to ask for a pay rise - and tell me HOW!!!!!!

[mizu]

Ok so I work in education, am a teacher in FE. Worked in current place for 3 years and then left and then came back and have been here since 2006. Am curriculum leader of a small department and work 0.75 (3 and a half days a week).

Don't earn much and know I could be earning more on my pay scale and really feel like I have worked harder this year than any other. Position I am in has to be applied for every two years. No one else has applied so it will be more of an informal interview with head of school x 2. Really want to ask for a pay rise but don't know how as never have before.

Do I just bring it up at the end and explain what I have done to deserve it?

Feel uncomfortable just thinking about it.

I ask for a raise every 6 months. It doesn't always get me anywhere but I feel at least I've asked. I've had this policy for the last 15 years and as a result (that and hard work) I'm very well paid.

Make an appointment with your manager, ask and give one or more reasons why you deserve the higher rate. When you get your pay increase, don't act overly pleased or grateful even if you feel that way. You deserve the raise as you've worked hard. They're the ones that should be grateful.

More great advice, thanks Bump. As for the union issue, until now I didn't think that my situation was anything out of the ordinary,

I have worked out that to be top of my pay scale (f/t equivalent to £30,000) I would need to earn about £5,000 more a year. Not that I will ask for that of course but it makes me realise how little some of us are paid for a lot of work. I know teachers are flamed on here at times but in my dept we ALL work unpaid overtime every week, there are no lunch breaks ever and.............ok so you get the point, i'm off topic slightly.

I'm not in teaching or public sector so forgive me but why wouldn't you ask for what you want/need?

Well what I've learnt from this thread is that FE lecturers are paid less than school teachers. (I last looked at teaching pay scales about seven years ago and then, as I understood it, someone on the basic 'no frills' scale would have gained incremenatal payments annually to arrive after 7 years at the top, at that time around £31k outside London). Then there is 'enhanced' pay that most schools apply for to recognise their teachers' excellence.

I don't imagine that helps at all, as everyone in your sector will have the same gripe but it is interesting.

That's a sexist and crap statement.

It's a blanket statement, but that doesn't necessarily result in it being sexist or crap. Whilst there are undoubtedly women who wouldn't think twice about pushing for a rise, it has certainly been my experience as a manager that men are far more likely to tackle the issue directly. I would say that over the years I've has management responsibilities, 90% of the people who have walked into my office and said (in one form of another) 'I believe I deserve a pay rise and here's why' have been male. I wouldn't be surprised if the same were true in other firms.

I agree that you need to take the average male attitude when it comes to achieving the pay increase you want.

I had a colleague request (and receive) a pay increase because his wife had just had a baby! He showed me the memo before he sent it. I'd done my own memo listing my recent achievements. We both got a £1,500 uplift, this was 20 years ago. If he'd been given the raise and I hadn't I would have kicked up a stink, I'd like to think.

Andro, yes, I've heard this phenomenon quoted as a fact resulting from extensive research, on many discussions about why there remains a pay gap between men and women doing the same and equivalent jobs. Especially so in the private sector where salaries are commonly confidential and there's more flexibility to 'favour' someone as you're not confined to prescriptive national pay scales like much of the public sector.

As a piece of information therefore, I see it as a neutral research finding, not an opinion.

How this situation comes about and what to do about it, on the other hand, is far more fraught with values, learnt behaviours, assumptions and individual circumstances.

Teachers in FE are indeed paid considerably less than schools. I have an old school friend who is a school teacher. She works a day less a week than me and is paid £6,000 a year more.

This has, I think, always been the case.

The problem in the college I work at is that there is a culture of 'everyone is replaceable'. I have had two members of my team resign this academic year due to stress of the job and they had both just had enough. I know that they both love teaching and being in the classroom is not the problem, it is the ever increasing other stuff that has to be dealt with. Luckily for them both, they didn't NEED to work and had other things in the pipeline.