Part-Time Teacher Pay Calculator

How part-time teacher pay is calculated

Every part-time teaching contract is expressed as a fraction of full time, written as an FTE (full-time equivalent) figure. Your gross salary is simply the full-time rate for your pay point multiplied by that fraction, taken straight from the main pay range for your region.

The STPCD requires the fraction to be based on the proportion of a full-timer's directed time you are contracted to work — not just the lessons you teach. A full-time teacher works 1,265 hours of directed time a year, so a 0.6 teacher should be directed for 759 hours.

Part-time pay on every main scale point

These are gross figures for the rest of England in 2026/27. Multiply by the London weighting uplift if you teach in the capital — see the teacher pay scale tables.

Part-time take-home pay at common fractions

Gross is only half the answer — most people want the monthly net figure. The table below shows both for an M4 teacher in the rest of England, calculated through the standard deduction order: pension tier set on the £40,940 FTE figure, income tax on gross minus pension minus the personal allowance, and National Insurance on the full gross.

Notice that dropping from full time to 0.8 cuts gross by £8,188 but take-home by only about £5,332 a year. Fixed elements — the personal allowance and the NI threshold — do not shrink with your hours, so each part-time pound you give up costs you less net than gross. The same logic in reverse is why allowances such as TLRs are worth slightly more net on a part-time contract than their headline pro-rated figure suggests.

The pension tier trap for part-time teachers

This is the single biggest source of confusion on part-time payslips. Your Teachers' Pension contribution rate is determined by your full-time equivalent salary, not your actual pay.

Take a teacher on U3 in the rest of England working 0.5 FTE. Their actual salary is £26,418. If the tier were based on actual pay they would be in the 7.4% band. But because the tier follows the FTE figure of £52,835, they pay 9.6%.

What you actually build up in pension

Part-time service still counts fully towards your pension — it is just scaled. Each year you build 1/57th of your actual pensionable pay, so a 0.6 teacher builds 60% of what a full-timer on the same point builds.

Critically, part-time service does not reduce your years of membership for qualifying purposes. Ten years at 0.5 FTE is still ten years of membership, it simply produces a smaller pension. Model it with the teachers' pension calculator.

Allowances and part-time work

TLR and SEN allowances are pro-rated in the same proportion as salary. A part-time teacher with a TLR 2 of £5,000 on a 0.6 contract receives £3,000.

This is often disputed. The STPCD is clear that TLRs are pro-rated for part-time staff, but the responsibility itself frequently is not — a common source of workload grievance. If you hold a full department responsibility on a part-time contract, that is worth raising with your line manager and union.

Part-time pay and job sharing

Job shares are the most common way schools offer fractions below 0.8. Two teachers share one full-time post, typically at 0.5 each, and each is paid strictly on their own fraction of the pay point attached to the post. The post has one pay point — say M4 — and each sharer earns half of it. There is no bonus or penalty for sharing: the STPCD treats a job share as a part-time post for each holder.

The detail that catches job-sharers is the pension tier, because it follows each individual's FTE salary. Two 0.5 sharers on an M4 post are both assessed on £40,940, not on their actual £20,470, so both pay the 8.6% tier rather than 7.4%. The same applies to any part-time arrangement, including days-based contracts that are not formal job shares.

How the September pay award works for part-time staff

Part-time teachers receive the annual pay award in exactly the same way as full-time colleagues: the award lifts every point on every scale from 1 September, and your fraction is then applied to the new figure. A 0.6 teacher on M4 received the full 3.5% uplift on the full-time rate before pro-rating, so there is no second-class treatment in percentage terms. The net effect of that award at each pay point is tabulated in the pay rise guide.

Where part-time staff sometimes lose out is progression rather than the award. Pay point progression is decided on performance evidence, and part-time teachers are occasionally overlooked because they are less visible around school. Your appraisal should be conducted against the same standards as a full-timer, proportionate to your contracted duties — if you have been on the same point for more than a year without an application outcome, raise it formally.

Checking a part-time offer before you accept it

Before signing, convert the advertised fraction into two numbers: gross annual pay and expected monthly take-home. An advert offering 0.6 FTE on M6 sounds generous until you see it means £28,163 gross and roughly £1,803 net a month outside London. Run the fraction through the calculator above, then confirm the directed time budget attached to the post covers your actual duties — the most common complaint among part-time teachers is being paid for four days while carrying five days of responsibility.

Common part-time pay mistakes

• Being timetabled for more than your fraction. A 0.6 teacher directed for four days is working 0.8 for 0.6 pay.
• Attending all meetings and INSET regardless of fraction. Directed time includes meetings, parents' evenings and INSET, and should be pro-rated.
• Assuming pension is cheaper. The tier follows FTE pay, so the percentage does not fall.
• Forgetting PPA time is pro-rated too. You are entitled to 10% of your timetabled teaching time as PPA, calculated on your actual timetable.
• Not checking allowance pro-rating. TLR and SEN should be scaled to your fraction.