The 4 December 2025 increase in clause C2.2.7 is the last one this agreement makes, and its nominal expiry date was 31 March 2026. The rates below remain payable until a replacement agreement is approved.
The ACT Government made a formal pay offer on 9 December 2025 (3% in year one, 2.5% in year two, 2% in year three). That is an offer under negotiation, not an approved agreement for teaching staff, so no figure from it appears on this page.
Australian Capital Territory teacher pay scale 2026 — every step
The ACT classroom teacher scale is Teacher Level 1 to Teacher Level 8. Levels 1 to 3 are the New Educator stage and Levels 4 to 8 the Experienced Teacher stage; those are development stages, not separate pay classifications.
Full-time annual salaries before tax and before superannuation. Part-time teachers are paid these rates pro rata on their time fraction.
Teacher Level 1 to 8 — the classroom teacher scale
The scale every ACT public school teacher is paid on. Teacher Levels 1 to 3 are the New Educator stage and Levels 4 to 8 the Experienced Teacher stage — those are development stages, not separate pay classifications.
| Classification | Annual salary | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Teacher Level 1 | $91,396 | New Educator — graduate entry point |
| Teacher Level 2 | $100,006 | New Educator |
| Teacher Level 3 | $104,314 | New Educator |
| Teacher Level 4 | $108,619 | Experienced Teacher |
| Teacher Level 5 | $112,924 | Experienced Teacher |
| Teacher Level 6 | $120,102 | Experienced Teacher |
| Teacher Level 7 | $127,276 | Experienced Teacher |
| Teacher Level 8 | $129,106 | Experienced Teacher — top of the scale |
Every salary links to its take-home figure. Where a salary is not a round $5,000 the link goes to the nearest amount the calculator publishes.
ACT teacher salary 2026 at a glance
Full-time annual salaries from the first full pay period on or after 4 December 2025, read from the ACT Public Sector Education Directorate (Teaching Staff) Enterprise Agreement 2023-2026. Tap a classification for every step, or a salary to see it after tax.
| Classification | Steps | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teacher Level 1 to 8 — the classroom teacher scale | 8 | $91,396 | $129,106 |
| Permit to Teach | 1 | $82,796 | — |
| School leaders — executive teacher, deputy principal and principal | 8 | $145,938 | $263,195 |
Australian Capital Territory principal salary 2026
Principals are paid on their own scale, separate from the classroom teacher steps above. The figures below are read from the same ACT Public Sector Education Directorate (Teaching Staff) Enterprise Agreement 2023-2026 schedule as the rest of this page and apply from the first full pay period on or after 4 December 2025.
| Principal scale | Lowest | Highest | Pay points |
|---|---|---|---|
| School leaders — executive teacher, deputy principal and principal | $195,885 | $225,158 | 3 |
The agreement's local designations: School Leader C is an executive teacher, School Leader B a deputy principal, and School Leader A a principal.
Every principal pay point is in the full table further down this page.
ACT leadership, specialist and other pay scales
Permit to Teach
Paid to a person teaching under a permit rather than full registration. It sits below Teacher Level 1.
| Classification | Annual salary | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Permit to Teach | $82,796 |
Every salary links to its take-home figure. Where a salary is not a round $5,000 the link goes to the nearest amount the calculator publishes.
School leaders — executive teacher, deputy principal and principal
The agreement's local designations: School Leader C is an executive teacher, School Leader B a deputy principal, and School Leader A a principal.
| Classification | Annual salary | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| School Leader C1 (executive teacher) | $145,938 | |
| School Leader C2 (executive teacher) | $149,107 | |
| School Leader B1 (deputy principal) | $168,900 | |
| School Leader B2 (deputy principal) | $173,125 | |
| School Leader A Level 1 (principal) | $195,885 | |
| School Leader A Level 2 (principal) | $210,521 | |
| School Leader A Level 3 (principal) | $225,158 | |
| Director School Improvement | $263,195 |
Every salary links to its take-home figure. Where a salary is not a round $5,000 the link goes to the nearest amount the calculator publishes.
Which agreement sets ACT teacher pay
the ACT public school teacher salaries are set by the ACT Public Sector Education Directorate (Teaching Staff) Enterprise Agreement 2023-2026, the instrument the ACT Education Directorate pays against. The rates below took effect from the first full pay period on or after 4 December 2025 and were read from that instrument on 28 August 2026.
These are the government (public) school scales. Catholic systemic and independent schools in the ACT negotiate their own agreements and are not covered here.
Casual and relief teacher rates
Casual teachers in the ACT are paid a fixed rate per engagement rather than an annual salary.
| Classification | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Casual Rate 1 | $451.00 per day | |
| Casual Rate 2 | $558.00 per day | |
| Permit to Teach casual | $329.00 per day |
To turn a daily rate into an annual equivalent, and then into take-home pay, use the ACT pay calculator.
Which step am I on?
This is the part most teachers get wrong on their own payslip. Progression in the ACT is not simply one step per calendar year — the rules below are what the ACT Education Directorate actually applies.
Everyone moves on the same day: 27 January
Annex A is explicit — all classroom teachers have a common increment date of 27 January each year. You do not move on your own start-date anniversary; the whole teaching service steps together.
Periods of leave without pay can push your increment date out. The agreement delegates the detail to the Guidelines for Maintaining a Common Increment Date.
