Children’s Services Award part of gender based undervaluation decision from FWC 

The Expert Panel for pay equity in the care and community sector has issued its initial decision in the Gender-based undervaluation – priority awards review (the Review), which considered whether making changes (variations) to certain classifications and minimum wage rates in five priority awards – including the Children’s Services Award – was necessary on work value grounds to remedy potential gender-based undervaluation. 

The Review by the Expert Panel for pay equity in the care and community sector was initiated on 7 June 2024 to consider whether making changes (variations) to certain classifications and minimum wage rates in five priority awards was necessary on work value grounds to remedy potential gender-based undervaluation. 

The Expert Panel has found that those employed under the five awards listed below have been the subject of gender-based undervaluation and these findings constitute work value reasons justifying the variation of the modern award minimum wage rates applying to each category of employees:

• children’s services employees covered by the Children’s Services Award 2010
• pharmacists covered by the Pharmacy Industry Award 2020
• health professionals, pathology collectors and dental assistants covered by the Health Professionals and Support Services Award 2020
• social and community services employees, crisis accommodation employees and home care employees in disability care covered by the Social, Community Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010, and
• dental assistants and dental/oral therapists covered by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workers and Practitioners and Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services Award 2020

The Expert Panel has determined the terms of the award variation to rectify the identified gender‑based undervaluation in the Pharmacy Industry Award 2020. This will involve a total increase in minimum wage rates of 14.1 per cent, to be implemented in three phases from 30 June 2025, 30 June 2026 and 30 June 2027 respectively. 

The decision sets out provisional views relating to variations to remedy the gender-based undervaluation found to have occurred for the remaining 4 priority awards, including the Children’s Services Award 2010. 

Next steps

A Determination implementing the first phase of variations to the minimum rates for pharmacist classifications in the Pharmacy Industry Award 2020, operative from 30 June 2025, is published with the decision.  

The Expert Panel invites interested parties to consider the provisional views in the decision for the remaining four priority awards and the Expert Panel will list conferences to establish the nature and scope of any issues raised. These will be listed after 3 May 2025. 

The Expert Panel will program the Review for further hearing based on the responses provided by interested parties at the conferences. The hearings will finalise the variations to the awards necessary to rectify the gender-based undervaluation found to have occurred.

Read the Decision Summary here. The full decision is available here, along with additional information on the proceedings: Gender-based undervaluation – priority awards review