Primary school teacher salary in Australia
Primary school teacher pay is strongly affected by the applicable state agreement, classification step, experience and additional school responsibilities.
192,536 people reported under the ATO occupation “School teacher - infant or primary school” for 2023-24. The published median salary or wage income was $87,539.
What this page measures
The observed median uses ATO occupation 241213, School teacher - infant or primary school. It is a tax-return measure covering government, Catholic and independent schools together, so it is not the current salary schedule for any one employer, and it includes part-year and part-time teachers.
The ATO count includes everyone who reported this classification. Its public table does not publish the exact non-zero-income population used to calculate the median.
Related titles and specialisations
- Infant school teacher
- Primary school teacher
A modelled pay guide
- Lower guide
- $59,800
- Modelled low
- $71,700
- ATO median
- $87,539
- Modelled high
- $106,800
Only the median is a published statistic for this occupation. The lower and upper markers are a guide created by applying earnings-distribution ratios for professionals as a whole to that median. The upper guide is $132,700. These are not observed percentiles for this occupation.
Why individual salaries vary
- State or territory salary schedule
- Classification step and recognised experience
- Leadership or specialist responsibilities
- Full-time, part-time or part-year work
What full-time work pays
The tax-return median above can include part-year and part-time workers with non-zero salary or wage income. The ABS full-time benchmark is published for the broader occupation group “Infant or primary school teacher”. It covers full-time, non-managerial employees paid at the adult rate and puts them at $2,226 a week, or about $115,800 a year (May 2025), over roughly 45 hours. 37% of workers in the published “Infant or primary school teacher” occupation group work part-time.
Modelled primary school teacher pay by state
These guides apply each published state-to-national ratio for the Infant or primary school teacher group to the observed national median above. They are not observed state medians for the specific primary school teacher occupation.
| State | State-adjusted guide | vs national |
|---|---|---|
| New South Wales | $91,000 | +4% |
| Victoria | $81,700 | −7% |
| Queensland | $93,800 | +7% |
| Western Australia | $83,200 | −5% |
| South Australia | $85,800 | −2% |
| Tasmania | $85,500 | −2% |
| Australian Capital Territory | $97,100 | +11% |
| Northern Territory | $95,900 | +10% |
How the broader pay measure has moved
Average salary income for the “Infant or primary school teacher” occupation group went from $53,784 in 2010-11 to $82,805 in 2023-24 - 3.4% a year over 13 years. That is an average rather than a median, and it moves with hours worked and who is in the occupation as well as with pay.
Other occupation guides
Explore other salary guides built from the same ATO and ABS sources.
Turn the benchmark into a decision
Estimate take-home pay from the observed median, or compare a live job advertisement with the broader occupation evidence before applying.
To search another title or change the state, return to the Australian Salary Search.
Sources: ATO Table 15, ATO Table 14B, ABS Employee Earnings and Hours and Jobs and Skills Australia occupation data. Data retrieved 17 August 2026. Page reviewed . Full method on the methodology page.
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