Teacher Pay Calculator 2026/27

How to use the teacher pay calculator

The calculator needs four things to give you an accurate figure: where you teach, which pay scale you are on, which point of that scale you have reached, and how many hours you work.

1. Choose your region. London weighting makes a substantial difference. Inner London M1 pays £41,728 against £34,068 in the rest of England — a gap of £7,660 before tax.
2. Choose your pay scale. Most classroom teachers are on the Main Pay Range (M1–M6) or Upper Pay Range (U1–U3). Unqualified teachers, lead practitioners and the leadership group each have their own scale.
3. Choose your pay point. This is printed on your payslip and in your pay statement each September.
4. Set your hours. Full time is 100. If you teach three days a week that is usually 0.6 FTE, so enter 60.
5. Add allowances. Enter TLR and SEN payments as annual pound amounts, not percentages.
6. Set your pension and student loan. Nearly all teachers are in the Teachers' Pension Scheme unless they have actively opted out.

What gets deducted from a teacher's salary

Four things come out of a teacher's gross pay before it reaches your account. They are taken in a specific order, and that order matters because it changes how much tax you pay.

1. Teachers' Pension contributions

This is taken first and it is tiered. The rate you pay depends on your full-time equivalent salary — the headline figure for your pay point — not on what you actually earn if you work part time. This catches a lot of people out. A teacher on U3 working 0.5 FTE still pays the 9.6% tier rate, not the tier that their actual earnings would suggest.

2. Income tax

Income tax is charged on your pay after the pension contribution has been taken off. That is what makes the pension so efficient — you never pay tax on the money that goes into it. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland the first £12,570 is tax free, the next £37,700 is taxed at 20%, and anything above £50,270 is taxed at 40%.

Scotland has its own bands with six rates rather than three, starting at 19% and reaching 48%. If you teach in Scotland the calculator applies Scottish rates automatically.

3. National Insurance

National Insurance is calculated on your gross pay, before the pension is deducted. This is the single most common mistake in DIY salary spreadsheets. The Teachers' Pension Scheme is a net-pay arrangement, not salary sacrifice, so it saves you income tax but never saves you National Insurance.

You pay 8% on everything between £12,570 and £50,270, then 2% on anything above that. The full tier table and why the pension never saves National Insurance are covered in the pension contributions guide.

4. Student loan

If you have a student loan, repayments are 9% of everything you earn above your plan's threshold — or 6% for a Postgraduate Loan. Most teachers who trained recently are on Plan 2 or Plan 5. PAYE rounds each monthly deduction down to the nearest pound.

A worked example: M1 teacher outside London

Here is the full calculation for a newly qualified teacher starting on M1 in the rest of England in 2026/27, in the Teachers' Pension Scheme with no student loan.

That is £2,169.31 a month. Notice that National Insurance is charged on the full £34,068, not on the £31,547 left after the pension came out. Every pay point from M1 to U3 is tabulated on the dedicated teacher take-home pay page.

Part-time and pro rata teacher pay

Part-time teacher pay is worked out as a straight fraction of the full-time figure for your pay point. A 0.6 contract on M4 in the rest of England pays 60% of £40,940, which is £24,564.

Two things trip people up. First, your pension tier is still based on the full-time figure. Second, directed time and non-contact time should be pro-rated too — a 0.6 teacher should not be doing five days of meetings. See the part-time teacher pay calculator for the full breakdown.

TLR and SEN allowances

Teaching and Learning Responsibility payments and SEN allowances sit on top of your pay point. They are paid as annual pound amounts and they are pensionable, so they increase both your take-home pay and the pension you build up.

Common mistakes when working out teacher take-home pay

• Using the wrong pension tier. The tier follows your full-time equivalent salary, not your actual part-time earnings.
• Deducting pension before National Insurance. The TPS is not salary sacrifice. NI is charged on gross pay.
• Forgetting London weighting bands. There are four separate bands in England: rest of England, fringe, outer London and inner London.
• Assuming September pay rises apply from April. Teacher pay awards run with the school year from 1 September, unlike most public sector awards.
• Entering TLR as a percentage. It is an annual pound amount.
• Ignoring the personal allowance taper. Above £100,000 you lose £1 of allowance for every £2 earned, creating an effective 60% marginal rate.

How your pay increases over time

There are three ways a teacher's pay goes up: moving up the pay scale, crossing to the Upper Pay Range, and the annual pay award.

Progression up the Main Pay Range is normally annual subject to satisfactory performance. Moving from M6 to U1 requires a successful threshold application and is not automatic. On top of that, the annual STPCD award — 3.5% for 2026/27 — lifts every point on every scale. Read more in the teacher pay rise guide.