New South Wales Assistant in Nursing Pay 2025–26
Assistant in nursing is the entry door to a nursing career — and many AINs are nursing or enrolled-nursing students earning while they study. The pay scale is short, so the real value is the foot in the door and the pathway it opens.
Pay scale
Base rates, in force from 1 July 2025 — before penalties, allowances and overtime.
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | Annualised |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st year | $1,212.20 | $31.90 | $63,251 |
| 2nd year | $1,250.90 | $32.92 | $65,270 |
| 3rd year | $1,290.20 | $33.95 | $67,321 |
| 4th year and thereafter | $1,330.00 | $35.00 | $69,398 |
How to become an assistant in nursing
Ways to earn more
- The AIN scale runs from $1,212.20 to $1,330.00/wk across four years.
- The big step is qualifying: a Diploma of Nursing makes you an enrolled nurse (from $1,365.70/wk); a nursing degree registers you as an RN (from $1,521.10/wk).
- Shift penalties (nights and weekends), the remote-hospital loadings and salary packaging apply to AINs too.
Where it leads: enrolled nurse vs registered nurse
From an AIN role, the two routes into nursing practice are the enrolled-nurse (Diploma) and registered-nurse (degree) pathways. They're a real trade-off:
- No university degree — shorter and cheaper training
- Start earning as a nurse sooner
- Can later bridge across to registered nurse
- Lower pay ceiling — the EN scale tops out well below the RN scale
- Narrower scope of practice (you work under an RN)
- Less progression — no clinical-nurse, nurse-practitioner or management track
- Far higher ceiling and much more progression — clinical nurse, consultant, nurse practitioner, management/Director of Nursing
- Broader, more autonomous scope
- Postgraduate study keeps paying off (qualification allowances and higher grades)
- Three-year university degree — longer and more expensive
- More study before you start earning as a nurse
Allowances you can claim
On top of base pay — the allowances most relevant to this role.
Where it leads next
Qualify as an enrolled nurse or a registered nurse — each is a clear pay step up.
Leave, study & the full conditions
Leave and study support (annual, parental, long-service, study leave, the career-break scheme), the overtime, minimum-break and on-call rules, and the complete allowance list apply across all New South Wales nurse classifications — see the full New South Wales nurse pay & conditions guide.
Pay figures are drawn from the Public Health System Nurses' and Midwives' (State) Award 2025 (Serial C10152). Confirm your exact classification, step and allowances against the current instrument and your payslip.