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Disability and aged care

Hiring support workers

A support worker recruitment agency finds and screens disability and aged care staff for providers. Australian agencies typically charge 12 to 18 per cent of first-year salary, about $7,700 to $11,550. Ready & Cleared charges a flat $3,900 per permanent placement, or $390 a month for pool access, and never charges the worker.

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Key facts

What this costs, against what the market charges

Almost no agency publishes a placement fee. The number below is the published vendor benchmark for Australian permanent placement, and beside it is ours, which is simply the price.

Benchmark figures as published by vendor sources and recorded in our brief; our own figures are the current published price. Checked 2026-10-25.
Way of buying Typical market Ready & Cleared
Permanent placement $7,700 to $11,550 12–18% of a $64,200 salary $3,900 flat, published
Casual or temp placement An hourly margin rarely published $1,900 flat, published
Ongoing access Not usually offered fees are per placement $390 a month unlimited introductions
Cost to the worker $0 $0

On the benchmark figures that is a difference of $3,800 to $7,650 on a single permanent placement. The percentage band is a vendor benchmark rather than a regulated rate, so treat it as indicative. Our own figure is not indicative; it is published and it is the price.

What a support worker has to hold

These are the credentials the roles on this page require. We hold the document, record what it says, and track the expiry. Where a public register exists we confirm against it; where one does not, we say so rather than implying a check we did not make.

Exactly what each of those words means, including the ones we cannot verify.

Roles this covers

Rates shown are the SCHADS minimum from 1 July 2026. Where no rate is shown we have not verified one.

Why the pool is not just a list

Every worker is asked every 14 days whether they are still looking, and drops out of the pool at 28 days if they do not answer. That is the whole product. A database nobody maintains is the thing you already have.

What we will never do is tell you somebody is suitable. We have not met them. You get dated facts and the documents behind them, and you make the call.

Common questions

How much does a support worker recruitment agency charge in Australia?

Vendor benchmarks put permanent placement at 12 to 18 per cent of first-year salary, which works out at roughly $7,700 to $11,550 on a $64,200 support worker salary. Most agencies will not publish a figure. Ready & Cleared charges a flat $3,900, published, or $390 a month for pool access.

What is checked before a support worker appears in the pool?

We hold the document and record what it says, with the issue and expiry dates tracked. Where a public register exists, such as the NDIS Worker Screening Check, we confirm against it. We never tell you somebody is suitable. We have not met them.

How quickly can you fill a shift?

We do not publish a fill time, because we have not run enough placements to have an honest one. Availability is reconfirmed every 14 days, so the people you see have said recently that they are looking.

Do support workers pay to be in the pool?

No, and they never will. A worker who pays is a worker selecting themselves on willingness to pay rather than on availability, which makes the pool worse.

Background worth reading

Wondering what everyone else charges? What recruitment agencies charge in Australia sets out the band, what it costs at each salary, and the one published figure that beats ours.

Hiring something else

What it costs, in full

Figures on this page were checked on 2026-10-25. Where a figure is a vendor benchmark rather than ours, it says so beside the number.