Where you start depends on prior experience, counted in full years
Clause Q1.8: teachers are placed on the Teacher Level Classification Structure based on recognition of qualifications and prior experience, including both teaching and other work experience. All prior experience is recognised in full years only.
That means a career changer can start above Teacher Level 1 — but a part-year of experience counts for nothing until it becomes a full year.
New Educator and Experienced Teacher are stages, not pay grades
Clause N4.2 splits the scale into two stages for the purpose of targeting development and support: New Educators at Teacher Levels 1 to 3, Experienced Teachers at Teacher Levels 4 to 8.
New Educators are expected to meet the Proficient Teacher career stage of the Standards to achieve full registration. Experienced Teachers continue developing within the Proficient stage. Neither stage is a separate salary line.
Highly Accomplished and Lead certification is paid, either way
Clause N6.3 requires the head of service to financially reward teachers who achieve certification at the Highly Accomplished or Lead career stage. The reward takes effect from 27 January each year.
If you are not yet at the top of your structure, it is an additional salary increment. If you are already at the top of the Teacher Level structure or at the top of School Leader C, it is a HALT payment instead — $7,495 from December 2025, paid fortnightly for one calendar year.
Principals do not receive increments
Clause X3.2: principal classification levels are determined by the Schools Weighted Index (SWI) and incremental progression does not apply. A principal's School Leader A level follows the school, not their length of service.
School Leader B and C do have two pay points each. The agreement provided for the transition to B1/C1 on 27 January 2024 and progression to B2/C2 on 27 January 2025.
Checking your payslip: find the classification code on your payslip, match it to the first column of the tables above, and compare the annual figure. If your gross fortnightly pay does not divide back to the annual salary for your step, you are either on the wrong step or being paid pro rata on a time fraction. The ACT pay calculator will convert an annual salary to fortnightly for you.
What a ACT teacher salary is worth after tax
Gross salary is not what lands in your account. A graduate on $91,396 and a top-of-scale teacher on $129,106 both pay income tax and the Medicare levy, and most also have a compulsory HECS-HELP repayment deducted at these income levels. Every salary in the tables above links to its take-home figure — start with take-home pay on $90,000 or take-home pay on $130,000.
Superannuation sits on top of these salaries rather than inside them. Check the exact figure for your own step with the take-home pay calculator, and if you have a study debt the HECS repayment calculator shows what comes out at your income.
To check the PAYG amount on a single payslip, look up your gross pay in the ATO fortnightly tax table or, if your school pays monthly, the monthly tax table.
Salary packaging available to ACT teachers
Public school teachers can salary sacrifice into superannuation, which reduces taxable income at your marginal rate. Because the classroom teacher scale runs through the 30% and 37% brackets, the saving is meaningful at the top of the scale and smaller at the graduate step. Work out your own number with the salary sacrifice calculator.
Salary sacrificing also lowers the income your compulsory HECS-HELP repayment is assessed on only in limited cases — reportable fringe benefits and reportable super contributions are added back for that test. If you are packaging, check the effect on repayment income before assuming a saving.
What this page does not show
We publish only what we could read from a primary source. These are deliberately left off rather than estimated:
- Rates under any replacement agreement — bargaining is under way and nothing has been approved for teaching staff, so no future rate is shown.
- The superseded Classroom Teacher 1.1/2.1/3.1 structure, abolished on 27 January 2024.
- The detailed increment mechanics, which clause C5 delegates to the Guidelines for Incremental Salary Advancement, the Guidelines for Maintaining a Common Increment Date and the Teacher Performance and Development Guidelines — separate documents not published with the agreement.
For anything in that list, go to the ACT Education Directorate.
ACT teacher salary questions
Teacher salaries in other states
How this page is sourced▼
Every salary on this page was read from the ACT Public Sector Education Directorate (Teaching Staff) Enterprise Agreement 2023-2026 or from the ACT Education Directorate’s own published salary schedule on 28 August 2026, and applies from the first full pay period on or after 4 December 2025. Nothing is estimated, averaged or interpolated: a step we could not read from a primary source is listed under “What this page does not show” rather than filled in.
State scales step up on dates written into the agreement, so re-check after the next scheduled increase. Take-home figures come from the site’s own calculator using ATO rates; because those pages exist in $5,000 steps, a salary that is not a round $5,000 links to the nearest one and says so.
Sources & References
- 1ACT Public Sector Education Directorate (Teaching Staff) Enterprise Agreement 2023-2026 — Annex A— ACT Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate
- 2Careers in education — pay and benefits— ACT Government
- 3ACTPS enterprise agreements— ACT Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate
Last verified: 28 August 2026. Our content is based on the latest information from official Australian government sources.
Anita Bell
AuthorFounder & Senior Bookkeeper
Accountancy degree (2015); certified in Xero, QuickBooks Online, MYOB, Saasu, Zoho and Reckon One
Anita Bell earned her accountancy degree in 2015 and has worked as a senior bookkeeper with Prime Bookkeeping for over 5 years. This built her skills in Australian and New Zealand tax legislation and industry regulations. She is certified in Xero, QuickBooks Online, MYOB, Saasu, Zoho and Reckon One, and works with payroll and rostering software including Gusto, Deputy, Tsheets and KeyPay. She has strong experience in hospitality, building and construction, financial services, real estate, ecommerce, and medical and health services.
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