Taking on an apprentice in January? Start them in December instead

If you were planning to take on a hairdressing, barbering or beauty apprentice in January, start them before 1 January 2027 instead. The $2,500 Priority Hiring Incentive is not being cut. What changes on New Year's Day is the list that decides whether your trade qualifies for it at all, and the new list has not been published. An apprentice who starts in 2026 is paid for under the 2026 rules. One who starts on 4 January gets whatever the new list says.

The short answer

Hairdresser, barber and beauty therapist are all on the Australian Apprenticeships Priority List for 2026. That listing is what makes a salon apprentice worth up to $2,500 to you in their first year, through the Priority Hiring Incentive, and up to another $2,500 to the apprentice.

From 1 January 2027 the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations changes how that list is built. It has said two things that settle the decision. The 2026 list stays the same for the rest of 2026. And employers who start or restart an apprenticeship before 1 January 2027 keep the current rates.

So it comes down to a date. Start before New Year and you know what you get. Start after it and you are betting on a list nobody outside the department has seen.

What is safe, and what is not

Safe:

• The amount. The Priority Hiring Incentive stays at up to $2,500, paid in two instalments in the first year. The department says there is no change to it.
• Your size. From 2027 employers with 200 or more staff lose access, except Group Training Organisations. A salon is nowhere near that line.

Not safe:

• Whether your trade is still on the list. The new method uses national and regional skills shortages from the Occupation Shortage List that Jobs and Skills Australia publishes each year, looks at shortage ratings over two years rather than one, and, in the department's words, targets support "including construction, net zero, manufacturing, and care and support".

Hair and beauty is not named in that sentence. That does not mean it will be dropped. The new list will also still include priority jobs that support women and First Nations communities, which could work in the trade's favour, but the department has not said how that will be applied. What you can say for certain is that nobody can promise you a January starter will qualify.

What $2,500 is worth against a first year wage

Fair Work says hairdressing apprentice pay under the Hair and Beauty Award starts at $14.73 an hour for a junior apprentice and $23.56 an hour for an adult apprentice, from 1 July 2026. Where a given apprentice lands depends on when they started, whether they finished Year 12 and whether they did a pre-apprenticeship.

Take the lowest of those rates at 38 ordinary hours a week:

• $559.74 a week, or $29,106.48 over a year, before super, loadings and weekend rates.
• $2,500 is about 8.6 percent of that base wage, or roughly $48 a week.

For an adult apprentice on $23.56 an hour, the same $2,500 is about 5.4 percent of a year's base pay.

That will not change your year. It is the difference between your cheapest labour costing what it costs and costing about one twelfth less for twelve months. In a trade where wages are the biggest line on the P&L, that is real profit. And if your trade is off the 2027 list, a January starter costs the full amount.

The fine print on timing

The money does not come up front. For a full-time apprentice it is paid as $1,000 at six months and $1,500 at twelve months. Part-time is half: $500 and $750.

Two things follow from that.

• It rewards keeping people, not signing them. If the apprentice is gone before the six month mark, the incentive does nothing for you.
• For a December 2026 start, the cash lands around mid 2027 and the end of 2027. Do not count it in January's cash flow.

The date that counts is the start of the apprenticeship itself, so the sign-up has to be done before 1 January, not just the handshake. Apprentice Connect Australia Providers handle sign-ups and claims. Talk to one in October or November, not in the week before Christmas when half the country has stopped answering the phone.

The other $2,500 belongs to the apprentice, and it helps you hire

Apprentices doing a Certificate III or above in a Priority List job can get the Australian Apprentice Training Support Payment: up to $2,500 over their first two years, paid to them, running until 30 June 2029. On the 2026 list that covers the Certificate III in Hairdressing (SHB30416) and in Barbering (SHB30516), and for beauty the Certificate III in Beauty Services, Nail Technology or Make-Up.

That payment rides on the same list. A school leaver choosing between two salons will take the one where their own $2,500 is secure. That is a recruiting line you can use today and may not be able to use in February.

Where this shows up when you sell

A buyer of a salon is paying for chairs that earn without the owner standing at them. Every apprentice you train into a qualified stylist who stays is one more of those chairs. That is what lowers owner dependence and what lifts the multiple a buyer will pay.

The incentive barely moves that maths. Training moves it a lot. The $2,500 is just the government paying for a slice of the thing a buyer most wants to see in a salon: a pipeline of stylists, not a founder with a pair of scissors.