The review followed the Commission’s decision in the 2023-24 Annual Wage Review, which identified five awards for priority review to remedy potential gender-based undervaluation.
Gender-based undervaluation refers to subjective, gender-biased assumptions about the skill level required for particular occupations, which may result in workers of any gender missing out on fair compensation for their work.
The Expert Panel’s recent review reflected the high proportion of female-identifying workers in the care and community sectors, who have historically been lower paid in comparison to male-identifying workers in equivalent professions.
The Commission’s ruling will see a 14.1% weekly wage increase for all pharmacist classifications paid at the award rate, including interns, phased in over the next three years.
The Guild filed submissions in October 2024 forecasting the wage increase, strongly advocating for a phased implementation to better support change in community pharmacies. The Commission accepted the Guild’s position and ruled that for the equal, incremental changes to take effect from 1 July 2025, 1 July 2026, and 1 July 2027.
National Wage Increases will also take effect each July. This means that updated pharmacists Award rates will reflect both a portion of the 14.1% increase and the National Wage Increase.
You can read the full decision here.
