The FY27 pay rates in the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award (SCHADS Award, MA000100), which came into effect from 1 July 2026, have been published by the Fair Work Ombudsman on 24 June 2026. The SCHADS pay guide contains all classifications, penalty rates and allowances applicable to support workers, care workers, coordinators, and team leaders in NDIS and Home Care services. You may already be paying your employees incorrectly, whether in overpayment or underpayment if your payroll system is not updated.
This article highlights the SCHADS rates in FY27, common mistakes providers make and how you can apply the correct figures since the first pay period in July 2026.
There are four categories of workers covered by SCHADS: social and community services employees, crisis accommodation employees, family day care employees, and home care employees. Providers offering NDIS and Home Care services will likely fall under the first and fourth categories. SCHADS also provides ordinary hourly rates, weekend rates, penalty rates, public holiday and night shift rates, casual loading, overtime rates, and allowances like sleepover, broken shift, on call, vehicle, first aid, meal, and uniform allowances. Getting any one wrong compounds across every shift a large workforce works.
The ordinary weekday rates for Social and Community Services Employees commence from $27.55/hr at Level 1, PP1, to $68.49/hr at Level 8, PP1, as from 1 July 2026. The weekend and public holiday penalty rates apply above the ordinary rates – 150% for Saturdays, 200% for Sundays and 250% for public holidays. The rates at Level 2, PP1, for instance, include 150% ordinary of $36.22/hr which is $54.33/hr on Saturdays, $72.44/hr on Sundays and $90.55/hr on public holidays. Shift penalty rates apply to weekdays' shift, hence, raising the rate of Level 1 by around $31/hr.
Casuals have the additional 25% loading to the ordinary rate, which may be added on weekend and public holiday penalty rates depending on what time of the day the shift occurs. A Level 1, PP1, casual is paid $34.44/hr on a weekday, $48.21/hr on Saturdays, $61.99/hr on Sundays and $75.76/hr on public holidays. Casuals form a considerable percentage of the support workforce, and thus miscalculation of the base rate/loading will affect each and every shift.
The Home Care Employees fall into a different pay rate table divided into disability care and aged care classifications. The ordinary weekday rates for disability care workers begin at $27.28/hr at Level 1 and increase at each level. Weekend and public holidays are still the same percentages as 150%, 200% and 250%. Rates for aged care employees have other names like Level 1 Introductory at $32.61/hr and Level 6 Team Leader at $40.58/hr. If a provider offers support to participants in both NDIS and aged care, he should know which table to apply.
Overtimes for full-time Social and Community Services Employees are paid as 150% of the regular hourly rate for the first 3 hours, 200% thereafter, and 250% on public holidays. Over and above that, without providing a minimum 10-hour rest period following the overtime period, double time becomes applicable.
Allowances are the most common source of underpayment in this industry. The key amounts payable for FY27 include a flat allowance of $62.87 per night sleepover, broken shifts allowance of $21.81 (unpaid break one) or $28.87 (unpaid break two), on call allowance of $25.66 during weekdays and $50.81 during weekends and public holidays per 24 hours, vehicle allowance of $1.01 per kilometer, and allowances for first aid, meals, uniforms, and laundry separately. While individually the amounts may not be significant, but cumulatively their significance becomes apparent.
The SCHADS payroll mistakes are normally due to complexity rather than lack of diligence. The correct rate for each shift is determined by classification and pay point, the type of employment, day of the week, time of commencing and finishing work, whether it's an intermittent or call-back shift, whether there is any overtime, and allowances applicable. In case of manual calculation or if software is not set to handle the SCHADS Award, such combinations would be forgotten, resulting in either Fair Work underpayment liability or an overpayment.
Each pay period starting from 1 July 2026 will need to calculate at the FY27 rates using the commencement date of the pay period, not the roster date. Typical mistakes when applying new rates in a year include the rate card left unchanged, failure to update the casual rates for an annual rate increase, and penalty multipliers calculated against the old base rates. A check on your pay runs starting 1 July could be beneficial.
The payroll system from Appoyo was specifically created to be used by NDIS and Home Care providers who are working under the SCHADS Award. Since the rostering and the payroll are not two separate modules, but integrated together, the appropriate rate will be charged as soon as the shift is done, taking into account the classification, shift timing, type of employment and allowance. The FY27 rates will start reflecting in all the computations as soon as they become effective, without any need to have a manual update between the rostering and the payroll.
If you'd like to see how Appoyo applies SCHADS rates automatically across rostering and payroll, speak with us about how the platform works for your provider.