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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.

In Queensland public health, a registered nurse earns from $1,674.40 per week ($87,368 a year) to $2,147.70 ($112,064) across the scale — before shift penalties, allowances and overtime.

Assistant in Nursing Enrolled Nurse Clinical Nurse (senior clinical grades)Nurse Management (NUM / Director of Nursing)

Estimate your take-home →

★ Queensland rewards qualifications twice

A relevant postgraduate qualification pays off two ways for a Nurse Grade 5–7. First, accelerated advancement: you jump a paypoint the moment the employer accepts the qualification (Award cl 13.1(d)). Second, the qualification allowance — 3.5% of the Nurse Grade 5 paypoint-7 rate (about $75/wk), or 5.5% for a masters or PhD (about $118/wk), payable for all purposes including overtime. The same qualification then helps unlock Clinical Nurse (Nurse Grade 6) at $2,184/wk, where the allowance keeps applying.

Becoming a registered nurse

A Registered Nurse (RN, Division 1) practises to the full scope of nursing — assessing, planning, delivering and evaluating care, autonomously and in teams. RNs delegate to and supervise Enrolled Nurses and AINs, and stay accountable for the decision to delegate.

Full pathway: how to become a registered nurse in Australia →

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 the eight Nurse Grade 5 paypoints — from $1,674/wk (paypoint 1) to $2,148/wk (paypoint 7), a roughly $474/wk gap you cross on increments alone.
Get a recognised postgraduate qualification: it pays twice in QLD — a one-paypoint accelerated jump now, plus a qualification allowance of 3.5% of the Grade 5 paypoint-7 rate (about $75/wk), or 5.5% for a masters/PhD (about $118/wk), paid for all purposes (Award cl 13.1).
Step into the clinical grades — Clinical Nurse (Nurse Grade 6) starts at $2,184/wk, above the top RN paypoint, and the qualification allowance stacks on top.
Add the professional development allowance if permanent and working 16+ hours a fortnight — up to $3,726/yr by facility category.
Work the night and Sunday roster: a 20% night loading (25% on a Sunday night) plus ~$11,660/yr tax-free salary packaging that doesn't touch your penalties.

Allowances you can claim

On top of base pay — the allowances most relevant to this role.

Qualification & advanced qualification allowance3.5% (qualification) / 5.5% (advanced) of the Nurse Grade 5 wage rate.

A registered nurse (Grades 5-7 and 9) with a recognised post-registration qualification gets a qualification allowance of 3.5%, or an advanced qualification allowance of 5.5%, of the Nurse Grade 5 wage rate.

Professional development allowanceCat B $3,726/yr; Cat A $2,981/yr; Cat C $2,235/yr.

Permanent Nurse Grade 3 and above working 16+ hours per fortnight get a professional development allowance, pro-rata, set by facility category.

Remote flexible roster — employer-paid travel & accommodationEmployer meets all reasonable travel and accommodation costs.

For hard-to-fill MM6/MM7 posts the employer may offer a remote flexible roster (like purchased leave): you set aside salary to fund block periods of leave to travel away from the remote area, with the employer meeting all reasonable travel and accommodation costs.

RANIP annual isolation bonus$3,605 (after yr 1); $10,815 (after yr 2); $7,210 (after yr 3 and each year after).

Nurses/midwives in a designated RANIP location (Modified Monash MM6 remote or MM7 very-remote site listed in HR Policy C2 RANIP) get an annual isolation bonus paid as a single lump sum at the completion of each 12 months' service.

Salary packaging~$11,660/yr tax-free

As a public-hospital employee you can package about $9,010 of everyday expenses plus ~$2,650 of meal entertainment FBT-free, plus a novated car lease — and it doesn't reduce any penalty or allowance.

Where it leads next

From here you can move into the senior clinical grades or the management grades (unit manager, director of nursing).

Step up from here: Senior clinical roles — CNS, CNC, Nurse Educator, Nurse Practitioner · Nurse management — NUM, Nurse Manager, Director of Nursing — see exactly what each step takes →

Frequently asked questions

How much does a registered nurse earn in Queensland?

In Queensland public health, a registered nurse earns from $1,674.40 per week ($87,368 a year) to $2,147.70 ($112,064) across the scale — before shift penalties, allowances and overtime.

What is the starting registered nurse salary in Queensland?

A first-step registered nurse in Queensland starts at $1,674.40 per week — about $87,368 a year ($44.06 an hour) before penalties and allowances.

Do Queensland nurses get paid more for nights and weekends?

Yes — on top of base pay, Queensland public-health nurses receive shift loadings for afternoon, night and weekend work, plus overtime and a range of allowances.

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.