Profession: 2026/27
UK Teacher Salary 2026/27
STPCD pay scales for Early Career Teachers through Upper Pay Range and Leading Practitioner, four-area London weighting, Teaching and Learning Responsibility payments, Teachers Pension Scheme 2015 contributions, and engine-verified take-home across Inner London, Outer London, Fringe and Rest of England.
Overview of UK teacher pay
Teacher pay in England is set centrally through the School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD), a statutory document published annually by the Department for Education. Every maintained school in England is required to follow the STPCD pay framework, and academies (which technically have freedom to deviate) almost universally mirror it because it is the reference point for the national teacher labour market. The framework sets statutory minima and maxima on four pay ranges: Main Pay Range (M1 to M6), Upper Pay Range (U1 to U3), Leading Practitioner range (a single span), and Leadership Pay range (for heads, deputies and assistant heads). Each pay range exists in four parallel versions for four geographic areas: Inner London, Outer London, Fringe, and Rest of England.
The annual uplift is determined by the School Teachers Review Body (STRB), an independent body that takes written and oral evidence from the DfE, the teaching unions (NEU, NASUWT, NAHT, ASCL), the Local Government Association and the Welsh Government. The STRB publishes its recommendation in mid-summer, the Secretary of State for Education announces acceptance (in full, in part, or rejects), and the new STPCD takes effect on 1 September. The 2024 settlement gave a 5.5% consolidated uplift accepted in full by the DfE. The 2025 settlement followed the STRB's recommendation in July 2025. The 2026/27 settlement is expected in late July 2026; this page will be updated within 48 hours of the DfE announcement.
Beyond the base pay range, teachers can earn Teaching and Learning Responsibility (TLR) payments for cross-school responsibilities (head of department, key stage lead, SENCo), Special Educational Needs (SEN) allowances for posts that require a SEN qualification, and Recruitment and Retention payments at the school's discretion. A teacher reaching the top of the Main Pay Range (M6) can apply to cross the threshold and move to the Upper Pay Range, which requires demonstrating sustained, substantial and consistent meeting of the Teachers Standards. The Upper Pay Range is in three increments (U1 to U3); progression beyond U1 is two-yearly and again requires demonstrating sustained excellence.
Pay scales by area
All figures are annual gross from the STPCD 2024 statutory framework (effective 1 September 2024, the 5.5% consolidated uplift). Where STPCD only specifies statutory minima and maxima, the intermediate points shown reflect the reference points published in the union pay tables (NASUWT, NEU) and used by most maintained schools. Schools that operate a performance-related pay policy may sit teachers between these points.
Main Pay Range (M1 to M6)
Six progression points. New entrants typically join at M1 (Early Career Teacher year 1) and progress one point per year subject to satisfactory appraisal. M6 is the top of the Main Pay Range and the gateway to the Upper Pay Range.
| Spine point | Inner London | Outer London | Fringe | Rest of England |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 (statutory minimum) | £38,766 | £36,413 | £32,796 | £31,650 |
| M2 | £40,551 | £38,283 | £34,624 | £33,483 |
| M3 | £42,426 | £40,242 | £36,542 | £35,410 |
| M4 | £45,242 | £43,193 | £39,372 | £38,244 |
| M5 | £48,697 | £46,553 | £42,443 | £41,319 |
| M6 (statutory maximum) | £52,481 | £50,288 | £44,729 | £43,607 |
Upper Pay Range (U1 to U3)
Three progression points reached after passing the threshold from M6. Progression from U1 to U2 and U2 to U3 is two-yearly, conditional on demonstrating sustained, substantial and consistent meeting of the Teachers Standards.
| Spine point | Inner London | Outer London | Fringe | Rest of England |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U1 (statutory minimum) | £56,959 | £53,549 | £46,728 | £45,646 |
| U2 | £59,078 | £55,544 | £48,454 | £47,366 |
| U3 (statutory maximum) | £61,281 | £57,652 | £50,215 | £49,084 |
Leading Practitioner range
A separate non-leadership career path for teachers whose primary purpose is modelling and leading the improvement of teaching skills. Statutory minimum and maximum only; the spot rate is set locally by each school.
| Range boundary | Inner London | Outer London | Fringe | Rest of England |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leading practitioner minimum | £62,345 | £58,697 | £51,148 | £50,007 |
| Leading practitioner maximum | £94,731 | £91,087 | £83,555 | £82,417 |
Source: DfE - School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD 2024, Annex 1). Cross-checked against NASUWT teachers pay scales 2024-2025 England. Retrieved 2026-05-22.
