Salary, Pay and Pensions in Australia in 2023 as a Junior Doctor
There are many benefits to moving to Australia from the UK as a junior doctor. One of the most persuasive benefits is pay – you can expect to be far better paid in the Australian health system than you are in the NHS.
In this article, we’ll further explore:
👉 What pay levels you can expect and how this varies by state
👉 How your pay changes as you get more experienced
👉 How this compares to the NHS
🤑 Base Salaries
How is pay structured in Australia?
Pay in the Australian public health system is banded in the same way as it is in the NHS.
Base salary varies based only on two factors:
💰 The state where you’re working - Each state has their own pay scale, and there is quite a large difference too. At a PGY3 (F3) level, the highest paying state (Northern Territory) will pay you over A$14,000 more in annual base salary than the lowest paying (Tasmania).
💰 Years of post-graduate experience - Your base pay is based on your post-graduate year (PGY), rather than the job that you’re doing. So if you have four years of experience (PGY4) doing an RMO job alongside mostly PGY3s, you will get paid as PGY4. Some exceptions exist, such as Registrars (usually on training programmes). To learn about the grades system in Australia, this article breaks the system down and explains which roles might be suitable for you.
Base salary is based on a 38-hour working week, with any additional hours paid on top (see below for calculations). This is also only the ‘base’ rate, with increases similar to banding paid for anti-social hours and overtime. We’ll discuss this more later, as well.
What is the annual pay by state?
Note that these are frequently updated to new rates. We will endeavour to keep this table up to date, but you can also click on the relevant links in the Appendix below to see the latest on each state’s website.
What does this mean for an F3 doctor moving to Australia?
To help you compare this to the NHS, let’s take the example of a UK F3 doctor and compare their pay for a Junior Clinical Fellow role in the NHS vs working at a PGY3 level in Queensland. In both cases, we will look at the base pay only before any banding or additional pay (more on this below).
NHS F3 Junior Clinical Fellow - Using the most recently published BMA pay scales (see here), assuming the doctor was being paid at the CT1 / ST1 level for their fellowship, the annual base pay would be £40,257. Note that it’s common for Clinical Fellows to be offered jobs at the FY2 pay level, which is only £34,012.
Queensland PY3 - Using the table above, you can see the base pay is A$94,401. At the time of writing, the exchange rate is 1.786 resulting in a pay in GBP of £52,856. That is around £12,500 more than in the NHS, or a 31% increase.
To check the latest exchange rates, you can use this widget which looks up the latest rates.
Does pay differ between specialities, or is it all based on grade?
As explained above, base salary is based entirely on two factors: (i) your state and (ii) your years of post-graduate experience. There is no uplift in base salary for certain specialties.
However, some specialties will naturally attract more out-of-hours work, for which you are paid at an increased rate from the base pay. These are called ‘penalties’ in Australia, which are explained below.
💸 Increasing your pay
Is my salary negotiable or will I be fixed in these bands?
Base salaries are fixed to the pay bands and are non-negotiable.
How does base pay increase over time?
As you can see in the table above, the base pay increases year after year in Australia as you progress into the next post-graduate year (PGY) band.
So, if you moved out as an F3 and then stayed on for a second year, your pay (again looking at Queensland as an example) would go from A$92,098 to A$113,481, or £51,566.62 to £63,539.19.
Remember that in the NHS, the pay scales for CT1 and CT2 are the same, so you wouldn’t expect an increase.
When will I move up to the next band?
How your previous experience is counted towards your years of experience for the bandings varies. This should be something that you discuss when you are discussing your offer and once you start.
Let’s take the situation of someone who moved out to Australia to start work in February 2023 of their F3 year. You are in your third year of practice, so you would start at the PGY3 pay scale.
You may be able to go up to the PGY4 banding after six months, in August 2023, as you enter your 4th year since starting F1, or you may need to wait until February 2024, when you’ve been working in Australia for a full 12 months.
If you had worked full time in the first 6 months of your F3 in the UK, you are in a good position to negotiate that time to be considered as contributing to your PGY level so that you can move to PGY4 in August 2023.
