Victoria’s top private school principals earning twice as much as the premier

Some of Melbourne’s private school principals are earning twice as much as Jacinta Allan. Search our database of 140 schools to see how much your principal is taking home.

Private school principals are being paid twice as much as the Victorian premier, with salary packages at the top schools reaching an astronomical $1m.

Sources say a $500,000 principal pay packet is considered “mid-tier” in this state even though it is twice as much as state school leaders.

The Herald Sun can reveal the average executive salaries of nearly 140 private schools, with one increasing by as much as 45 per cent in the past year.

Although such salaries are a closely-guarded secret at most schools, one source said “circa $1m packages are common in most APS, some AGSV and some of big girls’ schools”.

APS – Associated Public Schools – include some of the state’s biggest, most prestigious grammar schools, including many of those listed above paying more than $300,000 on average.

The “top-tier” AGSV – Associated Grammar Schools of Victoria – colleges include Trinity Grammar, Penleigh and Essendon Grammar, Camberwell Grammar and Mentone Grammar.

Salaries are just one component of the packages. Other perks paid to top principals include luxurious on-campus housing, such as the historic home provided to Scotch College head Scott Marsh, hefty tuition discounts and yearly international travel to conferences and alumni events at foreign campuses.

Private schools such as Geelong Grammar have total executive salary bills of $4m, along with buildings and grounds worth more than $268m and annual revenue of $96m.

The new federal government figures show the Victorian private school paying the highest average salary is Methodist Ladies’ College in Kew, a large girls’ school paying its four directors on average $442,422 in 2023 – a total of $1.7m.

The next most generous is St Catherine’s School in Toorak, which pays average executive wages of $415,902 to two staff members.

Scotch College principal Dr Scott Marsh.

Other schools paying $300,000 or more on average include Wesley College, Carey Grammar, Peninsula Grammar, Mount Scopus, Scotch College and Haileybury.

The dominant component of these total executive salaries are paid to principals like Derek Scott at Haileybury, who calls himself a “CEO/Principal”.

“There’s a big drop-off to the deputy level,” one former school leader said.

Another source told the Herald Sun that principal salaries were “way too high”.

“A regular reasonably experienced teacher may be on $130,000 so is a principal worth five or six teachers? I would have thought $400,000+ is a good figure,” the former school leader said.

He said it depended largely on the size of the school.

“A school of 1000 students is unlikely to pay its principal $750K but a school of 2500 like MLC (Methodist Ladies’ College), Caulfield Grammar and maybe Wesley could go closer to $1 mill,” he said.

MLC paid its four directors on average $442,422 in 2023. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Derek Scott at Haileybury calls himself a “CEO/Principal”.

The senior insider said $500,000 was the salary paid to “mid-tier” principals at smaller, less prestigious schools.

In comparison, the Victorian premier is paid about $498,000.

The analysis of nearly 140 schools by the Herald Sun shows that about 50 spent more on executive salaries in 2023 (the latest figures available) than 2022, with Erasmus, Marcellin, Heathdale Christian College, Brighton Grammar, Mentone Grammar, Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar and Peninsula Grammar paying 15 or more per cent than in 2022.

Around 30 schools paid less in overall executive salaries, including Ballarat Clarendon College, Melbourne Grammar, Loreto Toorak, Westbourne Grammar and Strathcona.

It’s understood that some schools are including a large number of staff in their executive salary group to bring down the averages. Schools such as Penleigh and Essendon Grammar count 24 staff as key managers, Ballarat Grammar counts 22 and Geelong College counts 20.