Four-area London weighting explained
STPCD does not pay a separate, on-top London weighting allowance the way the NHS or Civil Service does. Instead, each of the four geographic areas has its own statutory pay range. The result is a single consolidated, pensionable salary at each spine point: a teacher does not see a separate London Weighting line on the payslip; the entire scale is shifted upward. For a teacher on M6, the difference between Rest of England (£43,607) and Inner London (£52,481) is £8,874 a year, or about £680 a month in gross terms. After Income Tax at 20% to 40%, employee National Insurance at 8%, and Teachers Pension at 9.6% (Band 3 at this salary), the net difference works out to around £6,080 a year in take-home.
The geographic areas are defined by local authority boundaries listed in STPCD Annex 1. Inner London includes the City of London plus the inner boroughs (roughly Westminster, Camden, Islington, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Southwark, Lambeth, Wandsworth, Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, plus parts of Newham, Lewisham and Haringey). Outer London is the rest of Greater London inside the M25. The Fringe area covers a defined ring of local authorities just outside Greater London, including parts of Surrey, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. Anywhere else in England is Rest of England.
A teacher who moves school within the year does not lose their progression: they transfer at the same spine point in the new area's range, even if that means a substantial pay rise (or, occasionally, a small pay cut if the move is from Inner London to Outer London at the same point). Pension contributions follow gross salary, so an Inner London teacher on M6 pays roughly £400 more per year into TPS than a Rest of England M6 teacher (10.2% Band 4 vs 8.6% Band 2 on the higher base) but accrues a proportionally larger pension.
TLR and additional payments
Teaching and Learning Responsibility (TLR) payments are permanent additions to base salary for taking on specific cross-school responsibilities. STPCD defines three TLR levels, each with a statutory range; the exact amount within the range is set by each school's pay policy.
- TLR1: roughly £8,800 to £15,000 a year. Major school-wide responsibility such as head of a large department, head of key stage 4, or designated safeguarding lead.
- TLR2: roughly £3,000 to £7,500 a year. Subject leader, head of a smaller department, key stage 3 coordinator, or year-group lead in a primary.
- TLR3: roughly £600 to £3,000 a year. Time-limited project work (the only TLR that is not permanent), typically attached to a specific curriculum or improvement project.
TLR payments are fully taxable as employment income and fully pensionable. They count toward the TPS contribution band calculation, so a teacher on M6 (£43,607) with a TLR2 of £5,000 has pensionable salary of £48,607, falling into Band 3 (9.6%) rather than Band 2 (8.6%). The marginal cost of the TLR is therefore Income Tax (20% to 40%), Employee NI (8% main rate), and the increased pension contribution rate.
Other STPCD additions include SEN allowance (£2,679 to £5,285 a year for posts requiring a SEN qualification), Recruitment and Retention payments (entirely at the school's discretion, often used for shortage subjects such as physics, computing and maths in disadvantaged areas), and acting allowances when a teacher temporarily covers a more senior role. Acting allowances are typically the difference between the teacher's substantive pay and the substantive minimum of the acting role, paid only for periods of four weeks or longer.
