Pay increments

Making sense of teacher aide levels in Queensland

*DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer. Please use your best judgement for any information/advice provided in this blog post.*

Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash

In 2024, the Department of Education Teacher Aides’ Certified Agreement 2022 was certified; and included wages at various increments:

On paper, this looks pretty good, especially in relation to the role descriptions listed at TAOO2, TAOO3 and TAOO4 levels.

The reality is that many teacher aides are not working at 1.0 FTE, which means that an increment level can be the difference between paying rent - or not.

A teacher aide can work for years on back-to-back contracts without increasing increments; even though they have developed skills, competencies and experience.

• The reason usually given is that the vacancy is to fill a need at TAOO2.1 level and additional skill is nice, but not necessary.

Let’s take a closer look.

Teacher aides in Queensland are governed by:

1. Act: Public Sector Act 2022

2. Award: General Employees (Queensland Government Departments) and Other Employees Award - State 2015

   1. Amendments to remove the hours-based barrier to increment progression for part-time employees in public sector awards

3. Agreement: Department of Education Teacher Aides’ Certified Agreement 2022

4. Policies: Policy and Procedure Register and school-based policies

Teachers aides fall within the Operational Stream and are considered Individual Contributors.