Do secondary teachers get paid more than primary teachers in Australia?

One scale for every classroom teacher

State agreements classify teachers by accreditation and experience, not by the age of the students. NSW calls its classroom teachers Steps 1 to 7, Victoria uses Classroom Teacher Range 1 and 2, Queensland uses Bands 1 to 3, and so on. None of those scales has a separate primary or secondary column. The same is true of the national award for non-government schools, which has one set of Levels 1 to 5 for 'schools and preschools'.

So if a salary website tells you secondary teachers earn thousands more, it is measuring something else: a different mix of experience, more leadership roles, or a different sample. Within a state, two teachers on the same step earn the same base pay regardless of sector.

What the earnings data shows

Jobs and Skills Australia reports a median full-time weekly income of $2,322 for secondary school teachers (ABS data, May 2025), or about $121,000 a year. A matching primary teacher figure was not available when we checked. Any gap you see in survey data is likely to come from the workforce mix rather than pay rates. Secondary schools have more paid middle-leadership roles, and a teacher in one of those roles is counted as a 'secondary teacher' in the occupation data.

Face-to-face teaching hours: where the real gap is

The biggest practical difference is how many hours a week you spend in front of a class. Several states set a lower face-to-face cap for secondary teachers, because secondary teachers usually teach more subjects to more classes and carry more marking per student. Your salary is the same, so a lower cap means more paid time for preparation and assessment.

Non-contact time matters too. In the NT, primary teachers get 4 hours of non-contact time a week in 2026, rising to 4.5 hours in 2027, while secondary teachers get 5 hours 20 minutes. If you want to compare what each hour is worth, see teacher hourly rate in Australia.

Promotion roles: more rungs in secondary

Secondary schools are usually bigger and organised by faculty, so they have more middle-leader jobs. In NSW, a secondary head teacher and a primary assistant principal are paid exactly the same: $153,531 from 9 October 2026. Deputy principals in both sectors earn $179,255. The difference is simply how many of those jobs exist in a typical school.

In Queensland, a head of department earns $145,320 to $148,003 from September 2026, and deputy principals $161,746 to $164,605. In Victoria, leading teachers and learning specialists share the Range 3 rates ($129,544 at the top now, $146,439 once the new agreement starts). Primary schools often have fewer of these roles, so primary teachers may need to move schools or into principal-class roles sooner to step up. See head teacher salary in NSW and assistant principal salary.

Allowances that can tip the balance

• Rural and remote incentives are paid to primary and secondary teachers alike. See rural teaching incentives.
• Victoria's Targeted Financial Incentives pay up to $50,000 upfront, plus retention payments, for selected hard-to-staff roles in either sector.
• Camp and excursion allowances apply to both sectors. Victoria's new agreement adds an overnight camp allowance of 0.555% of salary per night from 2027, once approved.
• Catholic primary schools in NSW pay primary assistant principal allowances of $32,924 to $49,399 depending on enrolment.

Casual, part-time and HALT pay: also the same

The rule holds outside full-time classroom roles too. Casual relief teachers are paid the same day rate whether they cover a Year 2 class or a Year 11 chemistry lesson: $480.43 a day for a NSW CT1 casual from 9 October 2026, $425.80 in Victoria and $515.75 for a Queensland supply teacher from 1 September 2026. Part-time teachers in both sectors are paid their fraction of the same salary. HALT certification pays the same in both sectors too, for example $141,997 in NSW or $147,050 for a Queensland Lead Teacher.

Where pay can genuinely differ is in where you teach, not what you teach. Rural and remote schools pay incentives, some hard-to-staff subjects attract targeted payments, and moving state can be worth more than $10,000 a year at the same career stage. Compare states with the pay by state comparison tool or read which state pays teachers the most.

Choosing between primary and secondary

If you are deciding which to train for, pay should not be the deciding factor, because the base salary is identical. Think instead about workload, the subjects you can teach (some incentives target hard-to-staff subjects) and where you want to live. Our guide to how to become a teacher covers the degree options.