HPSS Award 2026 Changes: What Physio Clinic Owners Need to Know About the New Health Professional Classifications

From 1 October 2026, the Fair Work Commission is replacing the old pay-point system in the Health Professionals and Support Services Award (MA000027) with a new classification structure based on each employee’s qualification level (AQF) and years of profession-wide experience. For physiotherapy clinics, this means every physio on your books – graduate through to senior – needs to be re-mapped to a new classification before the change date, with pay increases phased in annually through to 2030.

If you own or manage a small allied health clinic, this is not a change you can leave until October. Reclassifying staff correctly takes time, and getting it wrong carries real financial and legal exposure.

Here’s what’s actually changing, why the Commission made the call, and what it means for a clinic with a handful of physios and support staff.

What Is the Health Professionals and Support Services Award?

The Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020 (MA000027) usually shortened to the HPSS Award – is the industrial instrument that sets minimum pay and conditions for most privately employed physiotherapists, occupational therapists, podiatrists, psychologists, exercise physiologists and allied health support staff in Australia, unless they’re covered by an enterprise agreement or are genuinely engaged as independent contractors.

If you run a clinic and employ practitioners rather than contract them, this award almost certainly applies to you.

Why Is the Fair Work Commission Changing It?

The changes come out of the Fair Work Commission’s Gender-Based Undervaluation – Priority Awards Review, a multi-year inquiry into modern awards covering industries that are historically female-dominated, including health, disability support and early childhood education.

The Commission’s finding, handed down in its decision on 26 May 2026, was that health professional pay rates in the HPSS Award had been suppressed for years precisely because the workforce is predominantly women – comparable qualifications and responsibilities in male-dominated industries have historically attracted higher minimum pay.

The Commission’s fix is a rebuilt classification structure plus a five-year phased wage correction, rather than a one-off pay bump.

This matters for how you plan. It’s not a normal annual wage review adjustment you absorb and move on from. It’s a structural rebuild of how allied health employees are classified and paid, with further increases locked in every year to 2030.

Old System vs New System: What’s Actually Changing

Basis for classification

Old: Generic pay-point levels (Level 1 to Level 4), largely built around years of service with limited reference to the qualification actually required for the role.

New (from 1 October 2026): Classification tied to the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) level required for the profession, set out in a new Schedule B, combined with years of experience in the profession – not just years with your clinic.

Entry point

Old: Level 1, broadly applied across professions regardless of degree length or complexity.

New: Level 1, but anchored to the profession’s standard minimum qualification. A graduate physiotherapist enters as an AQF Level 7 professional, which sits differently to, say, an AQF Level 9 psychologist.

Experience recognition

Old: Progression tied mainly to service and internal progression points.

New: Progression (broadly, under five years’ experience versus five years or more in the profession) now sits within an expanded, multi-tier classification schedule keyed to each profession’s specific AQF entry level (AQF 5 to 9 across the award, depending on the role) – and prior experience elsewhere counts, not just tenure with you.

Senior and supervisory roles

Old: Limited differentiation for team leaders or clinic seniors.

New: New higher classifications recognise specialist, supervisory and managerial responsibilities more explicitly.

Transition protection

Old: N/A

New: Existing employees on a rate higher than the new minimum keep their current rate – no one’s pay is cut as a direct result of the translation.

The practical shift is this: pay used to be driven largely by how long someone had worked, full stop. Now it’s driven by what qualification the role legally requires and how much relevant experience the person brings – including experience gained at other clinics before they joined you.

Key Dates Physio Clinic Owners Need on the Calendar

1 April 2026 – An earlier tranche of changes took effect for dental assistants and pathology collectors under the award’s support services stream. This doesn’t directly affect physiotherapist classifications, but it’s the same review process and the same award, so it’s worth knowing if you also employ support staff on the award.

1 October 2026 – The new classification structure and the first stage of new minimum pay rates apply to health professionals, including physiotherapists, from the first full pay period on or after this date.

30 June 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030 – Four further annual increases phase in the full wage correction over five years in total.

Ongoing – Following the Commission’s final decision on 26 May 2026, the new classification structure and the stage-one percentage adjustments are locked in. What’s still to be finalised through the 2026 Annual Wage Review process is how these interact with the standard annual increase, so exact final dollar and hourly figures may still move slightly.

That’s not a reason to wait: clinic owners should start mapping employee qualifications and total profession-wide experience now, so payroll only needs to apply confirmed rates once they land rather than scrambling to work out classifications from scratch in October.

How This Plays Out in a Small Physio Clinic

Picture a clinic with 12 staff: a principal physiotherapist, four employed physios at different career stages, an exercise physiologist, an admin/reception team, and a practice manager.

The new graduate. A physio fresh out of university, six months into their first role, is classified at Level 1 against the AQF 7 benchmark set for physiotherapy. Their pay rate reflects that benchmark directly, rather than being calculated off a generic entry-level rate that doesn’t distinguish a four-year physiotherapy degree from a shorter allied health qualification.

The physio who’s been with you three years, but qualified five years ago. This is where clinics most often get it wrong. Classification isn’t based on tenure with your clinic – it’s based on total years practising in the profession. If this physio worked two years at another practice before joining you, their experience clock started there, not on their first day with you. Get this wrong and you’re underpaying, even if your intentions were good.

The senior physio managing two junior staff and running the clinic’s return-to-work program. Under the old structure, this supervisory and specialist load may not have been clearly reflected in their classification. The new structure has more defined higher classifications for exactly this kind of role, which means their correct rate may sit meaningfully above where they were previously placed.

