Just worked out I earn £5 an hour

[LaceyLee]

When I take off childcare costs from my income alone (I do have a DH) based on a conservative estimate of working hours and NOT including work taken home in evenings or weekends, holidays!! Not sure why I do it! I do enjoy the actual teaching of course... Anyone else the same?

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

Well you have decided to deduct childcare expenses. Why? You could deduct everything on that basis and reduce your hourly rate to zero

[LaceyLee]

Well, what do you mean by 'everything'? I deducted childcare as a cost of me working. Dh's job makes it impractical for him to be a sahd. There are a few other costs like petrol but that's minor. £5 an hour is the excess I'm making but it's actually lower than that as I've not taken in to account work done in evenings and weekends. Just annoys me as there is so much expected of teachers for an increasingly low (especially in real terms) salary.

[MrsGuyOfGisbo]

But everyone has different costs. A childless person has no childcare costs. A person with 6 has a lot...
A person living with parents pays less for accommodation the a person in a five bed house.
Etc

[lorelei9here]

If it's the real hourly rate that annoys you that's one thing
But taking off childcare costs? That's like me taking off my mortgage.

If you are trying to say you think you'd be better not working, a different thing again.

[StealthPolarBear]

Ok but people in other jobs work outside their contracted hours regularly as well.

[dublingirl48653]

sad state of affairs

i used to be a teacher

miss the lovely kids
dont miss the endless stress and the woes of planning/marking

could you go part-time ?

try sub teaching one-two days per week?

[Perfectlypurple]

I agree with the others. You don't earn £5 an hour. You spend some of your salary on childcare. I spend some of my salary on the mortgage, council tax etc. It's a choice. If you choose to have children and work there.will be costs associated with that.

[twirlypoo]

If i deduct child care costs then I think I break even (I am scared to work it out!) i goto work for so many more reasons than money though - and come september when DS starts school I will be better off.

[Oatsandraisens]

Do you share the child care cost? The child care is so you can both go to work.

[bloodyteenagers]

It's £5 more than you would have if you didn't work.
Childcare costs are not forever.
Why are you paying the full childcare. You have a partner. Childcare like household bills should be shared.

[KP86]

I know exactly what you mean, OP, but I have to say, compared to a lot of others £5/hr after childcare is a lot.

I went for a job at the start of the year that would have paid me £3/hr after childcare and I was happy (enough) with that.

[Scrowy]

My DP is a farmer. We worked out yesterday that he earns £1.61 an hour at this time of year (lambing time) and £2.56 an hour the rest of the year. That's without taking anything off

[Bluecarrot]

In my last job before going self employed I calculated my real income after travel, uniform costs, childcare ( basically every expense I wouldn't have if I didn't work at all) to be under £2 an hour. So I made a new plan and became self employed to work around school hours and wipe out travel costs. I still had expenses, obviously, but I was better off financially.
I realise it's not possible for everyone.

It's great you love your job, and childcare costs will go down then disappear eventually. :)

[sluj]

At least you haven't got approximately 9 weeks of school holiday childcare to pay for too as you don't just have 4 weeks of annual leave like most of us. That would make your hourly rate closer to zero!
On a serious note, most of us are below the living wage if we take into account extra hours, petrol, work clothes and other stuff associated with having a job. No choices though, are there?

[LottieDoubtie]

£5 An hour after childcare is loads.

I don't make anything like that as an overpaid independent school teacher - either your calculation is wrong or my childcare is more expensive than yours! (I suspect the latter!)

[KittyOShea]

The childcare costs should come out of your joint income. It allows both of you to work. With one small calculation you can increase your hourly rate significantly

Your point about work at home is much more significant. I believe that we teachers earn a reasonable salary if there weren't so many hours to do at home. That's what makes it a pittance. I have spent all weekend marking Controlled Assessment (we still have it in N Ireland)

[BikeRunSki]

Lots of working parents barely break even. It's not news. Lots of workers work outside their contracted hours too, again not news. We had a year where we didn't even break even. I'm contracted to do 22.2 hrs a week, but usually do nearer 28-30.

[Sallyingforth]

You're doing the wrong calculation.

Add both your salary and your DH's together.
Take off the childcare cost from your joint total.

That's how much you have to spend.

[Sallyingforth]

Crossed with kitty

[KP86]

Kitty, I agree with you in an equality sense, but when I was thinking about it for my situation, it went like this:

DH earns enough for us to live quite comfortably. I wanted to work for my own sanity and a challenge. If I didn't want to work then we wouldn't have any child care costs. Therefore, when I was deciding whether it was worth it, I looked at our family budget before and after me working and the differences were my salary and child care. So if my salary didn't at least equal child care, I wouldn't have worked, because I wouldn't want our family to be in a worse position overall.

[KP86]

Not that it's particularly pertinent to my point, but DH and I only have one account that all income and expenses come from. No he is paying for this and I pay for that...

[StealthPolarBear]

Did your do look at your salary and decide whether it was worth him working as well? Or was that just a given?

[mrsmeerkat]

So are most parents op. It's the reality of paying childcare. My dh works evenings and weekends for this reason and that's far from ideal either

[KittyOShea]

But in terms of your sanity and need for challenge your career is just as important as DH's.

Full time childcare is only for a few years after that it becomes much cheaper. Unfortunately those few years out may make it more difficult for you to get a job of the same nature afterwards meaning you lose the things you enjoy from work altogether for the sake of a few years. If this left you getting into debt that's one thing but with a DH who is a high earner it's a short term sacrifice for you.

[cruikshank]

£5 after childcare is pretty fucking good going, and if you have another salary on top of that then you're doing ok. I just have the one wage, and after childcare it works out a lot less than that especially when you factor in as another poster said the 9 weeks a year that I'm still paying full-time childcare for while you lot are all on holiday.