SCHADS Level 8 Pay Rate 2026–27

Level 8 is the most senior classification in the Social and Community Services (SACS) stream. Under Schedule B, a Level 8 employee is subject to broad direction from senior officers or the employer and exercises managerial responsibility for the organisation's relevant activity — or operates as a senior specialist providing multi-functional advice to departments, other professionals, the employer, or a Committee or Board of Management.

The level involves initiating and formulating extensive projects or programs that shape the organisation's goals, identifying current and future options, and developing strategies to achieve desired outcomes — with significant independence of action within the constraints of organisational policy.

Typical Level 8 roles: executive managers, general managers and directors of community organisations, principal specialists advising boards.

Minimum rates for full-time and part-time SACS Level 8 employees. Penalty rates shown are for ordinary hours worked on those days; afternoon shift (finishes after 8pm Mon–Fri) adds 12.5% and night shift adds 15%, applied to the whole shift. Compare: Level 7 rates.

Casual employees receive a 25% loading on the minimum hourly rate. The rates below already include it. For how the loading interacts with weekend penalties, see our casual loading guide.

Annualised, a full-time Level 8 employee earns between approximately $135,343 (pay point 1) and $140,674 (pay point 3) — calculated as the weekly rate × 52 for a 38-hour week, before any weekend penalties, shift loadings, overtime or allowances. In practice, rostered weekend and shift work can lift actual earnings well above the base salary.

Schedule B of the award sets out the skills, experience and qualifications for Level 8. Typical entry routes:

• Qualifications generally beyond those normally acquired through a degree course, plus experience in the field of specialist expertise
• Substantial postgraduate experience
• Lesser formal qualifications with considerable skills and extensive, diverse experience to an equivalent standard, or equivalent expertise attained through previous appointments, service and/or study

Within the level, employees generally progress one pay point after each 12 months of service at that point, subject to demonstrated competency — see our pay point progression guide.

Where Level 7 manages sections and major initiatives under limited direction, Level 8 answers to broad direction only — typically to an executive, employer or board — and carries responsibility for the organisation's activity as a whole. It is the top of the SACS classification structure: beyond Level 8, senior executives are usually employed on above-award contracts (though the award safety net still applies if the role matches a classification).

Even at the top of the structure, penalties, overtime and allowances still apply to award-covered employees — and errors at $70+ an hour compound fast. CrossVault's Timesheet Validator checks every pay line against the correct classification rate.