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Free calculator 2026–27 rates

What do you really earn per hour?

Work out your real hourly rate as a teacher: paid hours versus the hours you actually work, including marking, planning and school holidays.

⚙Your details

Salary

38 h
50 h
40 weeks · 12 weeks of holidays
hours

Planning, marking, reports and set-up days you do in the holidays. Teachers often report 40 to 100 hours.

Your real hourly rate, before tax

$52.63

$108,421 a year over the 2,060 hours you actually work · New South Wales · 4% below your paid rate

Contractual rate

$54.87

38 paid hours × 52 weeks

Real rate

$52.63

Every hour you work, holidays included

After tax

$40.39

After tax and Medicare

Hours a year

2,060

2,000 in term + 60 in holidays

What this means

You are paid for 38 hours a week, all 52 weeks of the year, including the 12 weeks of school holidays. Working 50 hours a week in term plus 60 hours in the holidays comes to 2,060 hours a year. That is the same workload as a 42.9-hour week in a job with 4 weeks' annual leave, or about 236 hours a year more than a standard 38-hour job.

Your real rate is $2.24 an hour below the rate your salary implies. The school holidays partly offset the long term weeks, but at 50 hours they don't make up for them.

Hours in a term weekHours a yearReal rateAfter taxSame as a 48-week job at
38 hours a term week1,580$68.62$52.6632.9 h
42 hours a term week1,740$62.31$47.8236.3 h
45 hours a term week1,860$58.29$44.7338.8 h
48 hours a term week1,980$54.76$42.0241.3 h
50 hours a term week2,060$52.63$40.3942.9 h
55 hours a term week2,260$47.97$36.8247.1 h
60 hours a term week2,460$44.07$33.8251.3 h

Real rate = annual salary ÷ hours actually worked in the year. Contractual rate = salary ÷ (38 × 52). After-tax figures use 2026–27 resident tax rates with the tax-free threshold claimed and no other income. Employer super (Aware Super) is paid on top and not included. Pay data: Crown Employees (Teachers in Schools and Related Employees) Salaries and Conditions Award 2024, verified 16 October 2026.

In short

On paper, an ACT teacher at the top step ($129,106) earns about $67.56 an hour, based on a 36.75-hour week over 52 weeks. Your real hourly rate depends on the hours you actually work: at 9.5 hours a day across the 197-day school year, plus 60 hours in the holidays, it's about $66.84 before tax and $50.36 after tax.

How to use the teacher hourly rate calculator

  1. 1

    Pick your state and step

    The calculator loads your annual salary from the current scale. You can also type a salary if you're on an allowance or a non-government scale.

  2. 2

    Enter your term-time hours

    Put in the hours you really work on a school day, including before and after school, and any weekend marking or planning each week.

  3. 3

    Add holiday work

    Enter the hours you spend on planning, reports and setting up during school holidays. Be honest: this is often the number teachers leave out.

  4. 4

    Compare paid and real rates

    See your hourly rate on your contracted hours, your real hourly rate on the hours you work, and both before and after tax.

Two ways to work out a teacher's hourly rate

There are two honest answers to "how much do teachers earn per hour?", and they're both useful.

  • Contracted rate: your annual salary divided by your paid hours. Teachers are paid for 52 weeks, including school holidays, so this uses a full year of your contracted weekly hours. ACT teachers work 36.75 hours a week under their agreement, and Victorian teachers 38 hours.
  • Real rate: your annual salary divided by the hours you actually work, including marking, planning, meetings, reports and holiday preparation, but not the holiday weeks you take off.

The contracted rate is what payroll uses for things like overtime-style calculations and casual pro rata rates. The real rate is the one that tells you what your time is worth, and it's the right number to use when comparing teaching with another job.