However, if you had worked intermittently in that period (doing some ad hoc locums and travelling), you will likely have to stay on the PGY3 rate until February 2024.
Do rural hospitals pay more? Is there a premium or banding for them?
In most cases, you are paid at the same level across the whole state. Accommodation may be included in some locations, so your pay cheque may go further, usually if they are especially struggling to attract doctors.
The main exception is Western Australia, which has a higher pay rate if you work in the north of the state, which is more remote. The cut-off for this is being north of the 26° south latitude line. Look up Port depending on if you work above or below the 26° south latitude line. Look up Cape Peron on Google Maps to give you an idea of where this line cuts the state.
What else can I do if I want to increase my pay?
💸 Get enhanced rates from penalties. Penalties are when you are paid at an increased rate from the base pay for working anti-social hours. If you pick up these hours on your roster, or choose rotations in specialties with a higher amount of out-of-hours work, you will naturally have a higher overall salary due to the higher pay rate from these penalties, which can be quite generous. We will discuss this in detail in the next section.
💸 It is also common to have “sick leave on call” shifts, where you may be called in at any time during a 24-hour period to cover any sick leave. If you don’t get called in, you get paid a small rate (roughly 2 hours worth of work), and if you do get called in, you will often get paid the hours worked at penalty rates.
💸 Salary packaging is the scheme that allows doctors to pay for certain items out of their gross salary before tax is taken. This reduces the overall tax which you pay. You can deduct up to A$9,010 of your pre-tax salary and an additional A$2,650 for meals and entertainment. Your hospital will help set this up for you.
💸 You can also do some extra locum work, but only in your current department. Note that when you start working in Australia, you will be on Provisional Registration with AHPRA for the first year. This requires you to work under a named supervisor and so you cannot locum in other hospitals. After 47 weeks of supervised practice, you can ‘upgrade’ to General Registration and this restriction is lifted. You can learn more about the different registration types in our article, Provisional and General Registration With AHPRA in Australia.
📈 Understanding penalties
How do penalties work?
Whilst the base salaries are already significantly better than the NHS, your overall pay will be higher still.
Australia has clear rules on increased pay levels for weekends, public holidays and anti-social hours, which take the pay up from the ‘base’ level above. These are confusingly called ‘penalties’, although you’re actually rewarded, not penalised!
These enhanced rates are significant and can seriously increase the amount you’re actually paid in a year, especially if you work in a speciality with lots of weekends and nights.
The amounts vary by state, but on average, you can expect:
👉 Evenings: 112.5% to 120% of your base pay
👉 Nights: 125% of your base pay
👉 Weekends: 150+% of your base pay
👉 Public Holidays: 150+% of your base pay
👉 Overtime: 150+% of your base pay
To be clear, being paid 150% of your base pay is equal to a 50% increase on your base salary.
It should be noted that you’re only entitled to one penalty, so if your night shift falls on a weekend, you will often only receive the weekend rate (the higher rate).
We have set out a full table of the penalty rates by state in the appendix below.
Is overtime paid for?
The base salary is based upon a 38-hour working week.
If you are rostered for more than 38 hours in a week, such as if you’re working a weekend shift on top of your usual week, any extra hours will be paid as overtime at the relevant overtime rate for your state.
What happens if I have to work late? Is this time paid for?
The culture of paying for overtime can vary by hospital. In some, you are paid in full without fighting for it. In others, it can be more difficult. Many UK doctors report that this is much easier to get paid for staying late than in the NHS.
In all cases, you will need to show that there’s an urgent clinical need you had to address, and get this signed off by your Consultant. So if you were staying late to do discharge summaries, that wouldn’t commonly qualify for overtime.
How are public holidays treated?
You get paid the penalty rate if you work on a public holiday (as bank holidays are known in Australia). If your zero-day also falls on a public holiday, you may also get paid a public holiday penalty instead of time off in lieu. If a public holiday falls during your annual leave block, you will get time off in lieu.
