Aged care workers will receive a 15 per cent pay rise after a recent Fair Work Commission ruling. 

The Fair Work Commission has ruled that a pay rise for aged care workers is “plainly justified”, handing down an increase of at least 15 per cent in an “interim” decision.

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) says its decision establishes that the “existing minimum rates do not properly compensate employees for the value” of their hard work.

“We accept the expert evidence that, as a general proposition, work in feminised industries - including care work - has been historically undervalued and that the reason for that undervaluation is likely to be gender-based,” the FWC said in its ruling.

“We also recognise that there is ample evidence that the needs of those being cared for in their homes have significantly increased in terms of clinical complexity, frailty and cognitive and mental health.

“We wish to make it clear that this does not conclude our consideration of the unions' claim for a 25-per-cent increase for other employees, namely administrative and support aged care employees.

“Nor are we suggesting that the 15-per-cent interim increase necessarily exhausts the extent of the increase justified by work value reasons in respect of direct care workers.”

The timing of the pay rise will be discussed later this month, after the FWC takes  submissions from employers and the federal government, before handing down stages 2 and 3 of its decision.

Unions have described the decision as a “down-payment”, calling for broader pay increases to fix problems in the sector.

“This is a reasonable start but we need the commission to go further and permanently end the poverty wage settings that dominate aged care,” Health Service Union national president Gerard Hayes said.

“Nobody should be mistaken. This will not fix the crisis. We still have massive unfinished business in aged care.

“For the last decade, this industry has relied on the goodwill of an exploited, casualised workforce. Today represents progress, but the legal, political and industrial fight continues.”