Queensland Assistant in Nursing Pay 2025–26
Assistant in nursing is Nurse Grade 1 in Queensland Health — often held by nursing students earning while they study.
In Queensland public health, an assistant in nursing earns from $1,331.95 per week ($69,499 a year) to $1,458.40 ($76,097) across the scale — before shift penalties, allowances and overtime.
Becoming an assistant in nursing
An Assistant in Nursing (AIN — also called a nursing assistant or patient care assistant) gives hands-on care like hygiene, mobility, feeding, observations and ward support. AINs aren't nurses and have no scope of practice of their own: they work only on tasks delegated by, and under the supervision of, a Registered or Enrolled Nurse.
Full pathway: how to become an assistant in nursing in Australia →
Pay scale
Base rates, in force from 1 April 2026 — before penalties, allowances and overtime. Nurse Grade 1, in force from 1 April 2026.
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | Annualised |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nurse Grade 1 Band 1 — paypoint 1 | $1,331.95 | $35.05 | $69,499 |
| paypoint 2 | $1,359.45 | $35.77 | $70,934 |
| paypoint 3 | $1,377.35 | $36.25 | $71,868 |
| paypoint 4 | $1,408.45 | $37.06 | $73,491 |
| paypoint 5 | $1,440.96 | $37.92 | $75,187 |
| paypoint 6 | $1,458.40 | $38.38 | $76,097 |
How to become an assistant in nursing
Ways to earn more
- Work the late and night roster: as a Nurse Grade 1/AIN your afternoon-shift loading is 15% and your night-shift loading is 17.5% of ordinary pay — higher than the 12.5%/20% other nurses get.
- Pick up Sunday night shifts: the night-shift penalty rises to 25% on a Sunday night, on top of the weekend penalty rate.
- The real lever is qualifying up — finish your Diploma to register as an enrolled nurse (Nurse Grade 3, from $1,441/wk) or your Bachelor to become a registered nurse (Nurse Grade 5, from $1,674/wk).
- Salary-package about $11,660/yr tax-free as a public-hospital employee — it doesn't reduce any of your shift loadings.
Where it leads: enrolled nurse vs registered nurse
From here, the two routes into nursing practice are the enrolled-nurse (Diploma) and registered-nurse (degree) pathways — a real trade-off:
- No university degree — shorter and cheaper training
- Start earning as a nurse sooner
- Can later bridge 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
Step up from here: Enrolled Nurse · Registered Nurse — see exactly what each step takes →
Frequently asked questions
How much does an assistant in nursing earn in Queensland?
What is the starting assistant in nursing salary in Queensland?
Do Queensland nurses get paid more for nights and weekends?
Annual, parental, long-service and study leave, plus overtime, on-call and the full allowance list, are set out in the Queensland nurse pay & conditions guide.
Pay figures are drawn from the Nurses and Midwives (Queensland Health) Certified Agreement (EB12) 2025. Confirm your exact classification, step and allowances against the current instrument and your payslip.