Take-home: four areas compared
The 16-cell matrix below shows annual take-home at four representative scale points across all four geographic areas, computed with 0% pension to give a clean cost-of-living comparison. In reality every teacher on these salaries is paying Teachers Pension at 7.4% to 11.7% (see the pension section below), so net pay in hand is lower than the figures here by roughly the band rate of the band multiplied by gross. Income Tax and National Insurance use the 2026/27 thresholds for England.
| Scale point | Inner London | Outer London | Fringe | Rest of England |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 - ECT year 1 (statutory minimum) | £31,431 £2,619/mo · gross £38,766 | £29,737 £2,478/mo · gross £36,413 | £27,133 £2,261/mo · gross £32,796 | £26,308 £2,192/mo · gross £31,650 |
| M6 - top of main pay range | £40,996 £3,416/mo · gross £52,481 | £39,724 £3,310/mo · gross £50,288 | £35,724 £2,977/mo · gross £44,729 | £34,917 £2,910/mo · gross £43,607 |
| U1 - on threshold pass | £43,594 £3,633/mo · gross £56,959 | £41,616 £3,468/mo · gross £53,549 | £37,164 £3,097/mo · gross £46,728 | £36,385 £3,032/mo · gross £45,646 |
| U3 - top of upper pay range | £46,100 £3,842/mo · gross £61,281 | £43,996 £3,666/mo · gross £57,652 | £39,674 £3,306/mo · gross £50,215 | £38,860 £3,238/mo · gross £49,084 |
The Inner London take-home advantage at M1 is roughly £5,124 a year over Rest of England (about £590 a month), narrowing as a fraction of gross as the teacher progresses up the scale because more of the marginal Inner London uplift falls into the 40% higher-rate band. For a teacher progressing from RoE M6 to RoE UPS3 the gross increase is £5,477 but most of it sits below the £50,270 higher-rate threshold, so the marginal take-home is approximately the gross minus 28% (20% Income Tax plus 8% Employee NI). For a teacher progressing the same point on the Inner London scale, much of the increase sits above the higher-rate threshold and the marginal rate is around 42%.
Teachers Pension Scheme 2015
The Teachers Pension Scheme (TPS) 2015 is a Career Average Revalued Earnings (CARE) defined benefit scheme administered by Teachers Pensions on behalf of the Department for Education. Every teacher in a maintained school is automatically enrolled at the start of employment (academies and free schools must offer access to the TPS to all teaching staff under their funding agreements). Each year a teacher accrues a pension of 1/57 of pensionable earnings for that year, revalued annually in line with CPI plus 1.6% during active service. Normal Pension Age tracks the State Pension Age, currently 67 for most members.
Employee contributions are tiered by annualised pensionable salary into six bands. The table below shows the bands in force for the 2024/25 contribution year (revalued April 2024). The band boundaries are uprated each April in line with CPI; the rates themselves are fixed by the scheme rules.
| Band | Pensionable salary from | to | Contribution rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Band 1 | £0 | £34,289 | 7.4% |
| Band 2 | £34,290 | £46,158 | 8.6% |
| Band 3 | £46,159 | £54,729 | 9.6% |
| Band 4 | £54,730 | £72,534 | 10.2% |
| Band 5 | £72,535 | £98,908 | 11.3% |
| Band 6 | £98,909 | and above | 11.7% |
The employer contributes 28.68% of pensionable pay from 1 April 2024 (up from 23.68% following the 2020 valuation outcome). Combined with the employee 7.4% to 11.7%, total contributions to the scheme are roughly 36% to 40% of pensionable pay. This is significantly higher than a typical private-sector workplace defined contribution scheme (where 8% combined is the auto-enrolment statutory minimum), reflecting the cost of the guaranteed inflation-linked retirement income that the CARE benefit accrues.
Contributions are deducted under the Net Pay arrangement, meaning the contribution comes out of gross pay before Income Tax is calculated. This gives full Income Tax relief at the marginal rate (basic, higher or additional rate, depending on where the teacher's income sits). National Insurance is calculated on the pre-deduction gross, so no NI relief is given. This is identical to the treatment of NHS, Civil Service and Police pension contributions. Teachers cannot salary-sacrifice their TPS contributions (statutory scheme rules prohibit it), so the only way to get NI relief on a teacher pension is via a separate salary-sacrifice AVC, which a small number of trusts offer alongside the main TPS membership.
