Teachers Award Pay Rates 2026-27: Every ECT and Teacher Level

The Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 (MA000077) is the national modern award for teachers employed in schools and in children’s services and early childhood education, including long day care centres, preschools and kindergartens. It sets five classification levels, each with a minimum annual salary, and a separate scale for long day care that is 4% higher. Where it applies, those salaries are the legal minimum. It does not cover principals or deputy principals, and it does not reach a teacher whose pay is set by a state industrial instrument or an enterprise agreement.

In a long day care centre, a Level 1 early childhood teacher is paid at least $78,979 a year, $1,513.60 a week or $39.83 an hour, from the first full pay period on or after 1 July 2026. In a preschool or kindergarten that runs on school terms, the Level 1 minimum is $75,941 a year, $1,455.40 a week. Level 1 covers graduates and teachers with provisional or conditional accreditation. A teacher moves to Level 2, $86,324 in long day care, on gaining proficient accreditation or its equivalent.

Clause 17.2 adds 4% to the long day care salaries because those teachers are not covered by clause 15, the school-year hours clause. A preschool or school teacher’s hours follow the school year: required attendance is capped at 205 days a year, and annual leave is taken in non-term weeks. A teacher in a service open at least 8 hours a day for 48 weeks or more a year works a rostered 38-hour week under Schedule A instead, and is paid the higher scale for it.

Generally not. Government school teachers in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia work in their state’s own industrial system, because those states kept their workplace relations powers over their own public sector employees, so a national award does not reach them. Where an enterprise agreement applies to a teacher, section 57 of the Fair Work Act 2009 means the award does not apply to them either, and many Catholic and independent schools pay under such agreements. Most government school teachers and many non-government school teachers are therefore paid under state instruments or agreements above the award. The $75,941 to $105,076 scale on this page is the floor for teachers the award does cover.

By the day, not by the hour, unless the work is in an early childhood service. A casual teacher’s full day rate is the weekly rate divided by 5 plus 25%, and a half day is the weekly rate divided by 10 plus 25%, so a Level 1 casual in a school is paid $363.85 a full day and $181.93 a half day. A casual in a school is paid for at least half a day. In a children’s service or early childhood service the hourly rate is the full day rate divided by 7.6, with a minimum payment of 2 hours, then 4 hours, then a full day. A casual engaged for fewer than 5 consecutive days is paid no more than Level 3.

Clause 17.3 divides the annual salary by 52.18 for the weekly rate and by 26.09 for the fortnightly rate. At Level 1 in long day care that is $78,979 divided by 52.18, printed in the award as $1,513.60 a week. The award prints no permanent hourly rate. The hourly figures on this page divide the weekly rate by the 38 ordinary hours a week in clause 10 and Schedule A, which gives $39.83 at that level. For casuals in early childhood services the award sets its own hourly method, the full day rate divided by 7.6.

Yes. A teacher in children’s services who is required to be the educational leader under the National Regulations is paid $4,784.28 a year on top of the salary, pro rata for fewer than 5 days a week. An early childhood or preschool teacher appointed as a Director is paid a director’s allowance from $8,733.22 to $13,137.79 a year, depending on the number of places in the centre. Both are set as a percentage of the Level 1 preschool and school salary, so they rise with it.

Award rates change from the first full pay period on or after 1 July each year, following the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review. The rates on this page took effect on 1 July 2026 under determination PR799357. No later variation to these rates appears in the award text, and when this page was checked on 19 September 2026 the Commission listed no pending application to change this award. Separately, the Early Childhood Education and Care Multi-Employer Enterprise Agreement 2024-2026, which covers some long day care employers, nominally expires on 30 November 2026. The Commonwealth Worker Retention Payment, whose grant minimums sit above the award, was extended on 17 June 2026 to 30 June 2028. The extension begins on 1 December 2026, and the Department had not published rates for the extension period when this page was checked on 25 September 2026.

Under the award, at least $78,979 a year at Level 1 in long day care, rising to $109,279 at Level 5, and $75,941 to $105,076 in a preschool or kindergarten on the school-year scale. A service that receives the Worker Retention Payment must pay more: $45.80 an hour at Level 1 in long day care, which is $90,814 a year computed on the award's 38 hours and 52.18 weeks, and $125,672 at Level 5. On the preschool and school scale the same calculation gives $87,324 to $120,834. Those annual figures are this site's arithmetic, not published by the Department. State preschool and kindergarten agreements, such as those in Victoria and New South Wales, pay differently and are not published here.