Language Assistants’ pay rates for 2015-16 in UK

Recommended minimum pay rates for Language Assistants in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

1)All languages except Chinese

Monthly rates

The recommended minimum monthly rate is based on the minimum monthly pay for unqualified teachers in England and Wales (as published by DfE). This is then reduced to 66.6% of this rate (X0.66) to reflect their reduced hours. Teachers pay rates are produced in August/September each year. To give schools clarity we therefore always work one year in arrears. Thus the minimum recommended rates for 2015-16 are those from the 2014-15 pay settlement.

The rates for 2015-16 academic year are:

Standard rate
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland / Inner London / Outer London / London Fringe
DfE minimum yearly rate / 16,136 / 20,293 / 19,167 / 17,196
DfE Minimum rate monthly (based on 12 month year) / 1,345 / 1,691 / 1,597 / 1,433
MLA minimum monthly rate for 2015-16 / 887 / 1,116 / 1,054 / 946

Hourly rates

There is also an hourly rate. This is ONLY for hours BEYOND the 12 hours agreed (paid at a monthly rate)

DfE does not publish an hourly rate for teachers, but the Scottish Government does. The additional hourly rate is based on the Scottish hourly calculation for probationary teachers. For 2015-16this is £13.29 per hour. Thus there is NO LINK between the monthly and hourly figures.

The British Council acknowledges that this is not an elegant solution but we have to operate on what figures are available and the agreement of our four sponsoring government agencies.

We have increased the hourly rate pro-rata for schools in the various London zones

The rate for 2015-16 is:

Standard rate
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland / Inner London / Outer London / London Fringe
Hourly rate / 13.29 / 16.73 / 15.80 / 14.10

2)Chinese Language Assistants

Chinese Language Assistants are in receipt of an allowance from Hanban. UK schools are therefore to pay the Assistants at the National Minimum Wage, currently £6.70 per hour. 12 hours (minimum contact) x £6.70 National Minimum Wage (NMW) x 41 week contract (15 September 2014 – 26 June 2015)= £3,296.40. When the National Minimum Wage rises schools will have to pay the increased rate

Documental used

Monthly rate

  1. DfE rates for unqualified teachers.

Each year we have to work in arrears so that the rate for Language Assistants in 2015-16 is worked out from the DfE rate for 2014-15. For 2015-16 the document used is:

para 17.1

  1. Take the minimum rates. Divide these annual rates, including London weightings, to produce monthly rates and then divide them further to 66% (x0.66) to take account of reduced hours. This rate will be recommended to all UK governments and be standard across the UK. Round to the nearest pound

DfE salary increases are announced in August/September which is too late for our schoolsand prospective MLAs. Therefore our MLA rates are based on the previous year’s DfE rates. This will allow us to give schools an exact amount in advance and not have to change it each September.

Hourly rate

DfE does not produce hourly rates of pay however COSLA, the body that set rates for teachers in Scotland does. For consistency and clarity we therefore use COSLA’s hourly rate of pay of probationer teachers across the UK with the relevant percentage increase for schools in London.

Each year we will ask COSLA for the updated rate. The website is at:

Chinese Language Assistants

The subsidy from Hanban (Chinese Authority for teaching Mandarin as a Foreign Language) is paid directly to the CLA. To top this up schools pay the National Minimum Wage. The site for this is at:

Additional hours over the standard 12 hour/ week contact for CLAs, up to a maximum of 18 hours will be paid at the NMW.

Page 1 of 3Date issued: 19/10/2018

Version No: 1Uncontrolled when printed