The SCHADS Award: The Complete 2026–27 Guide
The Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 (SCHADS Award, MA000100) sets minimum pay and conditions for disability support, home care, social and community services and crisis accommodation workers across Australia. This guide contains the current pay rates effective from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026 (a 4.75% increase from the 2026 Annual Wage Review), plus the June 2026 sleepover and overtime changes — with every rule referenced to its award clause.
Quick Facts
- Award
- MA000100 (SCHADS)
- Rates current from
- 1 July 2026 (+4.75% AWR)
- Lowest adult rate
- $27.28/hr (Home care L1.1)
- Casual loading
- 25%
- Sat / Sun / Public holiday
- 150% / 200% / 250%
- Sleepover allowance
- $62.87 per night
- Broken shift allowance
- $21.81 (1 break) / $28.87 (2)
- Vehicle allowance
- $1.01 per km
Tools & Resources
-
SCHADS AI Assistant
Get instant answers to award questions.
-
Timesheet Validator
Check timesheets for compliance.
What is the SCHADS Award?
The SCHADS Award is the modern award covering Australia's social services sector. It consolidates the sector's pre-2010 awards and sets minimum wages, classifications, rostering rules, penalty rates, allowances and leave for four streams of work:
- Social and community services (SACS) — case workers, youth workers, family support workers, community development officers. SACS and crisis accommodation rates include the Equal Remuneration Order (ERO), which lifted pay well above the base award scale.
- Home care — personal care and domestic assistance delivered in a client's home, with separate disability-care and aged-care rate tables.
- Disability services — support workers in group homes, day programs and NDIS-funded supports.
- Crisis accommodation — refuge and emergency housing workers.
Employment Types and Minimum Payments
The award provides for full-time (38 hours/week), part-time and casual employment. Part-time employees must have an agreed regular pattern of work in writing; casuals receive a 25% loading on the minimum hourly rate.
Under clause 10.5, part-time and casual employees must be paid a minimum number of hours for each shift or period of work in a broken shift:
Under clause 10.5, part-time and casual employees must be paid a minimum number of hours for each shift or period of work in a broken shift:
- Social and community services employees (except when doing disability services work) — 3 hours
- All other employees (home care, disability, crisis accommodation) — 2 hours
Classifications and Pay Point Progression
Classification depends on duties, qualifications, supervision and responsibility — not job title. The SACS stream runs from Level 1 (entry level) to Level 8 (senior management); home care has its own scales for disability care (Levels 1–5) and aged care (Levels 1–6); crisis accommodation runs Levels 1–4.
Within each level, employees advance one pay point after 12 months of service at that pay point (full-time equivalent), subject to competency. Getting the level wrong is the single most expensive classification error: at 1 July 2026 rates the gap between SACS Level 2 pay point 1 and Level 3 pay point 1 is $4.27 per ordinary hour — over $8,400 a year for a full-timer. Our SCHADS levels guide walks through each level's indicative duties, and we have dedicated rate pages for disability support workers, home care workers, youth workers and family support workers.
Within each level, employees advance one pay point after 12 months of service at that pay point (full-time equivalent), subject to competency. Getting the level wrong is the single most expensive classification error: at 1 July 2026 rates the gap between SACS Level 2 pay point 1 and Level 3 pay point 1 is $4.27 per ordinary hour — over $8,400 a year for a full-timer. Our SCHADS levels guide walks through each level's indicative duties, and we have dedicated rate pages for disability support workers, home care workers, youth workers and family support workers.
SCHADS Pay Rates from 1 July 2026 — SACS Stream
The 2026 Annual Wage Review increased modern award minimum wages by 4.75% from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. The rates below are from the Fair Work Ombudsman Pay Guide for MA000100 (published 24 June 2026) and already include the ERO — they are the final payable rates. Casual rates include the 25% loading. For every pay point with weekend and shift rates — or to calculate a specific shift — use our SCHADS pay rates calculator and full tables.
