When a Lender Counts Your New Grid Salary

A lender counts your new grid salary from the start date on a signed permanent or long-term occasional contract, read through the board employment letter, not from your first pay. Pre-approval can happen in August on the strength of that letter, and the first stub confirms it later.

Key takeaways

• A signed contract with a grid placement is income from the start date; the first pay stub confirms it.
• The board letter must state status, start date, category and step, annual salary, and whether the role is probationary.
• A letter that gives only a daily rate makes the file harder to read; ask for the annual grid figure.
• Start-of-grid salaries run from 48,179 to 61,614 across published boards for 2025-26.
• The qualifying rate in the examples is 6%: a 4% contract rate plus 2 percentage points, above the 5.25% floor.

The contract counts before the pay does

A lender counts your new salary from the start date on the contract, not from the day the first deposit lands. A signed permanent or long-term occasional contract with a grid placement is income the moment the board letter confirms it. The first pay stub confirms what the letter already stated.

This matters for September starts. You can be hired, signed and placed on the grid weeks before any money moves. A lender reads the letter as the source of the income and treats the start date as the point the salary begins. The stub arrives later and matches the number.

For 2025-26, start-of-grid salaries run from 48,179 at the lowest published board to 61,614 at the highest. Your exact figure comes from your QECO category and your experience step, and the board letter should carry it.

The order a lender sees: Signed contract and board letter set the income. The first pay stub confirms it. A pre-approval can be built on the letter before the stub exists.

What the letter has to say

The board letter is the document a lender leans on, so it has to be specific. A strong letter states your status, your start date, your category and step, your annual salary, and whether the position is probationary. Those five points let a lender read the file without guessing.

A letter that gives only a daily rate is harder to read. Daily occasional pay across published boards runs from 286 to 294 per day, and a daily rate on its own does not tell a lender how many days you will work. For a long-term occasional role, pay is the grid rate prorated by school days, and boards commonly express it as 1/194 of the annual rate per day against the standard 194-day school year. If your letter shows a daily figure, ask the board to state the annual grid salary and the term so the income reads as a full-year number.

• Status: permanent, probationary or long-term occasional.
• Start date: the day the contract begins.
• Category and step: your QECO category and your experience step on the grid.
• Annual salary: the grid figure in dollars per year.
• Probationary flag: whether the role is probationary.

One request to make: If the letter shows a daily rate only, ask for the annual grid salary, your category and step, and the term dates. That turns a daily figure into income a lender can use.

What a starting salary qualifies for

A lender tests your salary at a qualifying rate, then checks that housing costs and total debts fit under two ceilings. The qualifying rate is the contract rate plus 2 percentage points, or 5.25%, whichever is higher. Housing costs stay under 39% of income (GDS) and total debts under 44% (TDS).

The examples below use a 4% contract rate, which lifts the qualifying rate to 6%, a 25-year amortization, 250 per month in property tax and 100 per month in heat. They are illustrative. A lender uses the exact grid salary in your letter and your actual debts.

Two things stand out. First, a monthly debt drags the number down hard at a starting salary: 500 per month cuts the low-grid example from 190,029 to 143,256. Second, that same 500 barely moves the A4 examples, because the income already clears the ceilings. A qualifying payment scales with the balance owed, so a debt paid to zero counts as zero.

• 39% GDS ceiling (Housing costs as a share of income)
• 44% TDS ceiling (Total debts as a share of income)
• 5.25% Qualifying floor (Or contract rate plus 2 points, whichever is higher)

What to do in August and September

Work in order. Get the letter right first, then build the pre-approval, then hold a rate, then send the first stub when it lands. Each step depends on the one before it.

A probationary status does not stop a lender from reading the salary. It is a fact stated in the letter, and the income still comes from the grid placement. The point is that the letter carries the figure and the first stub confirms it, so a September start does not have to wait until October money to begin.

• Get the board letter with status, start date, category and step, annual salary, and the probationary flag. This is the document that sets your income.
• Bring the letter for a pre-approval. A lender can read a signed contract with a grid placement before your first pay.
• Ask about a rate hold once the pre-approval is in place, so a shift in rates does not move under you while you shop.
• Send the first pay stub when it arrives in September. It confirms the salary the letter already stated.

The short version: Letter, pre-approval, rate hold, first stub. The contract carries the income; the stub confirms it.

Sources and dates

Figures in this guide come from the sources below. Each entry shows the date the source published it, or the date it was accessed when the source does not state one. After the review date, treat any number as a starting point and check the source.

• OECTA York Catholic unit collective agreement 2022-2026 (Art. 6.01) (as of 2025-26)
• OSSTF District 25 (OCDSB) collective agreement 2022-2026 (as of 2025-26)
• ETFO Durham teachers salary grid 2022-2026 (as of 2025-26)
• ETFO York Region local collective agreement 2022-2026 (as of 2025-26)
• OSSTF Toronto (TTBU) collective agreement 2022-2026 (as of 2025-26)
• OSSTF District 16 (YRDSB) collective agreement 2022-2026 (as of 2025-26)
• Ontario Regulation 304, School Year Calendar, Professional Activity Days (Education Act) (as of 2026-08-26)
• OSFI, minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages (as of 2026-01-29)
• CMHC, mortgage loan insurance for homeownership: debt service ratios (as of 2026-08-26)

Common questions