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February 2026 Snapshot: The Reality of SA School Salaries

The IEU’s February 2026 review of salaries across South Australia’s non-government education sector shows encouraging improvements in teacher and support staff pay particularly in workplaces covered by union-negotiated Enterprise Agreements (EAs).

Across the sector, the overall picture is one of progress.

However, the data also reveals stark disparities between employers, with some schools paying wages far below comparable workplaces.

This variation highlights an ongoing truth in the non-government sector: strong outcomes depend on strong union organisation.

Beginning Teachers

Most Employers Now in the High $80,000s

For beginning teachers, salary rates have improved steadily, with most employers now offering wages in the mid-to-high $80,000 range.

• Average salary: $87,756
• Median salary: $88,638
• Range: $61,418 to $115,475
• Difference between lowest and highest: $54,057

While these figures indicate a solid upward movement overall, the range remains concerning. A beginning teacher earning just above $61,000 is more than $35,000 behind colleagues at better-paying schools despite doing the same work, holding the same qualifications, and meeting the same professional standards.

The St Peter’s College EA, when approved, will see them join Indie Schools where a Beginner Teacher Salary is over $100,000.

Top Step Teachers

Bargaining Delivering Wins

Strong gains continue to be seen at the top of the teacher salary scale. Recent bargaining outcomes have pushed experienced teacher salaries higher, with 16 employers now paying above $125,000.

• Average salary: $118,181
• Median salary: $120,201
• Range: $79,011 to $133,257
• Difference between lowest and highest: $54,246

The difference between the lowest and highest top-step salary is now more than $54,000 a gap that is impossible to justify in a sector facing teacher shortages and increasing workload pressures.

These results reinforce what IEU members already know: union bargaining delivers real wage growth, especially where members are active, organised, and ready to stand together.

Education Support Officers

Essential Work, Modest Pay

Education Support Officers (ESOs) remain essential to school operations, student wellbeing, learning support, administration, and safety. Yet ESO wages continue to lag teacher salary growth.

For ESO Grade 2 Year 3, the February 2026 snapshot shows:

• Average salary: $73,843
• Median salary: $74,823
• Range: $50,795 to $82,126
• Difference between lowest and highest: $31,331

Despite their critical role, many ESOs remain on comparatively modest wages, and some are still being paid at rates that fall well behind the standards achieved in union-negotiated agreements.

Union Agreements Lead the Way

Across all classifications, the strongest salaries are consistently found in union-negotiated EAs.

This remains one of the clearest findings in the IEU’s salary review:
workplaces with active Sub-Branches and strong membership deliver better wages.

In contrast, a number of schools remain without EAs. In these cases, staff are often reliant on Award rates, which remain significantly lower than IEU-negotiated outcomes.

The result is a two-speed sector where wages, conditions, and fairness depend heavily on whether staff are organised.

The Inflation Test: Are Wage Increases Keeping Up?

The IEU review indicates that the median wage outcome across schools was approximately 3% for beginning teachers, ESOs and teachers at the top of the scale.

This is reflective of some schools tying salary to Department for Education (DfE), or the tail of end agreements that were front loaded.  When compared to the cost of living, this is concerning.

Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for the February 2025–February 2026 period indicates inflation running at roughly 2.5% to 3.8%. December inflation was 3.8%.

That means a 3% increase does not keep pace with inflation and in higher inflation conditions, may still represent a real wage cut. In most cases it is less than the increase in school fees and other funding.

It does not recognise the productivity improvements that workers have delivered.

Importantly, these outcomes also hide a more troubling reality: a number of schools provided no wage increase at all.

For those members, wages effectively went backwards in real terms, as costs rose but pay remained stagnant.

Even where schools delivered increases, the typical wage rise only narrowly matched inflation. In a period where households continue to face rising costs in housing, energy, groceries, and transport, “keeping up” is not enough particularly in a sector struggling with workload, burnout, and workforce shortages.

Pay Gaps Risk Deepening the Teacher Shortage

Some employers are now offering competitive remuneration, particularly where bargaining has delivered strong improvements. But the significant gaps between schools risk undermining attraction and retention across the sector.

When early career teachers can earn tens of thousands more by choosing one employer over another, workforce movement becomes inevitable. And when experienced teachers face wage ceilings far below comparable workplaces, the sector risks losing highly skilled educators at the very time they are most needed.

These gaps are not only unfair they are strategically dangerous in a tight labour market.

The Organising Message Is Clear

This February 2026 review sends a strong message to members and employers alike:

• Union-negotiated EAs consistently deliver better salaries.
• Workplaces without EAs remain far behind.
• Wage outcomes that fail to exceed inflation mean real wages go backwards and don’t compensate for increased productivity.
• Staff shortages will worsen if pay and conditions are not competitive.

The solution is the same as it has always been, members organising together, strengthening Sub-Branches and bargaining collectively for fair outcomes.

Fair wages aren’t given. They’re won

Note on Data

These figures reflect salaries as at 1 February 2026. They do not include some schools where agreements have been voted up but are still awaiting approval or are currently in bargaining. Schools with expired EAs or no EA may have paid salary increases without notifying the IEU — E&OE.