Worked example

ACT teacher at TL8, 2026–27

Salary (TL8, from 4 Dec 2025)
$129,106
Contracted hours (36.75 × 52)
1,911 a year
Contracted hourly rate
$67.56
Real hours: 9.5 a day × 197 school days, plus 60 holiday hours
1,931.5 a year
Real hourly rate before tax
$66.84
Take-home pay (2026–27)
$97,272
Real hourly rate after tax about $50.36

The 9.5-hour day and 60 holiday hours are illustrative inputs, not a measured average. The 197-day school year is from the ACT agreement. Tax from the site's 2026–27 engine, no HELP.

What changes the number most

The biggest lever is your daily hours. On the same ACT salary, school year and 60 holiday hours, an 8-hour day gives a real rate of about $78.92 an hour before tax, while an 11-hour day gives about $57.97. Holiday work matters less per hour but adds up across a year.

Workload limits set by your agreement also shape the number. Maximum face-to-face teaching ranges from 18.5 hours a week for Victorian secondary teachers to 22h40m for NT primary teachers in 2026, and some states are cutting it: SA is reducing maximum face-to-face time by 60 minutes a week in phases, and Victoria caps directed meetings at 40 hours a year from 2027. Less face-to-face time doesn't always mean fewer hours, but it usually means less work taken home.

Hourly rates for casual and relief teachers

Casual and relief teachers have published hourly rates. Victoria's CRT rate is $70.97 an hour (one sixth of the $425.80 day rate), Queensland's supply rate is $103.15 an hour, and WA relief teachers are paid $52.67 to $76.30 an hour from December 2025. These include a loading in lieu of leave, so they're not directly comparable with a permanent teacher's rate. Use the casual relief teacher pay calculator to compare a year of relief work with a permanent role.

What the calculator doesn't include

  • Employer super. The 12% Super Guarantee (12.5% in the ACT) is on top of salary. Add it if you're comparing with a job that quotes a package.
  • Leave loading and allowances. These add to your annual pay and so lift the hourly rate a little.
  • Unpaid extras. Camps, excursions and sport may attract allowances in some states, such as Victoria's new camp allowance under the VGSA 2026, but the calculator counts the hours, not the extra pay, unless you add it to salary.

For the full picture, read how much teachers earn per hour in Australia and do teachers get paid in school holidays.

Frequently asked questions

How much do teachers earn per hour in Australia?
About $40 to $72 an hour on contracted hours, depending on state and step. An ACT teacher at the top step ($129,106) earns about $67.56 an hour on a 36.75-hour week over 52 weeks; the real rate depends on how many hours you actually work.
How many hours a week are teachers paid for?
It depends on the agreement. Victorian teachers work a 38-hour week, ACT and NT teachers 36.75 hours. Face-to-face teaching is only part of it, capped at between about 18.5 and 22.7 hours a week depending on state and phase.
Are teachers paid for school holidays?
Yes. Permanent and temporary teachers are paid through school holidays, because their salary covers the whole year. Annual leave is usually taken in the summer holidays, and the other breaks are non-attendance time.
What is the hourly rate for a relief teacher?
Victorian CRTs get $70.97 an hour, Queensland supply teachers $103.15 and WA relief teachers $52.67 to $76.30, as at October 2026. These rates include a loading in lieu of paid leave.
Why is my real hourly rate lower than my contracted rate?
Because you work more hours than your contract states. Marking, planning, reports and holiday preparation add hours without adding pay, so dividing your salary by the hours you actually work gives a lower figure.
Does a higher pay step improve my hourly rate?
Yes, as long as your hours don't rise with it. Moving from NSW Step 1 ($92,882) to Step 7 ($133,422) lifts your hourly rate by about 44% on the same hours. Leadership roles often add hours, so check with the promotion calculator.

Guides that go with this tool

Pay data

How much do teachers earn per hour in Australia?

Hourly pay for salaried and casual teachers in every state, worked out three ways, with the award minimum and the published casual hourly rates.

Pay basics

Do teachers get paid during the school holidays?

Why permanent and part-time teachers are paid through the school holidays, how each state treats annual leave, and what casual teachers get instead.