This article covers pay rates for casual relief teachers in WA. If you are interested in salaries for full-time classroom teachers, see What is the Pay Rate for WA Teachers?
How much do relief teachers get paid in WA?
Relief Teacher Pay in WA Public Schools
If you are a relief teacher in Western Australia and are working for the Department of Education, you will get paid at an hourly rate. The pay rate for a beginning casual relief teacher in WA is $43.09 per hour.
Many states in Australia pay their relief teachers at a daily rate. In WA, you are paid at an hourly rate which means that you will get paid extra if you are asked to stay late or finish early.
As teachers become more experienced, they will move up the pay tiers outlined in the School Education Act Employees’ (Teachers and Administrators) General Agreement 2019. This means that your hourly rate will increase for every year that you have been teaching. It is important to remember that a year of teaching is a certain number of days, so a relief teacher will not move up one tier per year as they have not taught every day for that year.
See more: How Much Tax Should Relief Teachers Pay?
If you are a relief teacher, the pay that you will get each day is in the following table:
| Increment | Pay per hour |
| 2.1 | $43.09 |
| 2.2 | $47.05 |
| 2.3 | $51.26 |
| 2.4 | $53.18 |
| 2.5 | $55.17 |
| 2.6 | $57.24 |
| 2.7 | $59.39 |
| 2.8 | $61.62 |
| 2.9 | $63.94 |
If you are just starting teaching and haven’t taught for a full year in a school yet, you will be on increment 2.1. You will automatically go up the increments if all of the teaching work that you have done is for the Department of Education. If you have done work for independent schools as well, you can ask them for a Statement of Service that you can send to the Department of Education. This Statement of Service is an official document stating how many days you worked in the school, and can be used to prove that you’ve been teaching long enough to move up the increments.
See more: Do Relief Teachers Need to Bring Their Own Device?
Relief Teacher Pay in WA Catholic Schools
In Western Australian Catholic schools, you will not get paid an hourly rate. Relief teachers working for CEWA will be paid $465.84 for a full day or $232.92 for half a day if they have worked for five consecutive days or less. This rate is the same regardless of whether you have just started teaching or have been teaching for thirty years.
Suppose you are employed by CEWA as a relief teacher for longer than five consecutive days in the same school. In that case, you will be paid at the salary rate outlined in their salary schedule, adjusted for casual loading.
See more: How to Make Sure You Get Paid as a Relief Teacher
When do relief teachers get paid in WA?
Relief teachers in WA get paid every fortnight. If you work for the Department of Education, all of the paydays for the year can be found in their Public Sector Calendar.
It is important that regardless of which sector you work in, you check your payslip every fortnight. As a relief teacher, you need to rely on individual schools to submit the names of the relief teachers that they have hired before the end of each pay period. If you look at your payslip and there are days that you have worked that are not included, it is important that you check with the schools that you have worked at to see if they have submitted their forms. Regardless, you should be paid for those days in your next pay period.
See more: Is Being a Permanent Relief Teacher Worth It?
Does pay for WA Relief Teachers Increase?
For both Department of Education and Catholic schools in Western Australia, your pay will increase every year. How much your pay increases each year will depend on what is in the Salary Schedule (if you’re working for CEWA) or the General Agreement (if you’re working for the Department of Education).
If you work for the Department of Education, your pay will also increase as you go up the pay scale. While Catholic Education South Australia does not have tiers for relief teachers, relief teachers in public schools will find that they will get another pay increase for every 200 days that they work in either public or private schools.
See more: 3 Skills that Principals Look For in a Relief Teacher
How do the pay rates for relief teachers in WA compare to elsewhere in Australia?
Click on the below links to find out how relief teachers are paid in other states and territories around Australia:
