Teaching assistant pay is one of the most searched questions in education work and one of the hardest to answer with a single figure. Two people doing what looks like the same job in neighbouring schools can take home noticeably different amounts over a year, and neither of them is being underpaid.

This is what decides the difference, and how to work out what a role is really worth before you say yes.

Your level is the starting point, not the whole answer

Most teaching assistant roles are advertised by level, usually level 1 through to level 4 or as higher level teaching assistant. The level reflects how much independent responsibility you carry: supporting a class under direction at the lower end, planning and delivering intervention or covering a class at the higher end.

Level moves your hourly rate, but it moves it less than people expect. The bigger swings come from the four things below.

Term time only is the figure people misread

This is the single most common surprise. Most school based teaching assistant roles are term time only, and the advertised salary is often quoted as the full time equivalent, which is what you would earn if you worked the whole year.

Your actual pay is that figure reduced to the weeks you work plus your holiday entitlement. The reduction is significant. Before you compare two roles, check whether each one is quoting the full time equivalent or the actual annual pay, because comparing one against the other tells you nothing.

Ask the question in exactly these words: what will land in my bank account each month, after the term time only adjustment. A straight answer is a good sign.

SEN and specialist work usually pays more

One to one support for a pupil with an education, health and care plan, work in specialist provision, or roles asking for specific training in behaviour, speech and language or physical support tend to sit above general classroom support.

They also ask more of you. If you are weighing a higher rate against a harder day, the honest question is not whether you can do it for a week, it is whether you want to do it in February.

Who employs you changes the arithmetic

Working directly for a school puts you on the school or local authority pay scale, with the pension and the term time pattern that comes with it. Working through an agency usually means a daily or hourly rate, more flexibility over which days you work, and pay that arrives weekly.

Neither is automatically better paid. Agency day rates can look higher than a school hourly rate and still work out lower across a year if the bookings are patchy, and they can work out higher if you want full weeks and can travel. What matters is that you compare the same thing.

If you are being paid through an agency, ask whether it is PAYE or through an umbrella company, and if it is umbrella, ask what comes out and who pays it. Get it written down.

Hours and days are where the real money is

A teaching assistant working five full days earns more than one working five short days, which sounds obvious until you look at how roles are advertised. Many are 8.30 to 3.30 with an unpaid break. Some are 32.5 hours, some are 27.5, and the advert does not always make it plain.

Ask for the hours in writing, including whether you are expected to stay for staff meetings, parents evenings or training days, and whether those are paid.

Work out your own number in ten minutes

• Take the hourly rate, not the headline salary.
• Multiply by your actual weekly hours.
• Multiply by the number of weeks you are paid for, which for term time only is usually the school weeks plus holiday entitlement, not 52.
• Subtract travel. Twenty five miles a day adds up faster than most people allow for.
• Then compare that figure against the other role, calculated the same way.

Do this before the interview rather than after the offer. It changes which roles you apply for.

Questions worth asking before you accept

• Is that figure the full time equivalent or what I will actually be paid?
• How many weeks a year am I paid for?
• What is the level, and what would move me to the next one?
• Is there additional pay for one to one or specialist work?
• Am I paid for training days and staff meetings?
• If this is agency work, is it PAYE or umbrella, and what are the deductions?

Nobody minds these questions. The schools and agencies worth working for expect them.

Where we come into it

We place teaching assistants across the North West, from day to day cover to long term and permanent roles, and we tell people the rate for a booking before they accept it rather than after. If you want to know what the roles we are recruiting for right now actually pay, the fastest route is to register your CV and ask your consultant directly. They will give you a number.