The agreement runs to a nominal expiry of 31 December 2027, so the rates below are current and a further 4.3% is already locked in for 1 January 2027.
Northern Territory teacher pay scale 2026 — every step
The Northern Territory classifies classroom teachers as CT1 to CT9, with the entry level set by completed years of post-qualification service. Senior teachers are on a separate ST1 to ST8 scale.
Full-time annual salaries before tax and before superannuation. Part-time teachers are paid these rates pro rata on their time fraction.
Classroom teachers — CT1 to CT9
The main scale. Your entry classification is set by completed years of post-qualification service: less than 12 months starts at CT1, one year at CT2, and so on.
| Classification | Annual salary | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CT1 | $96,180 | Under 12 months post-qualification experience |
| CT2 | $100,777 | |
| CT3 | $105,369 | |
| CT4 | $109,962 | Target of the Rapid Incremental Progression scheme |
| CT5 | $117,567 | |
| CT6 | $122,162 | |
| CT7 | $126,755 | |
| CT8 | $131,349 | |
| CT9 | $136,997 | Top of the classroom teacher 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.
NT teacher salary 2026 at a glance
Full-time annual salaries from the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2026, read from the Northern Territory Public Sector Educators' 2024-2027 Enterprise Agreement. Tap a classification for every step, or a salary to see it after tax.
| Classification | Steps | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classroom teachers — CT1 to CT9 | 9 | $96,180 | $136,997 |
| Senior teachers — ST1 to ST8 | 8 | $145,286 | $196,907 |
| Principals — PLO1 to PLO7 (non-contract) | 14 | $147,068 | $214,369 |
| Aboriginal team teachers — AT1 to AT7, and authorised persons | 8 | $61,415 | $91,587 |
Northern 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 Northern Territory Public Sector Educators' 2024-2027 Enterprise Agreement schedule as the rest of this page and apply from the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2026.
| Principal scale | Lowest | Highest | Pay points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Principals — PLO1 to PLO7 (non-contract) | $147,068 | $214,369 | 14 |
Each principal band has two pay points. Levels are promotion-based and set by the NTPS Job Evaluation System; movement between the two points within a band is by the pay progression scheme.
Every principal pay point is in the full table further down this page.
NT leadership, specialist and other pay scales
Senior teachers — ST1 to ST8
Promotion-based classifications, not steps you age into. Levels are set by the NTPS Job Evaluation System against the NTPS Capability Framework.
| Classification | Annual salary | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ST1 | $145,286 | |
| ST2 | $151,040 | |
| ST3 | $160,531 | |
| ST4 | $165,076 | |
| ST5 | $176,487 | |
| ST6 | $182,064 | |
| ST7 | $188,515 | |
| ST8 | $196,907 |
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.
Principals — PLO1 to PLO7 (non-contract)
Each principal band has two pay points. Levels are promotion-based and set by the NTPS Job Evaluation System; movement between the two points within a band is by the pay progression scheme.
| Classification | Annual salary | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PLO 1.1 | $147,068 | |
| PLO 1.2 | $150,012 | |
| PLO 2.1 | $151,040 | |
| PLO 2.2 | $155,571 | |
| PLO 3.1 | $160,531 | |
| PLO 3.2 | $168,559 | |
| PLO 4.1 | $174,548 | |
| PLO 4.2 | $179,784 | |
| PLO 5.1 | $185,925 | |
| PLO 5.2 | $191,503 | |
| PLO 6.1 | $197,286 | |
| PLO 6.2 | $203,205 | |
| PLO 7.1 | $208,126 | |
| PLO 7.2 | $214,369 | Top of the non-contract principal 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.
Aboriginal team teachers — AT1 to AT7, and authorised persons
A separate NT classification structure with its own salary scale under the same agreement.
| Classification | Annual salary | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| AT1 | $61,415 | |
| AT2 | $66,888 | |
| AT3 | $71,646 | |
| AT4 | $79,229 | |
| AT5 | $85,408 | |
| AT6 | $88,145 | |
| AT7 | $90,881 | |
| Authorised persons | $91,587 |
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 NT teacher pay
the Northern Territory public school teacher salaries are set by the Northern Territory Public Sector Educators' 2024-2027 Enterprise Agreement, the instrument the NT Department of Education pays against. The rates below took effect from the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2026 and were read from that instrument on 28 August 2026.