Crisis accommodation employees use the SACS Level 3–6 rate scale relabelled as Levels 1–4 (e.g. crisis accommodation Level 1 pay point 1 is $40.49/hr, matching SACS Level 3 pay point 1).
| SACS classification | Weekly (FT) | Hourly | Casual hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 – pay point 1 | $1,046.90 | $27.55 | $34.44 |
| Level 1 – pay point 3 | $1,119.10 | $29.45 | $36.81 |
| Level 2 – pay point 1 | $1,376.49 | $36.22 | $45.28 |
| Level 2 – pay point 4 | $1,501.95 | $39.53 | $49.41 |
| Level 3 – pay point 1 | $1,538.59 | $40.49 | $50.61 |
| Level 3 – pay point 4 | $1,649.97 | $43.42 | $54.28 |
| Level 4 – pay point 1 | $1,774.74 | $46.70 | $58.38 |
| Level 4 – pay point 4 | $1,909.51 | $50.25 | $62.81 |
| Level 5 – pay point 1 | $2,030.20 | $53.43 | $66.79 |
| Level 6 – pay point 1 | $2,218.02 | $58.37 | $72.96 |
| Level 7 – pay point 1 | $2,398.95 | $63.13 | $78.91 |
| Level 8 – pay point 3 | $2,705.27 | $71.19 | $88.99 |
Crisis accommodation employees use the SACS Level 3–6 rate scale relabelled as Levels 1–4 (e.g. crisis accommodation Level 1 pay point 1 is $40.49/hr, matching SACS Level 3 pay point 1).
SCHADS Pay Rates from 1 July 2026 — Home Care Stream
Home care has two rate tables. Disability care:
Aged care (reflecting the Aged Care Work Value Case increases):
| Classification | Weekly (FT) | Hourly | Casual hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 – pay point 1 | $1,036.80 | $27.28 | $34.10 |
| Level 2 – pay point 1 | $1,096.60 | $28.86 | $36.08 |
| Level 3 – pay point 1 | $1,119.10 | $29.45 | $36.81 |
| Level 4 – pay point 1 | $1,221.00 | $32.13 | $40.16 |
| Level 5 – pay point 2 | $1,360.80 | $35.81 | $44.76 |
Aged care (reflecting the Aged Care Work Value Case increases):
| Classification | Weekly (FT) | Hourly | Casual hourly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 – Introductory | $1,239.00 | $32.61 | $40.76 |
| Level 2 – Home carer | $1,307.80 | $34.42 | $43.03 |
| Level 3 – Qualified | $1,376.70 | $36.23 | $45.29 |
| Level 4 – Senior | $1,431.70 | $37.68 | $47.10 |
| Level 5 – Specialist | $1,486.80 | $39.13 | $48.91 |
| Level 6 – Team leader | $1,541.90 | $40.58 | $50.73 |
Penalty Rates and Shift Loadings
For ordinary hours:
Shiftwork loadings under clause 29 apply to the whole shift, not just the late portion:
- Saturday: 150% of the minimum hourly rate
- Sunday: 200%
- Public holidays: 250%
Shiftwork loadings under clause 29 apply to the whole shift, not just the late portion:
- Afternoon shift — any shift finishing after 8.00pm and at or before midnight, Monday to Friday: +12.5% for the whole shift (clause 29.3(a)). A 2pm–9pm shift attracts the loading on all 7 hours.
- Night shift — any shift finishing after midnight or commencing before 6.00am, Monday to Friday: +15% for the whole shift (clause 29.3(b)).
Overtime Under the SCHADS Award
Overtime rates differ by stream — a detail many payroll systems miss (clause 28.1):
Overtime rates are paid instead of — not on top of — shift loadings and weekend penalties. TOIL is available by agreement at the overtime-equivalent rate. Full detail in our SCHADS overtime guide.
- Disability services, home care and day care employees: time and a half for the first 2 hours, double time thereafter (Monday–Saturday).
- SACS and crisis accommodation employees: time and a half for the first 3 hours, double time thereafter (Monday–Saturday).
- Sunday overtime: double time. Public holiday overtime: double time and a half.
Overtime rates are paid instead of — not on top of — shift loadings and weekend penalties. TOIL is available by agreement at the overtime-equivalent rate. Full detail in our SCHADS overtime guide.
SCHADS Allowances from 1 July 2026
Current allowance amounts from the FWO Pay Guide (effective 1 July 2026):
Travel time between clients during a shift is paid working time, and the vehicle allowance applies when employees use their own car between clients. Deep dives: sleepover rules, broken shift allowance, on-call allowance, travel allowance, split shifts.
| Allowance | Rate |
|---|---|
| Sleepover allowance | $62.87 per sleepover |
| Broken shift — 1 unpaid break | $21.81 per broken shift |
| Broken shift — 2 unpaid breaks | $28.87 per broken shift |
| Vehicle allowance | $1.01 per km |
| On-call — Monday to Friday (per 24 hours) | $25.66 |
| On-call — weekend or public holiday (per 24 hours) | $50.81 |
| Meal allowance (overtime) | $17.30, plus a further $17.30 after 4+ hours of overtime |
| First aid — full-time | $21.43 per week |
| First aid — part-time/casual | $0.56 per hour, capped at $21.43 per week |
| Uniform allowance | $1.26 per shift, capped at $6.41 per week |
| Laundry allowance | $0.33 per shift, capped at $1.53 per week |
Travel time between clients during a shift is paid working time, and the vehicle allowance applies when employees use their own car between clients. Deep dives: sleepover rules, broken shift allowance, on-call allowance, travel allowance, split shifts.
