NSW’s newest teachers to earn $85k under handshake deal with union

Nearly every teacher in NSW will get a pay rise between 4 and 20 per cent from October. Here’s how much their new wages are worth, and how they compare with other jobs.

Teachers on strike in May 2022. The union accused the Minns government of echoing their Coalition predecessors by introducing a 2.5 wage increase from 2025. Picture: John Grainger

New graduate teachers in NSW are set to earn an $85,000 pay packet with the government and teachers’ union shaking hands on a massive one-year wage increase to flow straight into public and private school staff’s pockets.

The deal, which will see the current salary award modified and extended until October next year, will see beginning teachers’ wages immediately lifted by 12 per cent, to the highest paid in the country.

Top-earning teachers will get an 8 per cent pay rise and the highest-qualified senior school counsellors will earn as much as principals.

It echoes the original agreement made public by the NSW Teachers Federation in August when negotiations broke down over the government’s introduction of a 2.5 per cent ceiling on wage rises in the subsequent years of the four-year deal.

Now, the union will instead continue negotiating with the government on a new three-year agreement when the extended award expires in 2024.

NSW Teachers Federation acting president Henry Rajendra (centre). Picture: AAP Image

WHAT’S THE DEAL WORTH?

If the new deal is locked in at the union’s state council on September 9, teachers across the board will be earning anywhere between 4 and 20 per cent more.

The introduction of a seven-step salary structure will also boost graduates in their second year of teaching to $91,413, a 20.6 per cent increase on their current $75,791 salaries.

HOW IT STACKS UP INTERSTATE

Education Minister Prue Car said the wage increases would put an end to the interstate exodus, particularly in border communities.

“It means more teachers, in front of more children in more schools,” she said.

NSW’s new grads will be the nation’s highest paid, with the increase putting them nearly $15,000 ahead of their peers in Tasmania.

TEACHERS TO BE AMONG NSW’S HIGHEST EARNING GRADS

NSW Teachers Federation acting president Henry Rajendra said “there’s a lot more work to be done” to make graduate teachers’ salaries competitive with other industries, but preventing them from moving into other careers was an “urgent” matter.

Graduate teachers could soon be earning more than a first-year registered nurse, or a probationary constable in the NSW Police Force.

Mr Rajendra has hailed the new agreement, including the withdrawal of the four-year proposal, as “a breakthrough moment”.

“Thousands of teachers have fought tirelessly to bring us to this point,” he said.

“They have done it because they believe in the value and social purpose of the teaching profession. And they believe all kids deserve a decent shot at life, regardless of background or bank balance.”

Education Minister Prue Car said the deal “demonstrates respect” for teachers. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Mark Northam, secretary of the Independent Education Union’s NSW branch, confirmed teachers in Catholic systemic schools would also receive the same pay rises in accordance with a deal struck with 10 dioceses at the Fair Work Commission earlier this year.

The significant increase to wages are an important first step in “turning around the profession”, he said, amid thousands of teacher vacancies in public schools and nearly 400 in the Catholic sector alone.

“It’s taken several years of a teacher shortage crisis to convince the general public and the politicians that this supply crisis was genuine,” Mr Northam said.

“(But) parents and carers of students in schools across New South Wales would be acutely aware when their sons and daughters … come home from school they say ‘I spent some time in merged class or a joint class’, or ‘I was in the corridor’ or ‘I was in the school hall’ … because there’s simply an insufficient number of teachers.”

Education Minister Prue Car said she is hopeful the deal will be locked in at the September meeting.

“Negotiating an outcome that demonstrates respect to teachers has always been my highest priority,” she said.

“While there is much more to do, today marks an important step forward as we continue working to rebuild our state’s education system.”

The handshake agreement follows a sustained political campaign by both teachers’ unions over the last month calling on the Minns government to “honour the deal” by protesting outside the Premier and Deputy Premier’s electoral offices.