When a Lender Counts Your New Grid Salary

A lender can count your new grid salary from the contract start date once you have a signed permanent or LTO contract and a board employment letter stating your category, step and annual salary. Pre-approval before your first pay is possible on those documents; the first pay stub confirms the figure.

Key takeaways

• A signed contract plus a board employment letter can support income before any pay lands.
• The letter must state status, start date, category and step, and the annual salary.
• Across published grids, start of scale runs from 48,179 to 61,614 for 2025-26.
• Lenders test the file at the contract rate plus 2 percentage points or 5.25%, whichever is higher.
• Order the letter first, then pre-approval and a rate hold, then confirm with the first pay stub.

The contract counts before the pay does.

A lender reads a signed permanent or long-term occasional contract as income from the start date. The board employment letter sets your grid placement and the annual salary that goes with it. You do not need a pay stub in hand for the file to move.

The pay stub confirms the figure later. It does not create it. If your contract starts in September, the salary that letter states is the number the lender works from, not a blank until the first deposit clears.

Where you land on the grid depends on your QECO category and experience step. Across the published board grids for 2025-26, start of scale runs from 48,179 to 61,614. The letter names your exact figure inside that range.

• 48,179 Start of grid, lowest published board (2025-26)
• 61,614 Start of grid, highest published board (2025-26)
• 13 Boards with published grids (22 grids in total)

What the letter has to say.

The board employment letter has to do more than confirm you were hired. A lender needs it to state the terms that turn a hire into a countable salary.

Probationary status is normal for a new permanent teacher. It does not stop a lender from counting the salary, but it should be stated so the file is read correctly. See the New and probationary teacher mortgages page for how that reads.

Daily occasional work sits differently again. Across the published grids, daily occasional rates run from 286 to 294 for 2025-26. That is day-rate income, not a contract salary, and a lender reads it on history rather than on a letter.

• Employment status: permanent or long-term occasional.
• Start date, so the lender knows when the salary begins.
• Category and step, the QECO category and experience step that fix your grid placement.
• Annual salary, the dollar figure tied to that placement.
• Whether the position is probationary.

If the letter only gives a daily rate: A letter that lists only a daily rate is harder to count as a full annual salary. Long-term occasional pay is the grid rate prorated by school days, and boards commonly express it as 1/194 of the annual rate per day. The standard Ontario school year is 194 school days under Ontario Regulation 304. A lender may ask for a letter that states the annual figure, or count the daily rate against the days in the contract.

What a starting salary qualifies for.

A lender tests the file at a qualifying rate, not the contract rate. The rule is the contract rate plus 2 percentage points, or 5.25%, whichever is higher. In the examples below the contract rate is 4%, so the qualifying rate is 6%.

Two ceilings then apply. Housing costs stay within 39% of gross income (GDS). All debts together stay within 44% (TDS). The figures below use a 25 year amortization, 250 a month in property tax and 100 a month in heat.

Read the gap between the two columns. On a 48,179 salary, a 500 a month payment pulls the maximum from 190,029 down to 143,256. A qualifying payment scales with the balance you owe, so a card or loan carried at a balance counts against the ceilings; a zero balance counts as zero.

For contrast, top of grid A4 across the published boards runs from 119,967 to 120,384. At that income the same model supports far more, and the two debt columns nearly meet because income clears both ceilings with room. The Ontario teacher salary grid tool shows where your step sits.

What to do in August and September.

The order matters more than the speed. Get the documents right and the timing takes care of itself.

You do not have to wait for September pay to start. The contract and letter carry the file; the pay stub confirms it. A free teacher mortgage review can check the letter before you rely on it.

• Get the board employment letter. Check it names your status, start date, category and step, annual salary and whether the role is probationary. The teacher employment letter page lists what to confirm.
• Take the signed contract and letter to pre-approval. A lender can read the salary from the start date on those documents.
• Ask about a rate hold once pre-approved, so a rate is set aside while you shop.
• Send the first pay stub when it lands. It confirms the salary the letter stated and finishes the income picture.

If the letter is thin: A letter that gives only a daily rate, or leaves out the annual salary, slows the file. Ask the board to reissue with the annual figure and your grid placement before you apply. That saves a round of back and forth.

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