Sydney Catholic Schools pay scale 2026: every step, allowance and take-home figure

The SCS teacher pay scale from 9 October 2026

SCS does not have its own teachers' agreement. It is one of nine employers covered by the NSW and ACT Catholic Systemic Schools Enterprise Agreement 2025 ([2025] FWCA 4325, agreement AE531578), approved by the Fair Work Commission on 17 December 2025 and operating from 24 December 2025. The salary table below is Schedule A, Table A1 of that agreement. Rises apply from the first full pay period on or after the date shown.

How SCS pay compares with NSW public schools

The SCS scale is a copy of the NSW Department of Education scale. Every step is identical, and both sectors got the same three 3% rises in October 2024, 2025 and 2026. A Step 5 teacher at a Catholic primary in the Inner West earns exactly what a Step 5 teacher at the public school down the road earns: $115,972. See the NSW public school pay scale for the government side.

The differences are elsewhere. Casual pay is a cent apart because of rounding. Promotion pay is structured differently: Catholic schools pay coordinators allowances, while public schools have head teacher salaries. And the end dates differ slightly: the Catholic agreement reaches nominal expiry on 9 October 2027, the government award on 8 October 2027. If you are weighing a move, our NSW government vs Catholic vs independent comparison sets the sectors side by side.

What each step takes home

These figures use the 2026-27 tax rates, the 2% Medicare levy and the low income tax offset where it applies. They assume you are full-time with no salary packaging. HELP repayments are shown separately because many early-career teachers still have a debt.

Coordinator, assistant principal and other allowances

Middle leadership at SCS is paid as a coordinator allowance on top of your step. Assistant principals are different: at SCS the role carries a full salary, not an allowance on top of your teaching rate. That is unusual. In the other dioceses on the same agreement, the AP role is an allowance.

A Step 7 teacher who takes a Coordinator 2 role earns $133,422 plus $20,743, or $154,165 a year before tax. That pushes the top of your income into the 39% bracket, so about 61 cents of each extra dollar above $135,000 reaches your pocket once the 2% Medicare levy is included. Our promotion pay calculator shows the after-tax value of a step up.

Casual teacher rates at SCS

Casual rates in the agreement are set from 9 October 2026 at $480.42 a day (CT1), $538.74 (CT2) and $599.86 (CT3). The daily rate is the annual salary divided by 203, plus a 5% loading. Catholic schools also publish a half-day rate, $240.21 at CT1, which the public award does not. Public school casual rates are $480.43, $538.73 and $599.85, so the two sectors are within a cent of each other. Our guide to NSW casual teacher levels explains how you move from CT1 to CT3.

Super and salary packaging

SCS pays the 12% Superannuation Guarantee and no extra employer percentage. SCS's salaries page says its packages include 12% super. The agreement names NGS Super as a fund option, but you can choose your own fund. On a Step 5 salary of $115,972, that is $13,917 a year going into super.

The agreement allows salary packaging (clause 18.3). Non-profit Catholic school employers are usually FBT-rebatable, not FBT-exempt like a public hospital. That means a 47% rebate on fringe benefits tax for benefits up to $30,000 grossed-up a year, which works out at roughly $15,900 of benefits. The saving is real but smaller than many teachers expect. Our teacher salary packaging guide works through the maths, and the salary packaging calculator lets you test your own numbers.

Is SCS pay enough to live in Sydney?

A graduate on Step 1 takes home $2,794 a fortnight. Because SCS and public schools pay the same, the choice between them in Sydney comes down to location, school culture, leadership pathways and packaging, not the base rate. Packaging can be worth a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a year depending on your tax bracket. We look at rent and costs across the city in can teachers afford Sydney.

What happens next

Nothing more is scheduled under the current agreement. The 3% from 9 October 2026 was the last rise, and the agreement runs until 9 October 2027. Bargaining for a replacement would normally begin in 2027. Because the Catholic scale has tracked the public scale in NSW, the next public sector outcome is the best guide to where SCS pay goes after that. We track every change on the teacher pay rise tracker.