Broken Shifts (Clause 25.6)
Broken shifts apply only to home care employees and to SACS employees doing disability services work. The rules:
- An employer may roster a broken shift of 2 periods of work with 1 unpaid break (other than a meal break) — allowance $21.81.
- A 3-portion broken shift (2 unpaid breaks) requires the employee's agreement — before each occasion, or as part of the agreed regular pattern — allowance $28.87.
- The span of a broken shift is capped at 12 hours; work beyond a 12-hour span is paid at double time.
- Each portion attracts the applicable minimum payment (2 or 3 hours), and a gap that falls inside a minimum payment period counts as time worked — it doesn't create a "break".
- Employees must get a 10-hour break between broken shifts on successive days.
Sleepovers (Clause 25.7) — Including the June 2026 Changes
A sleepover is when the employer requires an employee to sleep overnight at the client's premises. Key rules:
- The sleepover span is a continuous 8-hour period, with a separate room, bed, clean linen and free board provided.
- The employee receives the $62.87 sleepover allowance per night (4.9% of the award's standard rate).
- If woken to work, the employee is paid at the applicable overtime rate with a minimum 1 hour payment — every disturbance, each night.
- Where work is rostered immediately before and/or after the sleepover, at least one of those periods must be rostered or paid for at least 4 hours.
24-Hour Care Shifts (Clause 25.8)
Home care employees may agree to a 24-hour care shift: the employee stays in the client's home for 24 hours and provides no more than 8 hours of care, with the opportunity for 8 hours of continuous sleep. Payment is a flat per-shift amount — at 1 July 2026 rates, a disability care Level 3 pay point 1 employee receives $365.20 per 24-hour care shift (full-time/part-time) or $424.08 as a casual. If more than 8 hours of care is actually provided, the excess is payable as overtime — providers should capture actual care time, not assume the flat rate covers everything.
Rostering, Roster Changes and Client Cancellations
Clause 25.5 requires ordinary hours to be displayed on a fortnightly roster posted at least 2 weeks before the roster period starts, and 7 days' notice of a roster change (less by agreement, or where another employee is absent unexpectedly). Employees must receive a 10-hour rest break between the end of one shift and the start of the next (clause 25.4).
Client cancellations (clause 25.5(f)): where a client cancels or reschedules a home care or disability service within 7 days of the scheduled service, a full-time or part-time employee who was rostered must still be provided with alternative work or paid for the cancelled hours. Cancelled visits silently dropped from timesheets are one of the most common underpayments we detect. See rostering rules.
Client cancellations (clause 25.5(f)): where a client cancels or reschedules a home care or disability service within 7 days of the scheduled service, a full-time or part-time employee who was rostered must still be provided with alternative work or paid for the cancelled hours. Cancelled visits silently dropped from timesheets are one of the most common underpayments we detect. See rostering rules.
Meal Breaks and Rest Breaks
Employees working more than 5 hours must get an unpaid meal break of 30–60 minutes (clause 27.1). If an employee is required to work through the meal break and continuously thereafter, all time worked until the break is taken is paid at overtime rates. Where the employee must eat with clients as part of the work routine, the meal period is paid at ordinary rates as time worked. A paid 10-minute tea break applies for each 4 hours worked. Importantly for broken-shift compliance: a meal break does not make a shift "broken" — only a genuine unpaid break other than a meal break does. Details: meal break rules.
Leave and Public Holidays
SCHADS employees receive the NES entitlements plus award extras:
- Annual leave: 4 weeks (5 weeks for shiftworkers regularly rostered on Sundays and public holidays), with 17.5% leave loading.
- Personal/carer's leave: 10 days per year (pro rata).
- Public holidays: 250% for ordinary hours worked; a full-timer not required to work still gets paid.
Termination and Redundancy
Notice periods follow the NES (1–4 weeks by service, plus 1 week for over-45s with 2+ years' service), and redundancy pay runs up to 16 weeks by years of service. Accrued annual leave (plus 17.5% loading) is paid out on termination. Our termination and notice guide covers the details, including small-business exemptions.
The Most Common SCHADS Compliance Failures
From analysing real provider timesheets, the underpayments we detect most often are:
- Missed broken shift allowances — payroll pays the hours but not the $21.81/$28.87 allowance, or misclassifies a 3-portion shift as one break.