Next scheduled increase: 1 January 2027. A further 4.3% from the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2027, already written into clause 33.3. That takes CT1 to $100,316 and CT9 to $142,888.
These are the government (public) school scales. Catholic systemic and independent schools in the Northern Territory negotiate their own agreements and are not covered here.
Which step am I on?
This is the part most teachers get wrong on their own payslip. Progression in the Northern Territory is not simply one step per calendar year — the rules below are what the NT Department of Education actually applies.
You start at the classification your completed years buy
Clause 37.4: a teacher with less than 12 months of post-qualification experience commences as a CT1. A teacher with more than 12 months is appointed at a classification that recognises their completed years of service — one year of experience means CT2, and so on.
The recognition is done under the Salary Assessment Procedure, and only completed years count.
One increment every 12 months, and it is hard to withhold
Clause 39.2: employees are entitled to increments within the scale for their substantive designation after completing 12 months service, continuous or broken. A second or subsequent increment is not payable until the previous one has been held for 12 months.
The NT agreement goes further than most: the parties agree an annual increment for teachers will only be withheld as an outcome of inability or discipline procedures under the PSEM Act. It is not a performance-rating decision.
Rapid Incremental Progression can skip you to CT4
Clause 39.3 lets an early career teacher advance to CT4 at the start of their third year of teaching, instead of arriving at CT3. To qualify you must complete your first two years of service in NT Government schools within a four-year period, and successfully complete two semester units of study toward a postgraduate qualification within those first two years.
Relief teaching in NT Government schools counts, where 180 days equals one year of service.
Senior teacher and principal are promotions, not steps
Clauses 37.5 and 37.6: the ST1-ST8 and PLO1-PLO7 levels are promotion-based classifications determined by the NTPS Job Evaluation System, with capability requirements set out in the NTPS Capability Framework. You do not increment into them.
Principals move within a band only on performance
Clause 40: pay progression for principals is based on high performance and is not automatic. Participation is not mandatory and applications are at the principal's discretion.
To be eligible you need at least 12 months service at a principal classification, a 12-month performance agreement with satisfactory performance against it, and a submission made in advance of the annual assessment date demonstrating at least one of the progression criteria — sustained superior performance, successful increased duties, new projects with significant results, applied specialist expertise, or sustained leadership measured against the AITSL Professional Standard for Principals.
HALT and Lead certification are paid as allowances
Schedule 4 item 4.2 sets a highly accomplished teacher allowance of $13,938 and a lead teacher allowance of $29,184 from 1 January 2026. These sit on top of your classification salary rather than moving you up the scale.
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 NT pay calculator will convert an annual salary to fortnightly for you.
What a NT teacher salary is worth after tax
Gross salary is not what lands in your account. A graduate on $96,180 and a top-of-scale teacher on $136,997 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 $95,000 or take-home pay on $135,000.
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 NT 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:
- Assistant principal and deputy principal salaries — the NT has no such salary classification. The agreement mentions assistant principal only as a workload rule, and NT leadership pay runs Senior Teacher ST1-ST8 and Principal PLO1-PLO7.
- Executive contract principal (PLEC) rates — published as total remuneration packages including superannuation and a vehicle, not base salaries, so they are not comparable to the tables above and are not shown.
- Remote and district allowances, which are substantial in the NT but vary by location and are not a salary rate.
For anything in that list, go to the NT Department of Education.
NT teacher salary questions
Teacher salaries in other states
How this page is sourced▼
Every salary on this page was read from the Northern Territory Public Sector Educators' 2024-2027 Enterprise Agreement or from the NT Department of Education’s own published salary schedule on 28 August 2026, and applies from the first full pay period on or after 1 January 2026. 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
- 1Rates of pay — teachers and educators (rates effective 1 January 2026)— NT Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment
- 2Northern Territory Public Sector Educators' 2024-2027 Enterprise Agreement— NT Office of the Commissioner for Public Employment
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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