How do these enhanced rates change the monthly pay?
Let’s go back to our example of the PGY3 / F3 doctor working in Queensland. All figures below are gross, so before tax or any other deductions.
Their monthly base pay is A$7,675, which is 1/12th of the annual base salary of A$92,098. Assuming a normal month, working 38 hours per week, they would have worked around 165 hours in that month.
But if during this month, they worked the following hours…
👉 20 hours of weekend work, as they were rostered on two Sundays that month
👉 40 hours of nights, as they had a run of nights during one week
👉 8 hours of unscheduled overtime, as they stayed late on three days
… then the total pay for that month would be A$9,678, which is almost A$2,000 more than the base pay (a 22% increase). So this really stacks up!
🇦🇺 Tax and take-home pay
What does the average take-home pay look like for an F3 working in Australia?
You can use the Seek Salary Calculator to work out how much your take home pay will be, based on your gross salary.
Taking the Queensland PGY3 base salary for 2021 as an example (A$92,098), your take home salary will be A$71,294.00, with taxes and superannuation (see below) of A$20,804. Note this doesn’t include the salary packaging benefits or penalties, so it will likely be higher.
Including extra pay for penalties, and some benefits from salary packaging, a PGY3 doctor could expect to take home close to A$100,000 after tax.
What is the most I could expect to earn as a PGY3?
The numbers above don’t include penalties (which increase your overall pay) or salary packaging benefits (which reduce your tax bill).
Including extra pay for penalties, and some benefits from salary packaging, a PGY3 doctor could expect to take home over A$80,000 a year after tax, or close to A$7,000 (£4,000) per month.
Will I have to pay tax in the UK as well as Australia?
There is a double tax agreement between Australia and the UK, meaning you only pay tax once on what you earn (i.e. tax on any UK salary will be taxed by UK standards, and tax on Australia taxed in Australia).
How do Australian pensions work? What is superannuation?
There is no equivalent of the NHS pension in Australia. Instead, you have superannuation, often called ‘super’ by Australians.
Each employer is obliged to pay an amount into your own personal pension pot, at a rate of 10.5% of your salary. This doesn’t come out of your pay cheque, so it is in addition to the base salary mentioned above. This amount is tax-free. Another great perk of working in Australia!
You need to register with a company to manage your superannuation fund. Your hospital will suggest a default company to manage your superannuation, but you can choose your own if you wish.
This amount then builds up over time, and when you hit retirement age, you can start withdrawing it tax-free. This means that every working person in Australia effectively has their own private pension, reducing the need for state pensions to just those needing additional support.
What happens to my pension when I leave Australia?
If you only intend to be in Australia for a year or two, you can withdraw the amount that has built up in your superannuation account when you leave, although it will then be taxed as you are withdrawing before retirement age.
🤔 Other FAQs
How often do you get paid?
You get paid fortnightly!
Do I get paid for my lunch break?
This varies by state, which will either include or exclude a 30-minute break.
Do I get a meal allowance or similar?
There isn’t usually a meal allowance for a typical working day. However, long days may attract a meal allowance. This varies between states and can be from A$10 to A$25. For example, in Queensland, for shifts over 10 hours long you get a daily lunch stipend of between A$10.80 and A$15.95.
Is there often any study budget?
Some states offer an education allowance that is reflected in your payslip, while other states have you claim for your study budget. For example, Victoria offers $3,978 per year straight into your payslip.
When do relocation expenses tend to be offered?
This will depend on the hospital and might include reimbursement for your registration fees, flights, or offer free accommodation when you start while you settle in.
It is best to check what they offer before you sign any contracts, as you may be able to negotiate this with your offer in some cases.
More rural hospitals tend to offer more generous relocation packages, and if you get a job in a popular city like Sydney or Melbourne, you might not expect much.
In the wake of COVID-19, some states have offered generous relocation bonuses for healthcare workers who are moving to Australia as an incentive for them to move over. For example, NSW and Victoria are currently offering up to A$13,000. This bonus will likely only be temporary for 2022-2023.
