Victoria’s latest Department of Education annual report states there were 80,311 full-time equivalent staff in the state’s public schools in June 2025, with the average pay rate for public school staff (including teachers, principals and support staff) being $54.70 per hour.

According to a survey of more than 8000 staff conducted by Monash University for AEU Victoria, public school staff each do an average of 12.5 hours of unpaid overtime per week, which the union claimed has left many of the state’s public school staff feeling “burnt out”.

It said this equates to approximately $2.2 billion worth of unpaid overtime performed by the state’s 80,311 full-time equivalent public school teachers, principals and support staff in 2025, or $27,394 each.

AEU Victorian Branch President Justin Mullaly claimed that not only are Victoria’s public school staff the lowest paid of any state or territory in Australia, but the amount of unpaid overtime they are expected to do is “nothing more than exploitation”.

“This is what happens when public schools aren’t properly and fairly funded,” Mullaly said in a statement.

“School staff are stretched thin and they are putting in extra unpaid hours in the evenings and on weekends to ensure the delivery of high quality educational programs for their students.

“This is not sustainable. Public school employees are ending 2025 burnt out, undervalued, and ignored. This is no way to attract and retain the people who teach our children and young people.”

The union’s claims come on top of news today that the Victorian Government has signed an agreement for 2026 that locks the state’s public schools into the same funding amount that was delivered in 2023.

The Age newspaper reported that this means $650 million less for public schools this year than if the State Government was delivering its target share of 75 per cent.

“This is a disgrace – not least when we know every other public school in the country will be receiving additional funding in 2026 except for Victorian schools,” Mullaly said.

The Age said that just prior to Christmas, the Federal Government published a bilateral agreement it signed with the Victorian Government on December 8.

“The agreement, which covers only the 2026 school year, shows that funding for Victorian state schools has not budged since 2023,” the newspaper reported.

In 2025, the union said, it became clear that the Allan Labor Government had no intention to deliver on their promise to ensure all Victorian public schools were fully funded to 100 per cent of the Schooling Resource Standard by 2028.

Victoria is the only state not to have finalised a 10-year funding agreement with the Federal Government, which the union said is causing billions of dollars to be withheld form public schools.

An experienced teacher in Victoria is paid more than $15,000 less than their NSW counterparts, Mullaly said, and if Victorian wages were on parity with NSW, the unpaid overtime bill would be even higher, at $2.62 billion.

“Only 3 in 10 employees expect to remain working in public schools until retirement, with excessive workloads one of the key reasons why teachers leave the profession,” Mullaly claimed.

“As the chronic shortage of teachers continues to negatively impact student learning, the Victorian Government must act to reign in workloads as one way to retain existing employees.

The union head said the State Government cannot expect public school staff to keep shouldering the burden of an underfunded public school system.

“Teachers, principals, support staff, students and parents deserve better,” Mullally said.