Educational Services (Teachers) Award
Covers teachers in schools, preschools, kindergartens, long day care centres, OOSH, vacation care, family day care and early childhood intervention services. 5 levels (L1 graduate → L5 Highly Accomplished/Lead Teacher) accreditation-driven, with two parallel sector pay scales (preschools/schools vs long day care, the latter carrying a 4% premium because LDC employees aren't covered by the cl 15 ord-hours rules). Standard rate is the L1 annual figure ($72,497). Several distinctive features: schools have a 7-week termination notice (overrides NES), schools-only leadership allowance is a 9-tier matrix, ECEC director and educational leader allowances are ECEC-only, and Schedule A early childhood services (≥48 weeks/year) have a separate rule set with paid meal breaks, OT, shift loadings and an optional 19-day/4-week RDO model.
Fully built. Rates, allowances, penalties and any required apprentice / junior rates are all wired to the rate resolver and have been verified against the consolidated award text and the latest pay guide.
Official Fair Work rates. This award’s minimum pay rates are synced directly from the Fair Work Commission’s Modern Awards Pay Database and updated automatically when the Commission changes them - including the annual wage review - so payroll always uses the current legal minimums without a manual update.
What's built
- All 10 cl. 17.1 classifications at corrected July 2025 figures (preschools/schools L1 $1,389.40 → L5 $1,922.40; long day care L1 $1,444.90 → L5 $1,999.30 - the 4% cl. 17.2 premium).
- Standard rate config = annual $72,497 (cl. 2 def + Schedule C.1.1) with weekly divisor 52.18 (cl. 17.3) - distinct from the typical weekly basis.
- All 9 cl. 19.3 leadership allowance tiers seeded (Cat A/B/C × Levels 1/2/3 - schools only, $1,159.95 to $5,799.76 per annum).
- All 3 cl. 19.2 director allowance tiers (≤39 / 40-59 / 60+ places - ECEC only) and the cl. 19.4 educational leader allowance ($4,567.31/yr ECEC only).
- Penalty rates correctly scoped to Schedule A teachers only (early childhood ≥48 weeks/year): Schedule A.5.2 shift loadings (110% / 115% / 117.5% / 130% / Saturday 125%) and Schedule A.4.1 OT (150% first 3hrs / 200% after). Schools and ECEC <48wks have no OT/penalty/shift loadings under this award.
- Schedule A specifics: paid 20-30 min meal break (A.3.1), interrupted meal 150% min 15 min (A.3.1(c)), 10-hour break + 200% fail-to-rest (A.1.5(b)), non-contact time entitlement (A.3.2 - 2hrs/wk programming + 2hrs/wk educational leader cumulative).
- All 12 default super funds per cl. 20.4 (substituted by PR794771 ppc 23 Jan 2026): NGS Super, UniSuper, Equipsuper, Prime Super, Aware Super, HESTA, CareSuper, AustralianSuper, Australian Retirement Trust, AMP Super Fund, Mercer Super Trust, Australian Ethical Retail Superannuation Fund.
- 7-week termination notice for schools (cl. 32.1) and 4-week for ECEC (cl. 32.2) - overrides NES; 2-week max employee notice deduction (cl. 32.3(b)).
- Annual leave clauses 21-23 fully encoded - 17.5% loading on 4 weeks NES (cl. 23.2), AL must be taken during non-term weeks for schools (cl. 21.2), 1.342% rolled-into-salary loading alternative (cl. 23.5), pro rata salary formula P = (S × C / B) - D (cl. 22.5).
- Six pay conditions split FT/PT/Casual into Schools/Preschools and Schedule A pairs to handle the rule-set divergence cleanly.
Known limitations
- Casual daily rate model (full day = weekly/5 + 25%; ECEC tiered min payment 2hr/4hr/full-day per cl. 17.5(c)) is captured via configuration plus a fallback hourly × 1.25 rate; the payroll engine should compute the cl. 17.5(b) daily figure directly rather than scaling the hourly rate.
- Pro rata salary formula (cl. 22.5) is stored as a config string; payroll must implement the P = (S × C / B) - D calculation when terminating a school teacher mid-year or after >2 term weeks of unpaid leave.
- PT 90% cap (cl. 11.1-11.3 - above 90% = considered FT) is captured as a configuration flag; resolver/onboarding flow should validate at hire / variation time since the schema doesn't enforce it.
- 205 max attendance days/year for school teachers (cl. 15.5) is a config flag; operational compliance check, not enforced by schema.
- APST compliance assessments (cl. 14.3, 14.5(c)(ii), 14.6(c)(ii)) - the auto-deemed equivalency triggers at 2 years (proficient) and 3 years L4 service (Highly Accomplished/Lead) are runtime checks against employee records, not seeded.
Setup & special instructions
- Schedule A teachers (early childhood services operating ≥48 weeks/year) follow a SEPARATE rule set from schools/preschools - cl 15 ord hours and cl 16.1 unpaid meal break do NOT apply; Schedule A overrides. The penalty rows in this seeder are scoped to Schedule A only via the employment_types JSON marker.
- Standard rate is ANNUAL ($72,497), not weekly. All wage-related allowance percentages (director, leadership, educational leader) compute against the annual figure. Weekly = annual / 52.18 (cl. 17.3, NOT /52).
- Casual engagements <5 consecutive days are capped at L3 even if the employee qualifies for L4 or L5 (cl. 17.5(a)(i)). Resolver consults employee classification + engagement duration at rate-computation time.
- Schools termination notice is 7 term weeks (cl. 32.1), inclusive of NES. The termination engine must use this for school employees, not fall back to the NES 1/2/3/4-week table - under-payment risk at every tenure bracket.
- When the employer has elected the cl. 23.5 rolled-in 1.342% AL loading alternative, do NOT pay the 17.5% lump sum at AL time - the loading is already in the annual salary. The election is recorded in the letter of appointment (cl. 23.6).
- Leadership allowances are SCHOOLS ONLY (cl. 19.3(a)(i)); director and educational leader allowances are ECEC ONLY (cl. 19.2(a), 19.4(a)). Don't apply across sectors.
- • Schools
- • Preschools
- • Kindergartens
- • Early childhood education
- • Long day care
- • OOSH
- • Vacation care
- • Family day care
- • Children's services
- • Education
The consolidated award text is the authoritative source. Always confirm specific obligations against the award itself - Mployr's implementation status reflects what we've seeded; it does not replace legal advice.
Want to see this award running on your data?
We can demo a pay run on the teachers award using sample employees in a sandbox tenant - including any of the special-instruction steps above so you can see exactly what your team's day-to-day looks like.
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