Career progression: worked example
A typical Rest of England career progresses through M1 (ECT year 1) and M2 (ECT year 2), then through M3 to M6 over the next four years subject to satisfactory appraisal. The Upper Pay Range opens after passing the threshold from M6; U3 (the top of the upper range) is typically reached around year ten to twelve. Take-home figures below use the Rest of England 2026/27 scale, English tax rates, the Teachers Pension contribution rate for the relevant salary band, and treat the contribution as Net Pay for Income Tax (with the small caveat that our engine models pension as salary sacrifice, which slightly overstates NI relief by a few hundred pounds a year compared to the true Net Pay treatment).
| Scale point | Gross | Pension rate | Pension £ | Income Tax | NI | Annual take-home | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ECT M1 - first year of teaching (RoE) | £31,650 | 7.4% | £2,342 | £3,348 | £1,339 | £24,621 | £2,052 |
| ECT M2 - second year | £33,483 | 7.4% | £2,478 | £3,687 | £1,475 | £25,843 | £2,154 |
| M6 - established teacher (RoE) | £43,607 | 8.6% | £3,750 | £5,457 | £2,183 | £32,216 | £2,685 |
| UPS3 - top of upper pay range (RoE) | £49,084 | 9.6% | £4,712 | £6,360 | £2,544 | £35,467 | £2,956 |
The ECT M1 to M2 step adds £1,833 gross but only £1,222 take-home, because the contribution lands fully in the basic-rate band (20% Income Tax, 8% NI, 7.4% TPS). The M6 to UPS3 step crosses into the higher-rate band for part of the increase: gross goes up by £5,477 but take-home only by £3,251, with the marginal pound taxed at 40% Income Tax (income above £50,270), 2% NI (above the Upper Earnings Limit), and 9.6% pension. The Inner London equivalent of UPS3 is £61,281, which would take the marginal rate higher still because more of the year's income sits in the 40% band.
For an Inner London teacher on M6 (£52,481), the take-home delta over a Rest of England M6 (£43,607) is roughly £6,080 a year. That is the cost-of-living premium intended to offset higher rents and travel costs inside the M25. Whether it is enough depends on the borough, the teacher's housing situation and whether they share with a partner; ONS Family Spending data and rental-listing indexes suggest the Inner London uplift covers about 60% of the additional housing cost for a single-occupant renter.
Leadership pay
Above the Upper Pay Range and Leading Practitioner range sits the Leadership Pay range, used for head teachers, deputy heads and assistant heads. The leadership range is much longer than the teacher ranges: it runs from L1 at the bottom (just above UPS3) to L43 at the top, with the statutory maximum on the L43 Inner London spot rate exceeding £140,000 (consistent with senior civil service grade 5 or NHS Director band pay). Each individual leadership post sits on a specific Individual School Range (ISR) of five consecutive points within the L1 to L43 range; the ISR is set by the governing body based on the size and complexity of the school.
A small primary school head teacher might sit on an ISR of L6 to L10 (Rest of England gross around £60,000 to £70,000). A large secondary head teacher serving 1,500 pupils with a deprived intake might sit on an ISR of L25 to L30 (Rest of England gross £100,000 to £115,000). Multi-academy trust executive heads, who lead several schools, can sit higher still and may also receive separate trust-level pay outside the STPCD framework. The full leadership pay table is published as Annex 2 of the STPCD; see the DfE STPCD page.
For high-rate taxpayers the £100,000 to £125,140 personal-allowance taper creates a 60% effective marginal rate, which catches leadership salaries in many secondary heads' Individual School Range. The interaction with Teachers Pension at 11.3% to 11.7% Net Pay can soften this: a head teacher on £105,000 who contributes 11.3% (£11,865) reduces taxable salary to £93,135, below the £100,000 taper threshold, restoring the full Personal Allowance and avoiding the 60% trap. Our 60% tax trap calculator models this interaction in detail.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Teacher pay in Wales is set separately by the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body (IWPRB) and published by the Welsh Government in the Welsh STPCD. The pay structure closely mirrors England: Main Pay Range M1 to M6, Upper Pay Range U1 to U3, Leading Practitioner and Leadership. Welsh pay tracks English pay within a few hundred pounds at most spine points. See the Welsh Government teachers pay page for the in-force Welsh STPCD.
Scotland operates a distinctly different system under the McCrone Agreement. The Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) negotiates pay between Scottish Government, COSLA (the local authorities) and the teaching unions (EIS, SSTA, NASUWT, AHDS, SLS). The Scottish scale runs probationer at around £33,594, then six points of Main Grade Teacher (the top point around £49,134), then Chartered Teacher and Principal Teacher posts. Scottish teachers do not have the four-area weighting of England; pay is uniform across Scotland. The Scottish Teachers Superannuation Scheme runs on similar lines to TPS but is administered separately by the Scottish Public Pensions Agency. See the SNCT handbook.
Northern Ireland has its own pay scale set by the Department of Education NI and administered by the Education Authority. The scale broadly tracks the Rest of England STPCD figures but has had occasional divergence in years where Westminster announced settlements that Stormont did not match within the year. See the Department of Education NI teachers pay page.
Comparison vs other public-sector professions
An Early Career Teacher on M1 Rest of England (£31,650) earns slightly less than a Police Constable point 0 (£31,335) and an NHS Band 5 nurse (£29,970 to £36,483 mid-point), but more than a Civil Service Executive Officer in most departments. By M6 (£43,607) a teacher is in line with a Police Constable at point 5, an NHS Band 6 nurse top of scale, and a Civil Service Higher Executive Officer. At UPS3 (£49,084) a teacher matches a Police Sergeant point 1 and an NHS Band 7 mid-point.
The Inner London uplift puts a teacher meaningfully ahead of equivalent-grade NHS and Civil Service staff in central London, because NHS Inner London High Cost Area Supplement is fixed at £8,011 (capped, not a percentage), and Civil Service London weighting is typically £4,000 to £5,000 of consolidated pay. A teacher's STPCD Inner London uplift on M6 is £8,874 (the difference between £52,481 and £43,607), which is the largest London uplift of any major public-sector profession on a like-for-like grade.
- Police officer pay - Constable to Chief Inspector, Met London weighting, Police Pension 2015.
- NHS Band 6 nurse - mid-career nurse comparable to teacher M5-M6.
- Civil Service Grade 7 - similar gross band to teacher Leading Practitioner.
- Pension contribution calculator - net cost of TPS at 7.4% to 11.7%.
- 60% tax trap calculator - relevant for leadership pay above £100,000.
- All UK professions - browse the full directory.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does a UK teacher earn in 2026/27?
- A teacher on the Rest of England main pay range starts at £31,650 (M1, statutory minimum) and progresses to £43,607 at M6 over six years of satisfactory performance. The Upper Pay Range (UPS) runs from £45,646 to £49,084. Inner London teachers earn a substantial weighting on top: M1 is £38,766 and M6 is £52,481 (Inner London statutory range, STPCD 2024). The 2026/27 settlement is expected in late July 2026 once the School Teachers Review Body publishes its annual recommendation and the Department for Education accepts it.
- Who sets teacher pay in England?
- The School Teachers Review Body (STRB) is an independent body that takes evidence from the Department for Education, teaching unions (NEU, NASUWT, NAHT, ASCL), the Local Government Association and the Welsh Government. The STRB makes an annual recommendation; the Secretary of State for Education accepts (in full, in part, or rejects), and the new School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) takes effect on 1 September. The 2024 settlement gave a 5.5% baseline uplift, accepted in full by the DfE.
- What are the four London weighting areas for teachers?
- STPCD defines four geographic pay areas: Inner London (the boroughs roughly within Zone 1-2, plus the City), Outer London (Zone 3-6 boroughs), Fringe (the outer commuter belt including parts of Surrey, Hertfordshire, Essex and Kent), and Rest of England. Each area has its own statutory minimum and maximum on every pay range. The areas reflect cost-of-living differences rather than school performance.
- How much do teachers pay into the Teachers Pension Scheme?
