Aged Care Award [MA000018]

This page is a summary of who the Aged Care Award covers and doesn’t cover. Find a copy of the award at Aged Care Award.

Learn how to calculate pay rates and check entitlements from Find pay rates and entitlements.

On this page:

Who the Aged Care Award covers

The Aged Care Award covers employers in the aged care industry and their employees who fit within the classifications of the award.

The aged care industry means providing accommodation and care services for aged persons in:

  • hostels
  • nursing homes
  • aged care independent living units
  • aged care services apartments
  • garden settlements
  • retirement villages
  • any other residential accommodation facility.

Examples of employees covered by the Aged Care Award include:

  • personal care workers
  • nursing assistants
  • cleaners
  • laundry hands
  • drivers
  • food services employees including cooks
  • receptionists and administrative staff
  • grounds maintenance employees including gardeners and handymen
  • activity coordinators (unqualified)
  • interpreters.

The Aged Care Award also covers labour hire businesses and their employees who are placed with an organisation in the aged care industry.

Check the award for full information on who is covered and the classification descriptions.

Source reference: Aged Care Award [MA000018] clauses 3, 4 and schedule B

Who the Aged Care Award doesn't cover

The following are examples of employers and employees that are not covered by the Aged Care Award:

  • any health professionals such as:
    • nurses
    • physiotherapists
    • occupational therapists
  • rehabilitation centres not specifically dealing with aged persons
  • home care services provided to aged persons.

Check the award for full information on coverage and classifications.

Source reference: Aged Care Award [MA000018] clauses 3, 4 and schedule B

Not the right award?

If your industry or work isn’t covered above, you can also check:

Find pay rates and entitlements

Use our tools and resources to:

Find your award

If you’re not sure of your award, use our Pay and Conditions Tool.

The tool lets you search by industry or occupation to help find the right award.

Awards are also available from our List of awards page.

Calculate pay rates, penalty rates and allowances

You can calculate pay rates, penalty rates and allowances using our Pay and Conditions Tool.

Prefer a single document? You can also download the pay guide for your award from our Pay guides page.

Work out notice periods and redundancy pay

You can find out how much notice and redundancy pay is required under your award using our Pay and Conditions Tool.

Check your award entitlements

For many common awards, we have tailored information about rules on employment conditions like:

Select your industry from the drop-down menu to access information.

If your industry isn’t listed in one of our drop-down menus, it’s best to go the award itself.

Understand and apply award classifications

Find out how to read and apply classification descriptions in awards using our Award classifications guide.

There are practical steps and examples to help guide you through the process.

Access technical award information

We have more technical information on awards (including some not covered on our website) in our Library.

Search the award, issue or occupation to find out if we cover it there.

Fix a workplace problem

If there’s an issue at work, use our step-by-step guides to help fix it: Fixing a workplace problem.

We cover common issues likes underpayments, not getting pay slips and problems with final pay.