Grades, salaries and Enterprise Agreements

The Victorian public sector offers opportunities to advance your career and earnings.

Each job description posted on this website will include the job’s grade, salary range and benefits.

Because there are more than 1800 employers across the Victorian public sector, there is no single document that contains information about every job grade, salary range or employment benefit. So these will vary depending on the public sector organisation and the enterprise agreement that covers its employees.

However, there are various agreements that apply to large sections of the Victorian public sector. One of these is the Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2020. This contains information about grades, salary bands and other general conditions of employment for respective Departments and Agencies. 

Grades

Job grades are determined based on the work requirements and responsibility level of the job. The assignment of a job grade will consider things like level of decision-making, communication, knowledge, management responsibilities and proficiency required to perform the job. 

The number of grades and the content of grade descriptors will vary depending on the public sector organisation and its applicable enterprise agreement.

As an example, the Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2020 (mentioned above) contains a structure of grades 1 to 7 along with detailed descriptors of each. You can read these in Schedule C of the agreement.

Salaries

Based on the grade of a job, a salary band is applied. This salary band will reflect the level of skill and proficiency required for the job. Salaries applying to a particular role will be detailed in the applicable enterprise agreement. 

Enterprise agreements

Salaries and benefits are usually negotiated between the organisation, employees and their respective union(s) or other nominated bargaining representatives and then approved by Fair Work Commission. 

Enterprise agreements applying in the Victorian public sector are available on the Fair Work Commission’s website.