Better and fairer wages for aged care workers

Workers to benefit

We are supporting the Fair Work Commission’s decisions on the Aged Care Work Value Case.

The Fair Work Commission has made its final decision, and the Aged Care Work Value Case is now completed.

As a result of the Fair Work Commission’s decisions under this Case, approximately 400,000 aged care workers have benefited from increases to their award wages.

This includes:

award wage increases provided to registered and enrolled nurses working in aged care from 1 March 2025 and 1 October 2025, with further increases on 1 August 2026
award wage increases provided to many aged care workers from 1 January 2025 and 1 October 2025 (Stage 3)
15% award wage increase provided to direct care workers in 2023 (Stage 2)

We are supporting the award wage increases, including on-costs and the increased cost of historical leave liabilities.

Funding

Aged care providers receive additional funding to support the aged care award wage increases through existing funding arrangements and new grant opportunities.

Residential aged care	Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) funding model	AN-ACC price increase
Residential aged care	24/7 registered nurse supplement	Subsidy adjustment
In-home aged care	Support at Home (which replaced the Home Care Packages Program and Short-Term Restorative Care Programme on 1 November 2025)	Subsidy increase
In-home aged care	Commonwealth Home Support Program	Provider grant agreements
Specialist aged care programs	National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program	Increased funding through existing grant agreements
	Multi-Purpose Services (MPS) program	3 x in scope MPS facilities (non-state government run) will receive an increase to the daily subsidy per effective place through existing agreements
	Transition Care Program	Increase to the daily subsidy per client per occupied place
Historical Leave Liabilities	Grant opportunity	Covering 1 March 2025 and 1 October 2025 increases – closed 9 December 2025. Covering 1 August 2026 increase – Expected August 2026.

Privately funded facilities – such as independent living and retirement villages not funded by the Australian Government – will not be eligible to receive funding to meet the Fair Work Commission's decisions on award wage increases.

Aged Care Award Wages – Historical Leave Liabilities – Grant Opportunity

Closed: The Aged Care Award Wages – Historical Leave Liabilities – 1March and 1 October2025 Grant Opportunity (GO7882) closed on 9December2025.

Future grant opportunity: A further grant opportunity is expected to open in August 2026 to help aged care providers cover some of the increased value of historical leave liabilities for aged care employed nurses affected by the Fair Work Commission decision in the Aged Care Work Value Case which will increase award wages on 1August2026.

Providers are encouraged to register on GrantConnect to be notified when the next grant opportunity opens.

The grant will help supplement 1 August 2026 award wage increases to leave entitlements with:

25% of the Fair Work Commission increase to leave entitlements for approved residential aged care providers
50% of the Fair Work Commission increase to leave entitlements for Support at Home, Commonwealth Home Support Program, Transition Care Program, and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flexible Aged Care Program providers.

Multi-Purpose Services providers will receive their leave liabilities funding through existing funding agreements and are not eligible for this grant.

Aged care wages guidance

A guidance document is available to support aged care workers, union representatives and providers for the 1 October 2025 award wage increases of the Aged Care Work Value Case.

Providers of residential and home care aged care can still access the previous guidance documents to help them understand the additional funding for the Stage 2, Stage 3 (1 January 2025) and aged care nurses (1 March 2025) decisions.

Provider reporting

Aged care wages attestation report

A summary of providers’ attestations that they have passed on additional Australian Government funding in support of the Fair Work Commission’s decision to increase minimum award wages for many aged care workers and associated on-costs.

Resources