The NSW Government’s first Budget will make good on its election commitment to deliver better salary packaging for tens of thousands of healthcare workers in NSW.
Better salary packaging is critical to recruiting, retaining, and sustaining our health workforce, as it allows employees to decrease the amount of tax payable on their income.
Under current salary packaging arrangements, the resulting tax savings are split equally between health workers and NSW Health.
Changes announced by the NSW Government, will see HSU award workers’ share of these tax savings increase to 70 per cent.
More than 50,000 healthcare workers will benefit from these changes across NSW including in rural and regional NSW, including allied health, health and security assistants, administration staff, cooks, patient transport staff, paramedics, sterilisation technicians, tech assistants and telephonists.
For example, a cleaner earning $54,483 per year will see an increase in their after-tax take-home pay of $753.36 per year or $14.99 per week.
The Government is working to achieve 100% during it’s the first term of Government and will be identifying funding and next stages after the September Budget.
These changes build on the NSW Government’s abolition of the wages cap for frontline workers, delivering the largest pay increase for the workforce in over a decade.
We can make these important changes to support frontline workers because the NSW Government is making the difficult but responsible decisions with spending.
NSW faces rampant inflation, rising interest rates and the largest debt in the state’s history, but we are committed to ensuring that the state is prepared to get on top of these challenges.
It’s why the NSW government is setting out a long-term plan to gradually repair the budget in a sustainable way, to reprioritise spending to where it is needed most, and to rebuild the essential services that we all rely on.
And we will do it without privatising essential public assets or imposing an unfair cap on the wages of our essential service workers.
Premier of NSW Chris Minns said:
“This is an important announcement for the 50,000 health care workers who are set to benefit.
“We need to recruit and retain health staff. Removing the wages cap and improving the salary packaging arrangements for our health workers will go some way to addressing that.
“There’s more to do – I want to ensure the people of NSW have the essential services they rely on.”
Minister for Health Ryan Park said:
“Today’s announcement will help boost recruitment and retention of our health workforce.
“When we back our health workers, the improved health outcomes will follow.”
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said:
“We are committed to making better choices in this Budget, so that we can focus on the programs that make people’s lives better. That includes as a priority, rebuilding essential services.
“Putting hundreds of dollars back into the pockets of healthcare workers is the first step in a suite of plans to recruit, retrain and reward essential staff.”
Minister for Industrial Relations Sophie Cotsis said:
“Today’s announcement is about improving workforce conditions for health workers.
“This is in addition to delivering the largest pay increase for our health workers in over a decade.”
