What Will a Traineeship Actually Pay You in 2026? The Real Numbers

02 June 2026

The most common question young people ask before starting a traineeship is the simplest one. What does it actually pay? Most of the answers online are vague. Here are the real 2026 numbers from the Fair Work Ombudsman, the qualified rates you move onto once you finish, and what the picture looks like across a few years rather than just week one.

The starting wage: what Fair Work publishes

Trainees are paid under the National Training Wage Schedule (Schedule E of the Miscellaneous Award 2020). For a young person who has finished Year 12 and is starting a Cert II or above traineeship, the rate sits in Wage Level A and steps up each year out of school: $540.50 per week ($14.22/hr) as a school leaver, rising to $629 in year one, $732 by year four and capping at $838 per week ($22.05/hr) for trainees five or more years out of school.[1]

At Y Careers, you're earning above the national training award under The Secure Jobs Better Pay Act, so the actual figure on your payslip is higher than the published floor. Because Y Careers has an enterprise agreement (EBA), the rate is the same regardless of how many years you are out of school. The current rate is $24.17 an hour, and it may increase on 1 July if the national minimum wage goes up.

What that compares to, honestly

Most young people compare their trainee wage to the casual hourly rate they're already earning in retail or hospo. A Level 1 casual retail worker in 2026 earns $33.19 per hour under the General Retail Industry Award (base rate of $26.55 plus the 25% casual loading).[2]

The casual hourly rate looks higher than the trainee rate, but two things flatten the gap once you look closer.

First, casual hours aren't guaranteed. A trainee role is full-time and ongoing. A casual retail or hospo role is a roster that shifts week to week, with hours cut without notice when the business is quiet. Once you compare 38 guaranteed hours against a variable roster, the weekly take-home gap is smaller than the hourly rate suggests.

Second, casuals don't get paid leave; the 25% loading exists to compensate for that. A trainee accrues four weeks of paid annual leave and ten days of paid sick leave each year, the same as any full-time employee. Across 12 months, those entitlements are worth roughly five weeks of paid time off a casual worker simply doesn't have.

What you earn once you finish: the qualified rates

The starting wage isn't the wage you stay on. Once you've finished, you've got a nationally recognised Cert III or above on your CV and 12 to 24 months of full-time experience. You stop being an entry-level applicant. Here's what the qualified rates look like across the sectors Y Careers operates in.

Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC): a Cert III qualified educator under the Children's Services Award (CSE Level 3.1) earns from $26.18/hr, or about $995/wk on a 38-hour week. Following the Fair Work Commission's gender undervaluation decision, the qualified rate rises in staged increases through to 2029, totalling roughly 23%.[3]
Outside School Hours Care (OSHC): qualified educators sit in a comparable band under the same award, with the same staged increases applying. Total hours are typically lower because OSHC works around the school day.
Aged Care: a Cert III qualified personal care worker under the Aged Care Award earns $1,314.30/wk (about $34.59/hr) from 15 January 2026.[4] A second-year Cert IV pathway opens higher classifications.
Disability Support: a Level 2 support worker under the SCHADS Award earns from about $34.58/hr for permanent employees, with Level 3 and 4 classifications above for senior and coordinator roles.[5]

In each sector, the wage you're earning at the end of a 12 to 18 month traineeship is materially higher than the entry-level casual rate you started from, and progression is structured, not luck.

The debt-free factor changes the picture by year two

The average Australian bachelor's degree graduate finishes with around $26,000 to $28,000 in HELP debt. After the federal government's 20% reduction to HELP balances in early 2026 (calculated on balances as at 1 June 2025), the typical figure is now closer to $21,000 to $22,500.[6] The balance is indexed each year and starts coming out of wages once you cross the repayment threshold.

A trainee finishes a 12 to 24 month program with zero debt, a recognised qualification and a real year or two of full-time earnings already banked. By the time the graduate is starting their first full-time role, the trainee has been earning the qualified sector rate for a year or more and isn't carrying any repayments.

The 5-year picture, sector by sector

Here's roughly how the paths compare across five years for an 18-year-old, using current published rates and standard progression. Figures are pre-tax and illustrative; real outcomes vary with overtime, penalties and location loading.

Aged Care trainee: 12 months on the National Training Wage (school-leaver rate ~$540.50/wk → ~$28,100), then 4 years on the Cert III qualified rate ($1,314.30/wk → ~$68,300/yr). Five-year total: around $301,000, with zero debt and a Cert III in Individual Support.
ECEC trainee: 18 months on the school-leaver NTW rate (~$42,200), then 3.5 years on the qualified educator rate starting at ~$995/wk and rising with the staged award increases. Five-year total: around $222,000, with zero debt and a Cert III in ECEC.
Casual retail (Level 1): 5 years on $33.19/hr, assuming ~25 guaranteed-equivalent hours/wk after shift variability, ~$43,100/yr. Five-year total: around $215,000, with no qualification, no leave entitlements and no progression pathway.
University (3-year bachelor): 3 years of part-time work alongside study (~15-20 hrs/wk at ~$33/hr, ~$26,000/yr), then 2 years on a graduate starting salary in the $60,000–$70,000 range. Five-year total before HELP repayments: around $208,000, plus a degree and a $21,000–$22,500 HELP balance to repay.

The trainee paths are competitive with or ahead of the casual and degree paths across the first five years, and pull clearly ahead on a debt-adjusted basis.

So is a traineeship worth it?

If the comparison is "trainee wage now vs casual wage now," the trainee path looks slower in year one and pulls ahead by year two as the qualified rate kicks in and casual hours stop being the variable they are.

If the comparison is "trainee wage now vs a graduate salary in four years," the picture is more even than the headlines suggest once HELP repayments come out.

If the comparison is "trainee wage now vs not knowing what you're doing for the next three to four years," the starting wage is a much smaller concern than the cost of drift.

What to do next

Y Careers is an innovative social enterprise and a subsidiary of The Y (formerly YMCA), supported by the Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. We place young Australians into paid traineeships in Early Childhood Education and Care, Outside School Hours Care, Aged Care and Disability Support, with full support through training, mentoring and compliance.

You can see current openings on the Y Careers jobs page, each listed with the host employer, location, hours and the qualification you'll complete. If you'd rather see how the pathway and the pay fit together first, the career pathways guide walks through each sector in detail.