates every existing employee into a new band, and staff employed on 30 September carry protections through the changeover. Misclassify someone — wrong band, wrong experience count, wrong treatment of their existing rate — and you can end up below their lawful minimum without noticing. That is an underpayment breach, however honest the mistake.

Overpaying. The other failure mode is panic: the numbers look complicated, so you bump everyone up to be safe. That is not compliance, it is a permanent increase to your wage bill that the award never asked for — and it comes straight out of margin. The whole game is knowing each person's actual minimum entitlement from 1 October, then deciding deliberately what you pay above it.

The full mechanics — the new rate tables, how existing staff translate across, and the no-disadvantage floor rule that most explainers get wrong — are worked through in our 2026 award changes field guide, with every figure sourced to the Fair Work Commission determinations.

The six dates to put in your payroll calendar

1 July 2026 — annual wage review, 4.75%. Already in effect.
1 October 2026 — new classification structure plus the first stage of new rates.
30 June 2027 — second stage.
30 June 2028 — third stage.
30 June 2029 — fourth stage.
30 June 2030 — final stage, full rates.

All published, all knowable in advance. Each takes effect from the first full pay period on or after the date. The owners who get caught are not the ones who missed a secret — they are the ones who never put the schedule against their own payroll calendar and priced the jumps into their planning.

The two jobs to do this week

Neither involves diving into the minutiae of the classification system, and neither involves changing anyone's pay yet.

Job one: mark the six dates against your own payroll calendar. Note which pay period each one lands in for your clinic. From 2027 onward, the mid-year stage and the annual review will usually land in the same pay run — one combined jump, not two small ones.

Job two: export your employee list as at 30 September. Who is on your books right now, and who will still be there on 30 September 2026? That date is the snapshot the translation works from. Add one column: the date each person first worked in their profession — off their employment file and registration history, not their graduation year. Experience in the profession is what drives the new bands, and this one column is the input every later step depends on.

You are not classifying anyone this week. You are building the two artefacts that make classification possible — and that stop you making panic decisions in the last week of September.

FAQ

Is 1 October 2026 really a second pay rise?

Yes, in effect. The 4.75% annual wage review applied from 1 July 2026, and a separate structural change to the Health Professionals and Support Services Award starts 1 October 2026. They operate under different rules: the July change lifted existing rates; the October change replaces the classification system itself, with new rates phased in over five stages to 30 June 2030.

What should clinic owners do before 1 October 2026?

Two things before touching any pay rate: mark the six published change dates (1 July 2026, 1 October 2026, then 30 June 2027–2030) against your own payroll calendar, and export your employee list as at 30 September 2026 with the date each person first worked in their profession, taken from their file rather than their graduation year.

Do all health professionals land at the same AQF level?

No. Schedule B of the award lists each profession against an AQF level. Physiotherapists and occupational therapists are AQF 7. Osteopaths and psychologists are AQF 9. Where one level is listed for a profession, an extra degree doesn't move it — the level reflects the profession, not the person. Where the award lists more than one level for a profession, the qualification the person holds decides which one applies.

Why does experience count from first year worked, not graduation?

The new structure progresses people on years worked in the profession. A clinician who graduated six years ago but spent two of those years outside the profession does not have six years of experience for classification purposes. That is why the employee-list column comes from the employment file, not the graduation year.

Should I just give everyone a pay rise to be safe?

No. Blanket increases are the expensive failure mode: they permanently lift your wage bill without establishing anyone's actual entitlement, and they do not protect you if someone is still classified below their lawful minimum. The safe position is knowing each person's minimum entitlement from 1 October, then choosing deliberately what you pay above it.