How Much Do Teachers Make in Canada? Salary Grids by Province

Public school teachers in Canada are paid from a salary grid in a collective agreement. Each grid has columns for qualification level and steps for years of experience, so two teachers with the same education and experience under the same agreement earn the same salary, whatever grade or subject they teach. This page shows the grids from provincial and school board agreements in seven provinces, what supply teachers are paid per day, and what teachers earn by province in Job Bank and Census data. It is part of the salary by profession hub; nurse pay and government worker pay are covered on their own pages.

Teacher salary grids by province

Who bargains the grid differs by province. Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have one provincial grid; Alberta moved all but a few school divisions to one unified grid on September 1, 2026; in Ontario and British Columbia each school board or district has its own grid, so the rows below show one large board in each. Each row shows the grid year named in its first column, with the first and top step of the main columns for certified teachers; some agreements also set later increases, such as the further raise to all salary grids in Alberta’s 2024-2028 terms.

Sources for each row: Alberta, the legislated central terms for 2024-2028 and the Edmonton Public grid published by the Alberta Teachers’ Association (these divisions keep their own grids: The Fort McMurray School Division, The Fort McMurray Roman Catholic Separate School Division, The Fort Vermilion School Division, The Northland School Division, and The Peace River School Division); Vancouver, the School District No. 39 grid from the BC Public School Employers’ Association; Saskatchewan, the Provincial Collective Bargaining Agreement for 2023-2026; Manitoba, the 2022-2026 provincial teachers’ agreement, whose harmonized grid replaced the school divisions’ own grids at the start of the 2026/27 school year; Toronto, the grid printed as supplementary information in the TDSB-ETFO Occasional Teacher Agreement 2022-2026, which pays long-term occasional teachers on the board’s elementary teacher grid; New Brunswick, the agreement with the New Brunswick Teachers’ Federation for March 1, 2026 to February 28, 2031, Schedule G-3; Nova Scotia, the Teachers’ Provincial Agreement, Schedule D5. The Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia rows come from agreements whose terms have ended, so a newer agreement may have raised them.

What moves a teacher along the grid

The column depends on qualifications. In Alberta, the column (TQS 4 to TQS 6) is set by a statement of qualifications from the Alberta Teacher Qualifications Service; Manitoba’s agreement classifies teachers “according to qualifications and experience as recognized by the Department” and pays a teacher who improves their qualifications at the higher classification. The step depends on experience: under Manitoba’s agreement, for example, a full-time teacher moves up one step after the equivalent of 10 months of full-time teaching service, until reaching the top step of their class.

Using the Alberta unified grid, the top step of TQS 4 pays $38,539 more than its first step, and the top step of TQS 6 pays $8,177 more than the top of TQS 4. On the Toronto grid, the top of A4 is $19,389 above the top of A2.

Saskatchewan’s agreement pays every principal, vice-principal and assistant principal an allowance in addition to basic salary; a principal’s is a basic amount plus an amount for each staff member in the school, as in the example below. Principals’ Job Bank wages are in the comparison table further down.

Supply and occasional teachers

Teachers who fill in for absent colleagues are paid a daily rate under the agreements below, and some agreements move them onto the grid once an assignment runs long enough. Each sets its own rates and thresholds:

• Alberta: the central terms set the full-day substitute rate at $271 from September 1, 2025, with a 3% increase on September 1, 2026, which makes it $279.13 a day.
• Toronto District School Board: short-term occasional teachers are paid $289.52 a day for their first 100 days and $299.05 after that, from September 1, 2025; the agreement notes that these rates include vacation and statutory holiday pay. Long-term occasional teachers are paid on the elementary teacher grid.
• Nova Scotia: a substitute’s daily rate is 75% of TC5 step 1 divided by 195, which on the grid above is $244.86 a day. A substitute who replaces the same teacher for more than 10 consecutive teaching days is paid as a regular teacher retroactively for all days employed in that school year, or from the first day when the assignment is known in advance to run that long.
• New Brunswick: supply teachers move to the regular rate of pay (the salary grid) from day 6 of continuous service in the same assignment.

Hourly equivalents from Job Bank

Teachers are paid the annual salaries in the grids above, so Job Bank’s figures are hourly equivalents. Nationally, secondary school teachers (NOC 41220) have a median of $45.67 an hour, $2.40 above the $43.27 median for elementary and kindergarten teachers. Secondary school teachers:

Source: Job Bank wages (Employment and Social Development Canada), NOC 41220, 2023-2024, Labour Force Survey. Low is the 10th percentile and high the 90th percentile of wages.

Elementary school and kindergarten teachers, NOC 41221:

Source: Job Bank wages (Employment and Social Development Canada), NOC 41221, 2023-2024, Labour Force Survey. Low is the 10th percentile and high the 90th percentile of wages.

Teachers’ Census incomes

The Census counts every teacher who worked full year, full time, so its figures cover all grid steps and columns, and it includes provinces without a grid above. For 2020, secondary teachers’ national median was $85,000 and elementary and kindergarten teachers’ $80,000. Ontario’s secondary median of $98,000 was the highest of the provinces.

Source: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population, Table 98-10-0586-01: employment income in 2020 of people who worked full year, full time. Columns in August 2026 dollars multiply the 2020 figure by the change in the Consumer Price Index from its 2020 average to August 2026 and round to the nearest $100; they are not newer survey results.

Elementary and kindergarten teachers by province

Source: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population, Table 98-10-0586-01: employment income in 2020 of people who worked full year, full time. Columns in August 2026 dollars multiply the 2020 figure by the change in the Consumer Price Index from its 2020 average to August 2026 and round to the nearest $100; they are not newer survey results.

Secondary school teachers by province

Source: Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population, Table 98-10-0586-01: employment income in 2020 of people who worked full year, full time. Columns in August 2026 dollars multiply the 2020 figure by the change in the Consumer Price Index from its 2020 average to August 2026 and round to the nearest $100; they are not newer survey results.

How teacher pay compares

Job Bank’s national hourly wages for teachers, school principals and several other public-facing occupations:

Source: Job Bank wages (Employment and Social Development Canada), 2023-2024, Labour Force Survey. Low is the 10th percentile and high the 90th percentile of wages.

Base pay is only part of a public school teacher’s compensation, since teachers in Ontario, for example, belong to the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, a defined benefit plan. How those plans work, and how to compare one with a salary that comes without a pension, is covered in defined benefit vs defined contribution pensions.

Becoming a teacher

Each province certifies its own teachers. In Ontario, teaching in a publicly funded school requires certification by the Ontario College of Teachers, which needs a postsecondary degree of at least 3 years and a four-semester teacher education program, plus an application and an annual membership fee to stay in good standing (Ontario College of Teachers). New teachers can start on an occasional or supply list before a permanent contract, which is when the daily rates above apply. Where you are placed on the grid when hired depends on recognized experience: Saskatchewan’s agreement, for example, places a teacher with no teaching experience at step 1 and a teacher with experience outside the province at the same step as Saskatchewan teachers with the same years. Since the grid itself is fixed, what can differ between offers is the column and step a board places a new hire on; negotiating salary in Canada covers what can be discussed in a public-sector offer.

Related reading

• Salary by profession hub
• How much nurses make in Canada
• How much police officers make in Canada
• How much government workers make in Canada
• How much social workers make in Canada