Sydney Catholic Schools Pay Rates 2026: Teacher & School Staff Pay

Sydney Catholic Schools runs around 150 primary and secondary schools across the Archdiocese of Sydney, employing teachers, learning support officers, administrative staff, and maintenance and grounds staff. It is one of the largest non-government school employers in the country.

Teachers and support staff are covered by enterprise agreements negotiated across the NSW and ACT Catholic systemic schools (our corpus lists the Sydney agreements below). The federal safety net is the Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 and the Educational Services (Schools) General Staff Award 2020, both tabled below.

The federal awards relevant to Sydney Catholic Schools roles:

• Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 (MA000077)
• Educational Services (Schools) General Staff Award 2020 (MA000076)

Workforce snapshot. In its 2024-25 report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, The Trustee For Sydney Catholic Schools Trust declared 11,986 employees — 22.5% casual and 78.8% women, with 442 in management roles. Source: WGEA 2025 Public Data File, data.gov.au (CC-BY 3.0 AU).

The Educational Services (Teachers) Award 2020 (MA000077) sets these annual minimums for school teachers:

Teachers progress by accreditation and experience; the award's Level 5 is for Highly Accomplished/Lead Teacher accreditation. Casual (relief) teachers are paid a daily rate derived from these figures.

Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.

Learning support officers, administration, IT, library, grounds and maintenance staff sit on the Educational Services (Schools) General Staff Award 2020 (MA000076). Entry pay points by level:

Term-time-only arrangements are common in schools; the award's annualised-pay and school-holiday rules matter as much as the hourly rate.

Source: Fair Work Commission modern awards pay database, current-operative rates (1 July 2026 annual wage review). Casual figures add the 25% casual loading.

Enterprise agreements set rates above the award, with their own classification structures and allowances. Current Sydney Catholic Schools agreements in our corpus (2 in total):

• Principals (Sydney Catholic Schools) Enterprise Agreement 2025 — approved February 2026, nominal expiry 9 October 2027.
• Principals (Archdiocese of Sydney) Enterprise Agreement 2024 — approved April 2024, nominal expiry 9 October 2024.

We don't reproduce agreement dollar figures here — the agreement covering your site, state and stream is the document to read. Find your agreement, then your classification, then your pay point, and compare it with your payslip. The award tables on this page are the floor every one of these agreements must beat.

The patterns worth checking on a Sydney Catholic Schools payslip:

• Teacher pay steps not advancing with accreditation and years of service.
• Term-time-only support staff paid an annualised rate that doesn't match the hours actually worked.
• Unpaid duties — camps, evening events and supervision outside the agreed hours without the agreement's allowances.
• Wrong general-staff level for the responsibility actually carried.

Match your payslip to your classification in the agreement (or the award tables above), and price any gap with our back-pay calculator. Raise it in writing with payroll or your manager first — most underpayments are fixed at that step. Unresolved, the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) recovers underpayments at no cost, up to six years back, and your union can run the claim for you. Not sure which instrument covers you? Ask our AI advisor with your role and location.