WA Registrar Salary and Take-Home Pay 2025–26

This page is for WA registrars and senior registrars comparing base salary, estimated take-home, overtime, on-call and recall/call-back. It focuses on registrar progression and the roster items that can move Western Australian registrar income beyond the base row.

By Jacob Stretton — RN & final-year medical student · figures sourced from the public EBAs & the ATO · About & methodology →

Takeaways

• WA registrar base salary runs from $125,010 to $170,682.
• WA senior registrar rows run from $183,317 to $192,371.
• WA extended-shift overtime starts after 10 hours in one shift.
• Recall/call-back has a 3-hour minimum and is separate from on-call availability.

WA Registrar Pay Levels (Base Salary and Estimated Take-Home)

Filtered to WA registrar and senior registrar rows so you can compare progression and higher-roster earnings without early-career pay lines.

Senior registrar rows are included where the current state pay table lists them.

Rates effective 3 September 2025 · WA Health System Medical Practitioners — AMA Industrial Agreement 2024 (Schedules 1 & 3 — metro + north of 26°) · source.

What changes registrar take-home pay in WA?

• Registrar year level and senior registrar appointment set the base row before roster effects.
• Weekend work, public holidays, extended shifts and high-hour fortnights can change gross and net pay materially.
• On-call availability and recall/call-back should be modelled as separate pay concepts.
• Higher Education Contribution Scheme/Higher Education Loan Program (HECS/HELP) withholding and salary packaging settings become more visible at registrar incomes.

What changes registrar pay in WA?

For WA registrars, the practical pay question is how progression, weekend work, overtime, on-call and recall/call-back interact.

• The WA registrar base range is $125,010 to $170,682 before senior registrar rows.
• WA senior registrar rows run from $183,317 to $192,371.
• WA registrar rows should be modelled with ordinary penalties, extended-shift overtime, fortnightly overtime, on-call and recall separated from the base salary row.
• On-call availability and recall/call-back are separate pay concepts.
• Professional Development Allowance (PDA) is listed for Registrar rows and paid pro rata fortnightly.

Registrar penalty-rate table

Start with the base row, then add the roster items that actually apply.

On-call, recall and registrar allowances

WA separates availability from the work done after recall, so these should not be modelled as one item.

• On-call allowance for doctors in training is listed as $13.28 per hour from 3 September 2025.
• Recall/call-back has a 3-hour minimum, with different rates depending on time and day.
• Professional Development Allowance (PDA) is listed as $11,380 per year for Registrar rows, paid pro rata fortnightly.
• Meal allowance, eligible travel reimbursement and higher duties can matter when the relevant conditions apply.
• On-call frequency for doctors in training is capped at not more than 1 day in 3 unless the listed exception applies.

Registrar leave and professional development

These items affect job value and should sit alongside base salary when comparing registrar roles.

• Professional development leave is listed as 3 weeks paid per calendar year, with carryover up to 9 weeks.
• Exam leave is listed as 4 paid days to sit approved exams, plus 3 clear days off immediately before the exam.
• Annual leave is listed as 160 hours per year, with extra leave possible from enough on-call hours or ordinary Sunday/public holiday shifts.
• Paid parental leave is listed as 14 weeks for a primary caregiver with 12 months continuous service, and can be taken at half pay for double the period.
• Long service leave is listed as 13 weeks after 10 years, then 13 weeks after each further 7 years.

Specialty pathway loading: Trainee Psychiatrist

WA is unusual in paying psychiatry trainees on a separate, higher classification rather than the standard registrar scale.

• A “Trainee Psychiatrist” — a registrar or senior registrar in a RANZCP-recognised training position — is paid on a dedicated classification that sits about two increment-years above the standard Registrar scale (Trainee Psychiatrist Year 1 is paid at the same rate as Registrar Year 3).
• On the current (from 3 September 2025) scale, Trainee Psychiatrist Year 1 is $140,819 against Registrar Year 1 at $125,010, and the Trainee Psychiatrist scale runs to $192,371 at Year 7.
• No other specialty has a separate base scale in the WA agreement: other registrars are paid the standard Registrar rates regardless of training program.

Working north of the 26th parallel (WA Country Health Service)

Doctors employed by WA Country Health Service in locations north of the 26° South Latitude sit under a separate schedule (Schedule 3) with a materially higher base-salary table — not just an allowance on top.

• North of 26°, the doctor-in-training scale is shifted up by roughly four steps: an intern is paid $119,165 (against $90,864 on the metropolitan Schedule 1), Resident Year 1 $125,010, and Registrar Year 1 $147,748 (against $125,010 in metro) — all on the 3 September 2025 column.
• The north scale's registrar rows run only to Registrar Year 3 ($162,661) — there is no Registrar Year 4-7 north of 26°. Registrar Year 4 → Senior Registrar are reclassified as a senior 'Health Service Medical Practitioner' (HSMP), paid on Arrangement A by default: base $226,833 (Year 1) to $293,564 (Year 6) plus a $34,696 professional-development allowance (WA Country Health Service's 2026 Registrar Positions Booklet quotes the HSMP package at ~$364,873–$460,699). Arrangement A's private-practice income allowance was rolled into the salary in 2016, so it is a guaranteed salary component paid even though a trainee does no private billing; the base-only Arrangement B (~$162,661–$210,327) is grandfathered to pre-2013 electors only and is not available to a current registrar. Both the doctor-in-training and the HSMP (Arrangement A) rows are selectable in the calculator under 'WA – North of 26°'.
• On top of the higher base, a District Allowance applies — set by the separate District Allowance (Government Officers) General Agreement 2010, so it varies by town and number of dependants — plus an extra week of annual leave for each year of service, annual-leave travel concessions, relocation assistance, and (for senior practitioners) commuted on-call allowances and a service gratuity.
• You can model the north-of-26° base rates directly in the take-home calculator by choosing the 'WA – North of 26°' state, and add your town's District Allowance in the Advanced section.

Psychiatry trainees north of the 26th parallel: a grey area

The higher north-of-26° schedule does not carry the metropolitan psychiatry premium, which leaves a genuine ambiguity.

• Schedule 3 lists no 'Trainee Psychiatrist' classification and states that 'no other classifications prescribed in the Agreement apply' — so north of 26°, a psychiatry trainee is paid as an ordinary Registrar (to Year 3) or Health Service Medical Practitioner, not on the metropolitan Trainee Psychiatrist scale.
• In practice a junior psychiatry trainee north of 26° still out-earns a metropolitan one, because the north base is higher across the board: north Registrar Year 1 ($147,748) already exceeds metro Trainee Psychiatrist Year 1 ($140,819).
• Beyond Registrar Year 3, a psychiatry trainee north of 26° is reclassified HSMP and paid on Arrangement A — base $226,833 (HSMP Year 1) and up, well above the metropolitan Trainee Psychiatrist scale. The genuine grey area — and why the job adverts are confusing — is the boundary itself: because north-of-26° registrar classifications cap at Year 3 ($162,661), whether a mid-training fourth-year registrar is placed straight onto HSMP Year 1 ($226,833 — a large one-step jump) or held at the Registrar Year 3 cap ($162,661) varies by role and credentialing. Confirm the exact classification against the specific advert / WACHS medical workforce. There is no separate Trainee Psychiatrist classification north of 26°, so psychiatry trainees follow this ordinary registrar → HSMP path.

Gross vs net at registrar incomes

Registrar base salary is higher, but HECS/HELP withholding and marginal tax settings also become more visible at these incomes.

Worked examples (WA)

* Estimated after tax and HECS/HELP. Your actual payslip will depend on roster mix, allowances, and deductions.

Frequently asked questions