Nurses and midwives will receive their largest pay increase in more than two decades after a ruling from the independent industrial umpire today, with the wage boost being an all-time record-breaker for the lowest paid amongst them.
The Minns Government welcomes the decision delivered by the Industrial Relations Commission, which was restored to resolve exactly this type of matter.
The ruling will see nurses and midwives receive an historic pay rise of between 16 and 28 per cent.
Backdated to July 2025, the pay rise will comprise a reset increase of between 10 and 22 per cent. This will be followed by a 3 per cent increase from July 2026 and a further 3 per cent from July 2027.
Labor was elected with a mandate to scrap the Liberals and Nationals’ unfair wages cap and restore the independent adjudicator. Since then, we have worked closely with workers and unions to rebuild the industrial relations system, putting fairness back at the centre of workers’ pay. This includes:
- Delivering record pay increases to paramedics, police, teachers and other essential workers.
- Making good on our commitment of ensuring a fair, modern and sustainable wages policy.
- Hiring more than 5,000 nurses, who are working in hospitals right now.
- Saving the jobs of 1,100 nurses the Liberals and Nationals would have axed.
- Helping attract and retain the essential workers NSW needs.
All this has been achieved through careful economic management, while putting people at the centre of decisions. Our approach has been in stark contrast to the Liberals and Nationals’ reliance on short-sighted privatisation and punitive wages freeze.
The Opposition must now come clean on whether it remains committed to a wages policy that leaves workers going backwards, after it suppressed pay and refused to introduce safe nurse-to-patient ratios while in government.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said:
“Nurses and midwives are the beating heart of our health workforce and while we acknowledge this was a hard-fought dispute, we believe it is a fair outcome.
“This pay rise is meaningful cost of living support that would have been impossible under the Coalition’s oppressive wages freeze.
“Bringing back the Industrial Relations Commission to serve as an independent umpire is a much better way to resolve a dispute than a blunt wages cap.”
Health Minister Ryan Park said:
“Nurses and midwives will receive one of the largest pay increases in a generation.
“This historic pay increase would not have been possible without the hard work undertaken between the Minns Labor Government and the union movement.
“Together, with the Nurses & Midwives Association, we have worked to recruit 1,200 nurses to roll out staff to patient ratios, saved 1,112 nurses that the Coalition planned to axe, and we will deliver one of the most significant pay increases for nurses and midwives in a generation.”
Minister for Industrial Relations Sophie Cotsis said:
“For too long, nurses and midwives have been held back by the former government’s draconian wages freeze.
“After 12 years of neglect, we promised to rebuild the state’s essential services and reform the state’s industrial relations system.
“The days of governments dictating wages are now over.
“We’ve introduced a modern bargaining framework, rebuilt the Industrial Relations Commission and we’ve changed the law to put the achievement of gender equity as an object of the Act.
“90% of nurses and midwives are women and today’s outcome demonstrates why gender equity matters.”