Teacher salary UK 2026/27: £34,069 to £52,835
A teacher in the UK is paid on a published scale rather than a market rate, so this is a figure you can check instead of estimate. It starts at £34,069 and tops out at £52,835. After income tax and National Insurance that is £2,337 a month at the start and £3,433 at the top, and the share you keep falls from 82% to 78% along the way, because the £12,570 personal allowance is a fixed amount rather than a percentage.
M1 to M6 is the main range a classroom teacher climbs, then U1 to U3 after crossing the threshold. Figures are England excluding London and the Fringe, which run higher scales of their own.
So how much do teachers make? A teacher's starting pay is £34,069 at M1, which is the figure to use for a starting salary rather than an average, because this is a scale and not a market rate. The average wage for a teacher depends entirely on how far up it they are: £34,069 at the bottom, £52,835 at the top. A teacher's earnings in London run higher again on separate inner, outer and fringe scales that are not shown here, and the London weighting guide explains how those supplements are taxed.
Every point on the scale, after tax
| Scale point | Salary | After tax | A month | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | £34,069 | £28,049 | £2,337 | 82% |
| M2 | £36,042 | £29,470 | £2,456 | 82% |
| M3 | £38,400 | £31,168 | £2,597 | 81% |
| M4 | £40,941 | £32,997 | £2,750 | 81% |
| M5 | £43,529 | £34,860 | £2,905 | 80% |
| M6 | £46,940 | £37,316 | £3,110 | 79% |
| U1 | £49,134 | £38,896 | £3,241 | 79% |
| U2 | £50,956 | £40,112 | £3,343 | 79% |
| U3 | £52,835 | £41,202 | £3,433 | 78% |
England, 2026/27, with no pension contribution and no student loan. Scale from National Education Union pay scales, England, take-home computed with the income tax calculator.
What one step up the scale is worth after tax
A teacher moves up this scale a point at a time, and the rise on the payslip is smaller than the rise on the scale. The first step adds £1,973 to the salary and £1,421 to the year after income tax and National Insurance, which is £118 a month. The largest single step is M5 to M6, worth £3,411 gross and £205 a month. U2 is the first point where part of the salary is taxed at 40%, which is why the share kept falls fastest there.
| Step | On the scale | After tax | A month more |
|---|---|---|---|
| M1 to M2 | £1,973 | £1,421 | £118 |
| M2 to M3 | £2,358 | £1,698 | £141 |
| M3 to M4 | £2,541 | £1,830 | £152 |
| M4 to M5 | £2,588 | £1,863 | £155 |
| M5 to M6 | £3,411 | £2,456 | £205 |
| M6 to U1 | £2,194 | £1,580 | £132 |
| U1 to U2 | £1,822 | £1,216 | £101 |
| U2 to U3 | £1,879 | £1,090 | £91 |
One timing point the annual figures cannot show: this scale takes effect 1 September 2026, five months into a tax year that began on 6 April, where NHS scales move on 1 April with it. In the year an award lands a teacher is paid on the old point until September and the new one after it, so the figures above are what a full year on each point pays rather than what the first year pays.
How much does a teacher earn in the UK?
The published scale runs from £34,069 (M1) to £52,835 (U3) for 2026/27. After income tax and National Insurance that is £2,337 a month at the bottom and £3,433 at the top.
Where a teacher's pay sits against everyone else
On HMRC's distribution of UK taxpayers, £34,069 is about the 59th percentile and £52,835 the 82th. The median UK taxpayer earns £29,700, so this scale starts above the midpoint and ends above it. Put any salary against the same distribution on the salary percentile calculator, or see the other published pay scales.
Reviewed 5 October 2026 by Hadi. These are the published scale figures for 2026/27; your own contract or payslip is the final word on an individual case.