💰 Appendix
Here are the base salaries and penalty rates for each state:
👉 Australian Capital Territory
Base Salaries (2022)
PGY2 - A$91,153
PGY3 - A$99,996
PGY4 - A$112,917
PGY5 - A$122,359
PGY6 - A$131,840
Penalties
Evenings - 112.5% pay
Nights - 125% pay
Saturday - 150% pay
Sunday - 175% pay
Public holiday - 250% pay
Meal allowance - A$12.63 to A$24.18
Download contract here.
👉 New South Wales
Base Salaries (2022)
PGY2 - A$85,668
PGY3 - A$94,224
PGY4 - A$106,717
PGY5 - A$115,855
PGY6 - A$125,026
Penalties
Evenings - 112.5% pay
Nights - 125% pay
Saturday - 150% pay
Sunday - 175% pay
Public holiday - 150% pay
Meal allowance - A$31.95
👉 Northern Territory
Base Salaries (2022)
PGY2 - A$91,319
PGY3 - A$97,432
PGY4 - A$103,336
PGY5 - A$108,630
PGY6 - A$111,699
Penalties
Evenings - 115% pay
Nights - 122.5% pay
Saturday - 150% pay
Sunday - 200% pay
Public holiday - 250% pay
👉 Queensland
Base Salaries (2022)
PGY2 - A$87,660
PGY3 - A$94,401
PGY4 - A$116,316
PGY5 - A$119,685
PGY6 - A$123,053
Penalties
Nights - 115% pay
Saturday - 150% pay
Sunday - 200% pay
Public holiday - 150-250% pay depending on holiday
Overtime - 150% pay for first 3 hours, then 200%
Professional development allowance - >A$2311
👉 South Australia
Base Salaries (2023)
PGY2 - A$87,934
PGY3 - A$95,261
PGY4 - A$110,650
PGY5 - A$120,175
PGY6 - A$127,504
Penalties
Evenings -
Nights -
Saturday -
Sunday -
Public holiday -
👉 Tasmania
Base Salaries (2022)
PGY2 - A$79,578
PGY3 - A$83,082
PGY4 - A$89,709
PGY5 - A$97,946
PGY6 - A$103,961
Penalties
Evenings -
Nights -
Saturday -
Sunday -
Public holiday -
👉 Victoria
Base Salaries (2022)
PGY2 - A$88,397
PGY3 - A$95,829
PGY4 - A$116,952
PGY5 - A$124,296
PGY6 - A$131,591
Penalties
Evenings -
Nights -
Saturday -
Sunday -
Public holiday -
👉 Western Australia
Base Salaries (2022)
PGY2 - A$88,328
PGY3 - A$96,960
PGY4 - A$106,456
PGY5 - A$111,678
PGY6 - A$117,163
Penalties
Evenings - 120% pay
Nights - 125% pay
Saturday - 150% pay
Sunday - 175% pay
Public holiday - 250% pay
Overtime - 150-200% pay
Professional development allowance - RMO A$5,766 Reg A$10,107
On call - A$11.86 hourly rate
Meals - A$10.8-15.95 (>10 hour)
📚 Continue Reading
🚀 This article is part of Messly's Ultimate Guide to Working in Australia. The guide covers all you need to know as a UK doctor to understand your options, research your move, find work, get registered and move out to Australia.
❓ If you are still weighing up whether a move to Australia is right for you, our article To Aus or not to Aus breaks down the pros and cons, so you can make an informed decision. Read this with Common Questions on Moving to Australia as a UK Junior Doctor.
✈️ There are four routes to finding a job in Australia. In this detailed guide, we explain how each works and the pros and cons of each, so you can kick-start your search for your dream job Down Under
📄 Applying through state application rounds is a common way of getting a job in Australia, especially for February starters. Here we explain how they work, who they are suitable for and typical timelines so you’re clued up on how to make them work for you.
🤔 Confused about how the grades work in Australia, and which roles you should be applying for? This article breaks down the grade system and explains which rolesmight be suitable for you.
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