Average teacher salary in Australia (2026): what teachers are actually paid

Why there is no single 'average' teacher salary

Teachers in Australia are not paid whatever an employer decides. Almost every government school teacher is paid from a published pay scale in a state award or enterprise agreement. You start on a set step and move up one step a year (subject to accreditation and performance processes) until you reach the top of the classroom scale. Catholic systems mostly copy or track those scales. Independent schools set their own scales, usually close to the government ones.

That means the useful question is not 'what is the average?' but 'what step am I on, in which state, from which date?'. A graduate in Hobart and a 10-year teacher in Darwin are both 'teachers', but one earns $85,313 and the other $136,997. Averaging them tells neither of them anything. If you want to see the exact step-by-step figures, use the pay scale explorer or open your state's page, such as NSW teacher pay or Victorian teacher pay.

Graduate and top-of-scale pay by state (October 2026)

Two things stand out. First, the spread at graduate level is about $16,000, mostly because Victoria is still paid on its 2025 rates while its new agreement waits for approval. Once that goes through, Victoria and NSW graduates will be on exactly the same $92,882. Second, the top of the classroom scale bunches between about $118,000 and $137,000. For the full ranking, see which state pays teachers the most.

The official median: what the ABS data says

Jobs and Skills Australia publishes median earnings by occupation from the ABS Employee Earnings and Hours survey. For full-time secondary school teachers the median was $2,322 a week in May 2025. Multiplied by 52.18 weeks, that is about $121,000 a year, roughly 25% above the all-jobs median of $1,852 a week. A comparable figure for primary teachers could not be obtained when we checked, but because primary and secondary teachers sit on the same pay scales in every state (see primary vs secondary teacher pay), there is no reason to expect a large gap.

A median of around $121,000 makes sense once you look at the scales. Most full-time teachers with six or more years' service have reached, or are close to, the top classroom step, and that step sits between $118,000 and $137,000. The median also includes some teachers on leadership pay, such as head teachers and leading teachers, which pulls it up.

Why Payscale and Indeed get teacher pay wrong

Payscale's $72,848 is below every state's graduate rate, and even below the national award minimum for a first-year teacher (reported as $75,941 from 1 July 2026). That should not be possible for a full-time classroom teacher. Figures like this usually come from self-reported surveys, where the sample can include part-timers who report their actual pay, people in tutoring or childcare roles, overseas-trained teachers on lower interim rates, and answers given years ago that have never been updated.

Indeed's figure of about $104,000 is closer, but for the wrong reasons. Indeed builds its averages from job ads and user reports. Ads often quote a range or a starting rate, agency relief-teacher ads get annualised, and the mix of jobs advertised shifts from month to month. The result happens to land near the middle of the scales, but it cannot tell you what you will be paid. Its city pages also swing widely (one regional city shows over $122,000), which reflects the ads posted there, not a regional pay rate.

What a teacher really takes home

How pay grows over a career

Because pay is step-based, the biggest jumps come in the first decade. In NSW a teacher who gains Proficient accreditation on time moves from $92,882 to $133,422 in about six years, a rise of 44% before any across-the-board pay rise. In Victoria the classroom scale has 11 steps, so reaching the top takes about 10 years. In the NT it takes about eight years from CT1 to CT9. Our guide to how teacher pay steps work has the rules for every state.

• Beyond the classroom scale, HALT certification pays more in most states, for example $141,997 in NSW and $147,050 for a QLD Lead Teacher. See Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher pay.
• Leadership roles pay more again: a NSW head teacher or assistant principal earns $153,531, and a deputy principal $179,255.
• Rural and remote incentives can add thousands a year, for example up to $20,000-$30,000 a year under NSW's Rural Teacher Incentive. See rural teaching incentives.

Part-time, casual and non-government teachers

Part-time teachers' pay is simply the full-time salary multiplied by their fraction (a 0.6 teacher on $118,063 earns $70,838). Casual relief teachers are paid a daily rate instead, for example $480.43 a day for a NSW CT1 casual or $425.80 a day in Victoria. Those daily rates include a loading instead of holiday pay, so they are not comparable with an annual salary. See casual relief teacher pay across Australia.

Catholic systemic schools mostly match government pay, and in NSW they match it to the dollar. Independent schools vary. Some pay above the government scale, and a few pay closer to the award. See Catholic and independent school teacher pay and private school teacher salary.