On this page (9 sections)
- Which strike pay law covers you
- The Fair Work Act rules, section by section
- How much pay you lose: worked examples
- Queensland: a different rule
- NSW, WA, SA and Tasmania: what we know
- Does a strike affect super, leave or your increment?
- Is strike action worth the pay you lose?
- Before a strike day: a checklist
- FAQs
The short answer
No. Teachers are not paid for time spent on strike. Under the Fair Work Act (ACT, NT and VIC government schools, and all Catholic and independent schools) your employer must not pay you for the time you stop work that day. A 24-hour strike costs about one day's pay, roughly $450 to $515 before tax for an experienced teacher.
- Protected action (s470): you lose pay only for the time you are on strike, so a 2-hour stop-work costs about 2 hours' pay.
- Unprotected action (s474): you lose at least 4 hours' pay, even for a 1-hour walkout.
- It is unlawful to accept, or for a union to ask for, strike pay under the Fair Work Act (s473).
- Queensland's state law makes paying for strike time discretionary; the NSW, WA, SA and TAS rules are not confirmed here.
Which strike pay law covers you
Australian teachers sit under two different industrial systems, and that decides which strike pay rules apply. The federal Fair Work Act 2009 covers government teachers in the ACT, the NT and Victoria, plus every teacher in a Catholic or independent school in any state. Government teachers in NSW, Queensland, WA, SA and Tasmania are covered by their state's own industrial relations law.
We could not open the NSW, WA, SA and Tasmanian legislation sites when we checked. Your union's strike notice is the best guide to how your employer will deduct pay.
Work out your pay rise and back pay
⚙Your details
New pay rates
Default: the new rates' operative date, 9 October 2026.
When the back pay lands. Default: six weeks from today. New rates apply from the following pay.
E.g. a sign-on or cost-of-living payment in the agreement (gross).
Back pay owed (before tax)
$505
New salary
$92,882
+3.0% on $90,177
Rise per fortnight
$104
$71 after tax
Tax on back pay
$162
32% of the lump
Back pay in hand
$344
What this means
From 9 October 2026 you should have been paid $104 more each fortnight. Because the new rates weren't paid yet, the difference builds up and arrives as one back payment: about $505 before tax. After that, your fortnightly take-home goes from $2,723 to $2,794.
Payroll taxes back pay at your marginal rate rather than spreading it, so roughly 32% comes off. That's your actual tax on the money: it doesn't push the rest of your salary into a higher bracket. These are the latest rates already in force: if they are on your payslip, nothing is owed. This shows what you're owed if payroll was late applying them.
Estimate only. Back pay = (new − old) fortnightly pay × fortnights between the two dates, using the pay column in force at the start of each fortnight. Tax uses the ATO marginal-rate method on your annual salary for 2026–27; back pay for an earlier financial year over $1,200 may be taxed differently and is reported as a lump sum E. Old rates: 9 October 2025 column; Crown Employees (Teachers in Schools and Related Employees) Salaries and Conditions Award 2024, verified 16 October 2026.
The Fair Work Act rules, section by section
If you are covered by the Fair Work Act, four sections do most of the work. They are short and blunt. The key word is protected: protected industrial action is action taken during bargaining after a protected action ballot, with proper notice. Anything else, such as a walkout with no ballot, is unprotected.
Fair Work Act Part 3-3, Division 9 in plain English
- 1
s470: protected action means no pay for that time
Your employer 'must not' pay you for the total duration of the industrial action on that day. This is compulsory, not a choice your principal makes. It does not cover partial work bans, and an overtime ban only counts if the overtime was properly requested under your agreement or contract.
- 2
s471 and s472: partial work bans
If you refuse only some duties (for example, a ban on after-hours meetings), your employer may give written notice cutting your pay by a stated proportion, or tell you it will not pay you and refuse all work until normal duties resume. With no written notice, your pay is not cut. You or your union can ask the Fair Work Commission to vary an unreasonable proportion (s472).
- 3
s473: no strike pay
You must not accept, or ask for, a payment that s470 bans, and a union must not ask the employer for one. So 'back pay for strike days' is not something a union can lawfully bargain for under the Fair Work Act.
- 4
s474: unprotected action costs at least 4 hours
If unprotected action on a day lasts 4 hours or more, you lose pay for the whole time. If it is shorter, you still lose 4 hours' pay. A 1-hour wildcat walkout therefore costs 4 hours.
How much pay you lose: worked examples
The Fair Work Act sets no daily formula. It talks about the 'total duration' of the action, so the deduction is your ordinary pay for the hours you did not work. Payroll systems use their own rate, so the figures below are our estimates, using annual salary divided by 260 working days. The after-tax figure is what actually leaves your bank account, worked out with our 2026-27 tax engine.
ACT teacher at the top of the scale (TL8, $129,106): 24-hour strike
- Annual salary (from 4 Dec 2025)
- $129,106
- Estimated daily rate ($129,106 / 260)
- about $497
- Gross pay lost for one full day
- about $497
- Tax and Medicare you no longer pay on it
- about $159
Estimate only. ACT payroll pays a fortnight as annual x 12 / 313, which puts a day nearer $495. Tax from node scripts/tax.mjs, 2026-27 rates, no HELP debt.
Same ACT teacher: 2-hour protected stop-work
- Ordinary teacher day (ACT EA)
- 7 hours 21 minutes (7.35 hours)
- Estimated hourly rate ($497 / 7.35)
- about $67.56
- Gross pay lost (2 hours)
- about $135
If the same 2-hour stoppage were unprotected, s474's 4-hour minimum would apply: about $270 gross, or about $184 after tax.
