When does a long-term substitute get paid like a teacher? Indiana, Ohio, Oregon and West Virginia set the day count in law. Elsewhere, look in your district's pay schedule or contract

In four states, the law sets the day a long-term substitute's pay moves toward a teacher's. In Oregon, it is after the 10th consecutive day for the same teacher, when pay rises to at least 1/190th of a beginning teacher's yearly salary. In Indiana, a sub with a professional or provisional license moves to the teachers' pay range after more than 15 consecutive school days in the same position. In West Virginia, pay rises after more than 10 consecutive instructional days in the same position and reaches a teacher's full daily rate after more than 30 days. In Ohio, a sub assigned to one specific teaching position gets at least the minimum on the teacher salary schedule after 60 days of service. Each law has conditions, and the sections below give them in the statute's own words.

Where state law sets no day count, your district sets one, or none, in its substitute pay schedule or its contract with a union. Kentucky's rule is an example: it has each local board adopt a substitute pay schedule and gives no day count. We did not read every state's code, so a state not named here may still have a rule. The last sections show how to check yours and what to ask.

We read every page cited here on November 11, 2026. This is not legal advice. Your district's HR or payroll office applies these rules to your paycheck. For the daily floor before a long assignment starts, see our post on state minimums for substitute pay.

Oregon: after the 10th day, 1/190th of a beginning teacher's salary

ORS 342.610 covers a substitute employed "for more than 10 consecutive days in any one assignment for the same teacher." After the 10th day, pay may not fall below one of two floors. In a district with no salary scale, the floor is "100 percent of 1/190th of the statewide average salary" for beginning teachers. In a district with a salary scale, it is the higher of "1/190th of the employing school district's salary for a beginning teacher who holds a bachelor's degree" or the state daily minimum.

The Oregon Department of Education's memo for 2026-27, dated May 15, 2026, puts that statewide average at $52,812. In a district with a five-day week, the floor is $236.26 a day for an assignment of 10 days or less, and $277.96 after the 10th day where the district has no salary schedule. In a district with a four-day week, the law multiplies the floor by 1.125, and the higher rate starts after 8 consecutive days. ODE's figures there are $265.80 and $312.70.

The law also says which days are left out of the count. "Used sick leave, whether paid or unpaid, and weekends, school holidays and days when schools are closed by weather or other conditions" may not be considered in counting consecutive days, and neither may days a sub is not required to be at the school. A snow day in the middle of an assignment is skipped, not counted.

Two limits apply. The section "does not apply to substitute teachers represented in a bargaining unit in the school district by which they are employed," so a sub in a union looks to the contract instead. ODE's memo says charter schools are not subject to the law. And when a district determines an assignment will run 60 or more consecutive days for the same teacher, it must classify the job as a temporary position, which our post on how many days a substitute can stay in one classroom covers.

Indiana: more than 15 consecutive school days, with a license

Indiana Code 20-28-9-7 has two rules. A licensed sub who "serves as an occasional substitute teacher" is paid "in conformity with the pay range for substitutes" of the school corporation. A sub who holds a professional or provisional license and "serves as a substitute teacher in the same teaching position for more than fifteen (15) consecutive school days" is paid "in conformity with the regular pay range for teachers of the school corporation the individual serves."

The second rule names only those two licenses. The first rule also lists a limited license and "an equivalent license issued by the department," and the second does not. A sub working on a substitute permit is not named in either. The statute does not say whether the teacher rate reaches back to the first day, or which step of the pay range applies. Those are questions for the school corporation's payroll office.

We read Indiana's text in FindLaw's copy of the code, marked current as of January 1, 2026. The Indiana General Assembly publishes the official text at iga.in.gov.

West Virginia: two steps, after 10 days and after 30

West Virginia Code 18A-4-7 starts every substitute at no less than "eighty percent of the daily rate of the state basic salary paid to teachers." Section 18A-4-1 defines basic salaries as those paid "to teachers with zero years of experience" for their certification and training.

A substitute "who teaches in excess of ten consecutive instructional days in the same position" is then paid no less than "eighty percent of the daily rate of the state advanced salary based upon teaching experience." The advanced salary is "the basic salary plus an experience increment," so from the 11th day your own years of experience count toward the rate.

The second step is the full rate. A substitute "who teaches in excess of thirty days in the same position shall be paid the daily rate of the advanced salary, within that teacher's county." The 10-day step says "consecutive instructional days." The 30-day step says only "days." Your county board's payroll office applies both, including what "within that teacher's county" adds to the rate.

Ohio: after 60 days in one teaching position

Ohio Revised Code 3319.10 says a substitute "with an assignment to one specific teaching position shall after sixty days of service be granted sick leave, visiting days, and other local privileges granted to regular teachers including a salary not less than the minimum salary on the current adopted salary schedule." That is a floor at the bottom of the schedule. The board may pay more, but the text does not require the step a regular teacher with your experience is on.

The Ohio text says "sixty days of service," not consecutive days. It adds a second threshold. A sub who works "one hundred twenty days or more during a school year" and is re-employed for, or assigned to, a specific teaching position the next year "shall receive a contract as a regular teacher" if they meet the district's requirements for regular teachers. For subs hired "on a casual or day-to-day basis," the board "may grant" sick leave and other privileges, so that part is the district's choice.

Everywhere else: the district's schedule or the contract

In Kentucky, the state hands the decision to the district. Its regulation, 702 KAR 3:075, says "A local board of education shall adopt annually a per diem pay schedule for substitute teaching." It also says the schedule "shall be the same, higher, or lower than the rate of pay for a regular full-time teacher." Nothing in it ties pay to the length of an assignment. Whether a long assignment pays more, and from which day, is the district's decision.

In a state like that, the number is in one of two places: your district's substitute pay schedule, or the contract between the district and a union, if substitutes are in a bargaining unit there. To check whether your state has a law like the four above, search your legislature's online code for "substitute" in the chapter on teacher pay, and look on your state education agency's site for a substitute pay memo like Oregon's.

What to ask HR before you take a long assignment

• Is there a long-term rate, and after how many days in the same assignment does it start?
• Are those days consecutive, or a total? If the regular teacher comes back for a day, does the count start over?
• Do weekends, holidays, closures and my own sick days count, break the run, or get skipped?
• When the higher rate starts, is it paid back to the first day, or only from then on?
• Which step of the teacher salary schedule do I go on, and does my experience count?
• Do I need a teaching license for the long-term rate, or does a substitute permit qualify?
• Does anything else come with it, such as sick leave?

Ask for the answer in writing, or for the page of the schedule or contract it comes from. If a staffing agency employs you rather than the district, ask the agency which rule it follows. The laws above are written about school districts and county boards. If you are still looking for a long assignment, our older post on landing long-term assignments covers that side, and our post on what substitutes make an hour, by state covers pay in general.

What we can't tell you

• Whether your state has a rule we did not find. We read the four statutes above and Kentucky's regulation, not every state's code.
• What your rate will be in dollars, outside Oregon's statewide figures. We did not work out West Virginia's or any district's figures. The payroll office can.
• How days are counted in Indiana, West Virginia or Ohio. Of the four laws, only Oregon's says which days are left out.
• Whether a law covers you, or whether you were paid correctly. Your district's HR or payroll office applies the law, and if you are in a bargaining unit, the union can tell you what the contract says.

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