Run through your own team with the same lens: qualification, true years of experience in the profession, and the actual duties and seniority of the role. Those three things now do the heavy lifting.

Common Mistakes Clinic Owners Are Making Right Now

• Counting only years employed by the clinic, not total years practising in the profession. Experience elsewhere still counts.
• Assuming existing pay automatically satisfies the new minimum. The award requires a formal comparison against the new classification, not just a general sense that “we already pay well.”
• Overlooking supervisory or specialist duties that may now attract a higher classification, particularly for senior physios running programs, supervising junior staff, or holding informal team-lead responsibilities.
• Waiting for the final dollar figures before doing anything. The classification exercise – working out who sits where – can and should be done now. The rates can be applied once confirmed.
• Treating this as a payroll-only issue. It also touches position descriptions, employment contracts, and how you advertise and offer new roles from here on.

A Compliance Checklist Before 1 October 2026

1. List every employee covered by the HPSS Award, including part-time and casual physiotherapists and allied health staff, not just full-time clinicians.
2. Confirm each employee’s qualification and its AQF level against the profession listed in Schedule B.
3. Establish true years of experience in the profession for each employee, including time at prior employers.
4. Identify anyone carrying supervisory, specialist or managerial responsibilities that may justify a higher classification.
5. Map each employee against the new classification structure and note where their correct level sits.
6. Compare the new classification’s rate against what they currently earn – remembering no one’s pay goes backwards as a direct result of the reclassification.
7. Update position descriptions and employment contracts to reflect the correct classification and duties.
8. Diarise the 30 June increases from 2027 through 2030 so they don’t catch you out in future years.
9. If you have an enterprise agreement, check it independently against the new award minimums rather than assuming it still clears the bar.

Where an External HR Specialist Fits In

Most physio clinic owners got into allied health to run a great clinic, not to interpret Fair Work Commission determinations and AQF qualification frameworks. That’s fair enough – and it’s exactly the kind of exercise that benefits from a second, experienced set of eyes before you touch payroll.

An external HR specialist who works specifically with SME allied health practices can run the classification audit against your actual team, cross-check years of experience and duties against the new schedules, and flag where your current pay setup creates risk – all before the October start date, while there’s still time to fix anything that needs fixing rather than reacting after the fact. It’s the kind of review that’s far cheaper to do now than to unpick later.

If you’d like a second opinion on where your team currently sits, HR Excellence Partners offers a free HR Health Check for SME owners – contact Vas Papadopoulos or Ben Corso from BAC Business Consulting (0411 774 335) for the booking code to waive the cost. It’s a no-pressure look at where your current HR and compliance position stands, including award classification exposure like the changes covered here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the HPSS Award apply to my physio clinic if I have contractors, not employees? Genuinely independent contractors aren’t covered by the award. But if the working relationship looks more like employment in substance – set hours, direction and control, use of your equipment and systems – engaging someone as a “contractor” doesn’t remove award coverage. This is worth checking carefully rather than assuming.

Will any of my staff have their pay cut because of this change? No. The Fair Work Commission has built in transitional protection – if an employee’s current pay rate is higher than their new classification’s minimum, they keep their existing rate.

When exactly do the new rates apply? The new classification structure and first-stage rates apply from the first full pay period starting on or after 1 October 2026, with further increases each 30 June from 2027 to 2030.

Where can I check the exact new pay rates? The Fair Work Ombudsman’s Pay and Conditions Tool and the updated MA000027 pay guide are the authoritative sources once final rates are confirmed.

Related Reading on the HR Knowledge Centre

• Award Misclassification: What It Costs Your Business and How to Fix It
• How to Hire Your First Employee in Australia
• Managing Poor Performance: A Practical Guide for SME Owners
• Fixed-Term Contract Compliance for Small Businesses

References

1. Fair Work Ombudsman, “Changes to the Health Services Award” – https://www.fairwork.gov.au/about-us/workplace-laws/award-changes/major-award-changes/gender-undervaluation-priority-awards-review/changes-to-the-health-services-award
2. Fair Work Ombudsman, MA000027 Pay Guide – https://portal.fairwork.gov.au/ArticleDocuments/872/health-professionals-and-support-services-award-ma000027-pay-guide.pdf.aspx
3. Australian Physiotherapy Association, “Gender-based undervaluation – HPSS awards review” – https://australian.physio/advocacy/gender-based-undervaluation
4. Australian Business Lawyers & Advisors, “Major changes to the Health Professionals and Support Services Award proposed by the Commission” – https://ablawyers.com.au/resources/articles-downloads/major-changes-to-the-health-professionals-and-support-services-award-proposed-by-the-commission
5. Health Services Union WA, “HPSS Award Decision for Allied Health Professionals – private sector” – https://hsuwa.com.au/news/hpss-award-decision-for-allied-health-professionals-private-sector/

Vas Papadopoulos
Founder & Principal HR Consultant
HR Excellence Partners
vas@hrexcellencepartners.com.au
+61 432 244 744
hrexcellencepartners.com.au

This article is general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Award classifications and pay rates should be independently verified against the Fair Work Ombudsman and the applicable Fair Work Commission determination for your specific circumstances.

Note on sourcing: Some percentage increase figures reported by industry commentators (e.g. law firms, HR consultancies) were based on the Commission’s earlier draft determination and may differ slightly from the final confirmed rates. Always confirm current rates against the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Pay and Conditions Tool before applying them.