- Minimum payments not applied — short visits paid as worked (e.g. 1 hour) instead of the 2- or 3-hour minimum per portion.
- Sleepover disturbances unpaid — wake-ups during the 8-hour span not paid at overtime with the 1-hour minimum.
- Whole-shift loadings paid partially — the 12.5% afternoon loading applied only to hours after 8pm instead of the whole shift.
- Wrong overtime threshold by stream — applying the 2-hour time-and-a-half window to SACS/crisis employees (theirs is 3 hours), or missing the 10-hour daily trigger for casuals.
- Misclassification — support workers on Level 1–2 rates performing Level 3 duties (medication, complex care, unsupervised decisions).
- Client cancellations dropped — rostered hours cancelled inside 7 days simply removed rather than paid or reassigned.
SCHADS and NDIS Pricing
NDIS price limits are built on SCHADS cost assumptions, but they are a funding cap, not a wage instrument — the award minima must be met regardless of what a support is billed at. Sleepover allowances, broken shift allowances and minimum payments all apply even where the NDIS price for the support doesn't explicitly itemise them. Our guide to NDIS pricing and SCHADS maps the price limits to award obligations.
How to Stay Compliant
The award's hardest rules are interaction rules — broken shifts × minimum payments × shift loadings × overtime by stream — and they fail silently in payroll systems configured with a single flat interpretation. Practical steps:
- Classify against duties, review classifications when duties change, and track pay-point anniversaries.
- Capture actual clock times, breaks, kilometres and sleepover disturbances — not just rostered hours.
- Re-check pay rates every 1 July (Annual Wage Review) and watch FWC determinations mid-year (the June 2026 sleepover changes arrived outside the July cycle).
- Audit a sample of paid timesheets against the award each quarter — or automate it.
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
- What are the SCHADS Award pay rates from 1 July 2026?
- The 2026 Annual Wage Review lifted rates by 4.75% from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. Adult rates now start at $27.28/hr (home care Level 1) and $27.55/hr (SACS Level 1 pay point 1), rising to $71.19/hr at SACS Level 8 pay point 3. Casuals add a 25% loading.
- What is the SCHADS sleepover allowance in 2026?
- The sleepover allowance is $62.87 per night from 1 July 2026. If the employee is woken to work during the 8-hour sleepover span, that time is paid at overtime rates with a minimum payment of 1 hour.
- What is the SCHADS broken shift allowance in 2026?
- From 1 July 2026 it is $21.81 for a broken shift with 1 unpaid break, and $28.87 for a broken shift with 2 unpaid breaks (which requires the employee's agreement). The whole broken shift must fit within a 12-hour span — work beyond that span is paid at double time.
- What are the minimum shift lengths under SCHADS?
- Part-time and casual employees must be paid at least 3 hours per shift or portion for social and community services work (except disability work), and at least 2 hours for all other employees, including home care and disability services (clause 10.5).
- How does overtime work under the SCHADS Award?
- Disability and home care employees get time and a half for the first 2 hours and double time after; SACS and crisis accommodation employees get time and a half for the first 3 hours. Sunday overtime is double time and public holiday overtime is double time and a half. Part-timers and casuals hit overtime beyond 38 hours a week or 10 hours a day.
- What changed in the SCHADS Award on 1 June 2026?
- FWC determination PR798459 changed how work around sleepovers is treated: pre- and post-sleepover work counts as one shift for rest breaks, shift loadings are assessed separately for each portion, and by agreement the wrap-around shift can extend to 12 hours (max 8 ordinary hours either side) before daily overtime applies.
- What penalty rates apply under SCHADS?
- Ordinary hours attract 150% on Saturday, 200% on Sunday and 250% on public holidays. Afternoon shifts (finishing after 8pm) carry a 12.5% loading and night shifts a 15% loading — in both cases on the whole shift, not just the late hours.
- What level should a disability support worker be paid at?
- Most disability support workers sit at SACS Level 2 (standard support work, typically with a Cert III) or Level 3 (experienced workers doing complex tasks like medication assistance with limited supervision). The correct level depends on actual duties, not the position title.
- Do employers have to pay for cancelled shifts under SCHADS?
- Yes. If a client cancels or reschedules a home care or disability service within 7 days of the scheduled service, a rostered full-time or part-time employee must either be given alternative work or be paid for the cancelled hours (clause 25.5(f)).
- What is the SCHADS vehicle allowance in 2026?
- Employees required to use their own vehicle for work (such as travelling between clients) are paid $1.01 per kilometre from 1 July 2026. Travel time between clients during a shift is also paid working time.
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