ACT teachers stopped work for one hour each morning from 19 to 23 October 2026, about $48 to $68 before tax depending on step, with longer stoppages flagged. See the dates and costs by step.
Our estimates for illustration. QLD deductions are discretionary under s268, and the NSW deduction method is not confirmed. After-tax figures use 2026-27 rates, no HELP debt, via the site's tax engine.
Free calculator
Teacher strike pay calculator
Enter your salary, the hours or days you stop work and whether the action is protected. See the gross and after-tax cost before you decide.
Work out my strike costQueensland: a different rule
Queensland state school teachers are under the Industrial Relations Act 2016 (Qld), not the Fair Work Act. Section 268 says payments for strikes are 'not compellable': an employer may pay, or refuse to pay, an employee for a period of strike. So docking pay is the employer's choice, not a legal requirement, and there is no 4-hour minimum like the federal s474.
The same section stops a union striking to force the employer to pay for strike time. Separately, refusing to pay you for work you did not do as directed is not treated as unlawful prejudice (s238). The QTU held 24-hour strikes on 6 August 2025 and 25 November 2025. We have not found a Department statement saying how pay was handled for those days, so check your payslip and ask the QTU if you are unsure.
NSW, WA, SA and Tasmania: what we know
Government teachers in these four states are under state industrial law, and we could not confirm each state's strike pay provision against the legislation when we checked in October 2026. The safe assumption is that you will not be paid for time on strike. What we cannot tell you is the exact deduction method, or whether a short stoppage triggers a minimum.
- NSW: no strike formula found. The Department's Teachers Handbook and the award convert annual salary to weekly pay by dividing by 52.17857, which puts a day at about annual salary / 260.89. That is a leave formula, not a confirmed strike rule, so treat it as an estimate. NSW teachers have not struck in 2025-26; the award runs to 8 Oct 2027.
- WA: no rule found. The 2023 General Agreement publishes hourly rates, which payroll may use. The agreement expires on 5 Dec 2026.
- SA: no rule found for government schools. Catholic school staff in SA are under the Fair Work Act (see above).
- Tasmania: a union flyer cites an hourly rate of annual salary / (40 x 35) from an older agreement. We have not checked it against the Teachers Agreement 2025, so don't rely on it.
Does a strike affect super, leave or your increment?
Super is paid on ordinary time earnings, so the unpaid strike time usually attracts no employer super either. On a 12% contribution, one $497 day means about $60 less super (about $62 at the ACT's 12.5% employer rate). That is small, but it is real money in a long career.
Effects beyond the day's pay vary by employer and agreement
Usually affected
- Your pay for the time on strike
- Employer super on that unpaid time
- Any allowance paid by the day or hour
Check with your union
- Whether the time counts as service for leave or increments
- How the deduction shows on your payslip
- Whether a partial ban notice was given properly
- Pay for casual relief teachers booked on a strike day
Whether a short stoppage counts against your service for long service leave or your next increment depends on your agreement and your employer's leave rules. We have not found a teacher instrument that says strike time breaks service, but we have not checked every one. Your union's strike notice usually answers this.
Is strike action worth the pay you lose?
That is a personal call, but the arithmetic helps. A 1% pay rise is worth about $1,291 a year to an ACT teacher on $129,106, or almost three strike days' gross pay, every year it applies. Recent outcomes show the size of the gap unions were chasing: the Victorian deal accepted in August 2026 is 28.3% to 32.4% over four years plus $2,000, up from an 18.5% offer before the March strike.
Strikes do not guarantee a better deal, and outcomes have many causes. Our teacher strikes 2026 timeline sets out each dispute and how it ended. For what a rise would mean to you, try the back pay calculator or the pay rise tracker.
Before a strike day: a checklist
- Confirm the action is protected: your union will say a protected action ballot passed and notice was given.
- Note the exact start and end time. Under s470 you lose pay only for that time on a protected stoppage.
- If you are asked to do partial bans, check whether your employer has given written notice of a pay cut (s471).
- Do not join a stoppage your union has not authorised. Unprotected action carries the 4-hour minimum and other risks.
- Check your next payslip for the deduction, and query anything that looks bigger than the time you were out.
- Read your union's notice for rules on supervision, casual relief staff and what counts as service.
Frequently asked questions
Do teachers get paid when they go on strike?
How much pay do I lose for a 2-hour stop-work?
Is strike pay legal in Australia?
Can a union negotiate back pay for strike days?
What is the 4-hour rule for strikes?
Do I lose pay for a work ban, not a full strike?
Do I still get super on a strike day?
Can I be disciplined for going on strike?
Sources we checked · last verified 2026-10-28
- 1.Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), Part 3-3 Division 9, ss470-476 (compilation 7 Jul 2026)
- 2.Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), coverage (s14) (compilation 7 Jul 2026)
- 3.Victorian Government: Public sector industrial relations policies 2025, industrial action
- 4.Industrial Relations Act 2016 (Qld), s268
- 5.ACT Public Schools Teaching Staff Enterprise Agreement 2023-2026 (ordinary hours, Annex A)
- 6.NSW DoE Teachers Handbook, Chapter 4: Leave (weekly salary factor)
- 7.ABC News: Victorian teachers accept pay deal (17 Aug 2026)
About this page
Written and fact-checked by the TeacherPay AU Editorial Team against the enterprise agreements, awards and official pages listed in the sources. It is general information, not personal financial, tax or legal advice. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll fix it, usually within a day. See our editorial policy and how we calculate.
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