Queensland Registered Nurse Pay 2025–26
Queensland registered nurses are Nurse Grade 5, paid fortnightly on an eight-paypoint scale. Queensland is unusual in paying a qualifications allowance and offering accelerated paypoint advancement for postgraduate study.
Pay scale
Base rates, in force from 1 April 2026 — before penalties, allowances and overtime. Nurse Grade 5, in force from 1 April 2026.
| Step | Weekly | Hourly | Annualised |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nurse Grade 5 — Re-entry | $1,599.60 | $42.09 | $83,465 |
| paypoint 1 | $1,674.40 | $44.06 | $87,368 |
| paypoint 2 | $1,753.06 | $46.13 | $91,472 |
| paypoint 3 | $1,831.96 | $48.21 | $95,589 |
| paypoint 4 | $1,910.65 | $50.28 | $99,695 |
| paypoint 5 | $1,989.65 | $52.36 | $103,817 |
| paypoint 6 | $2,068.70 | $54.44 | $107,942 |
| paypoint 7 | $2,147.70 | $56.52 | $112,064 |
Ways to earn more
- Climb your paypoints — the RN scale (Nurse Grade 5) runs from $1,674/wk (paypoint 1) to $2,148/wk (paypoint 7).
- Step into the clinical grades (Clinical Nurse from $2,184/wk) — the biggest jump beyond your paypoints.
- Get a relevant postgraduate qualification for the qualifications allowance + accelerated advancement, and salary-package about $11,660/yr tax-free.
Allowances you can claim
On top of base pay — the allowances most relevant to this role.
Where it leads next
From here you can move into the senior clinical grades or the management grades (unit manager, director of nursing).
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 Queensland nurse classifications — see the full 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.