Healthcare & Not-for-Profit
Salary Guide
Clinical leadership, aged care, community services, fundraising and purpose-led executive reward.
The state of healthcare & nfp talent
Healthcare and not-for-profit organisations are hiring against a backdrop of rising demand, funding complexity and acute workforce shortages. Clinical leadership — directors of nursing, clinical services and care — is in chronically short supply, and reform agendas in aged care and disability services have lifted demand for executives who can hold mission and financial sustainability together.
Salary packaging and the purpose-led mission remain meaningful levers that offset comparatively modest base salaries against the corporate sector. However, the pay gap has narrowed at the executive level as competition for capable CEOs and operations directors intensifies, particularly those with regulatory, quality and reform experience.
Fundraising, philanthropy and impact-measurement talent is increasingly sought as NFPs professionalise revenue generation. The strongest candidates are mission-aligned but commercially literate — a combination that remains genuinely scarce across the region.
What these roles pay in Q2 2026
Base salary, AUD '000 p.a. (excl. super; salary packaging available). Bars show the typical low–high range; the marker is the market midpoint.
| Role | Low | Typical | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chief Executive (Health / NFP) | $220k | $300k | $480k |
| Director of Clinical Services | $180k | $220k | $290k |
| Director of Nursing & Care | $160k | $195k | $250k |
| Operations / Service Director | $170k | $210k | $280k |
| Fundraising & Philanthropy Lead | $130k | $165k | $220k |
| Quality & Compliance Manager | $120k | $150k | $190k |
| Program / Service Manager | $110k | $135k | $170k |
Talent demand by segment
Year-on-year, 2025 → 2026
- Clinical leadership +6.8%
- Aged-care / reform executives +6.2%
- Fundraising & philanthropy +5.5%
- Community-services management +3.6%
Where supply is tightest
- Directors of nursing, clinical and care services — a structural shortage.
- Executives experienced in aged-care and disability-sector reform.
- Commercially-literate, mission-aligned chief executives.
- Fundraising and philanthropy professionals who can scale revenue.
What top talent now wants
- Genuine mission alignment and visible organisational impact.
- Salary packaging and flexibility that close the gap to corporate pay.
- Manageable workloads in a sector prone to burnout.
- Investment in workforce, systems and clinical-governance capability.
How to win the hire
- Lead with mission and packaging, but benchmark executive base honestly — the gap is closing.
- Reform experience is scarce and valuable; prioritise it for aged-care and disability roles.
- Workforce stability depends on workload and wellbeing as much as pay.
- Professionalising fundraising requires investment in proven philanthropy talent.
Get the full Healthcare & NFP Salary Guide
The complete edition adds location-by-location breakdowns, total-reward benchmarks (incentives and equity), diversity and retention data, and a 12-month outlook for every role band.
- City-level ranges across Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, Hong Kong and Auckland
- Total-reward view — base, short- and long-term incentives
- Retention, counter-offer and time-to-hire benchmarks
- Forward outlook and reward recommendations
Need numbers specific to your structure and location? Altera's Talent Advisory practice delivers bespoke, defensible reward benchmarking. Book a consultation →
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View guide →Want reward data specific to your roles?
Our Talent Advisory practice provides tailored, role- and location-specific reward benchmarking across APAC. Book a consultation to discuss.