- Employee contributions are tiered by annualised pensionable salary in six bands, from 7.4% (up to £34,289) to 11.7% (over £98,908). The 2025/26 bands shown on this page are indicative; the exact band boundaries are revalued each April by CPI. The employer contributes 28.68% of pensionable pay (the rate increased from 23.68% in April 2024 following the 2020 valuation). Contributions are deducted under the Net Pay arrangement, giving full Income Tax relief at the marginal rate.
- How does Net Pay pension treatment work?
- Under Net Pay, the pension contribution is deducted from gross pay before Income Tax is calculated. A higher-rate teacher on £52,000 paying 9.6% (£4,992) into TPS reduces taxable pay to £47,008, saving 40% tax on the contribution that falls above the higher-rate threshold and 20% on the rest. No National Insurance relief is given because NI is calculated on the pre-deduction gross. This is different from Relief at Source (used by most personal pensions), where basic-rate relief is added to the contribution and higher-rate relief must be claimed via Self Assessment.
- What is the TLR payment for teachers?
- TLR stands for Teaching and Learning Responsibility payment, a permanent addition to base pay for taking on specific cross-school responsibilities (head of department, key stage lead, SENCo). TLR1 ranges from £8,800 to £15,000, TLR2 from £3,000 to £7,500, and TLR3 (short-term project work) from £600 to £3,000. The exact amount is set by the school within the STPCD-defined range. TLR is fully taxable and pensionable: it counts as pensionable earnings for the TPS contribution calculation.
- Do Welsh and Scottish teachers earn the same as English teachers?
- Wales has a separate pay structure set by the Independent Welsh Pay Review Body, which closely tracks England but is published separately by the Welsh Government. Scotland is governed by the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers (SNCT) under the McCrone Agreement: the pay scale runs from M1 (probationer at around £33,594) through Main Grade Teacher (six points) to Chartered Teacher and Principal Teacher posts; pay rises are agreed locally rather than via an independent review body. Northern Ireland has its own scale set by the Education Authority following Department of Education NI guidance.
- When does the STPCD 2026 settlement get announced?
- Historically the STRB report is published in mid-July and the Secretary of State announces acceptance within a fortnight, with the new STPCD taking effect on 1 September. For 2026/27 we expect the STRB recommendation in late July 2026, followed by the DfE response and publication of the in-force STPCD. Backdated pay (covering September arrears, if the announcement slips into the autumn term) is paid in the first available payroll after the settlement is formally accepted.
- What is the leadership pay range?
- Leadership pay (heads, deputy heads, assistant heads) is a separate longer range that extends well above the upper teacher pay range. The statutory minimum sits just above UPS3 and the maximum (L43 in the Rest of England, around £140,000) reaches the level of a senior civil service grade 5 or NHS Director band. Each school sets the specific spot rate for its leadership posts within the STPCD-defined statutory range, taking account of the school size, pupil demographics and number of staff line-managed.
- Can teachers do salary sacrifice into a workplace pension?
- No, not for TPS contributions: the Teachers Pension Scheme is statutory and contributions must be made under the Net Pay arrangement. Teachers can still salary-sacrifice for other benefits such as a cycle-to-work scheme, electric vehicles via the green car scheme, or additional voluntary contributions to a separate personal pension. Salary sacrifice reduces both Income Tax and National Insurance, which is more efficient than Net Pay for the NI element, but does not apply to the main TPS contribution.
Sources
- DfE - School Teachers Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) Annex 1 (pay ranges). Retrieved 2026-05-22
- School Teachers Review Body (STRB) Annual recommendation reports. Retrieved 2026-05-22
- NASUWT - Teachers pay scales 2024-2025 England Union summary, used for cross-check. Retrieved 2026-05-22
- Teachers Pensions - scheme administrator Retrieved 2026-05-22
- Teachers Pensions - Contributions and tax relief Six-band employee contribution table. Retrieved 2026-05-22
- Welsh Government - Teachers pay and conditions Retrieved 2026-05-22
- SNCT - Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers handbook Retrieved 2026-05-22
- Department of Education NI - Teachers pay and conditions Retrieved 2026-05-22
- HMRC - Rates and thresholds for employers 2026/27 Retrieved 2026-05-22
- Our full methodology & calculation sources →