Gap between rich and poor too much

[schoome]

For example in the education sector - headteachers are paid 50k and teaching assistants 12k. Headteachers do paperwork and admin all day and teaching assistants do the real work.

Someone just introduced you to the capitalism ladder??

You've misunderstood the HT role, responsibility and accountabilities. Plus the average hours worked by a HT is 50-60 per week.
But if its that easy may I suggest you apply for the HT role?

The head in our school ticked the boxes and thats it. No care or concern. Got away with sitting in the office all day covering their arses.

The head teacher of my ds's school is in over all charge of dozens of staff and has overall responsibility for over 500 children. She is often still in school at 8pm. The TA's assist teachers but have little responsibility compared to a ht. I don't thinkk you need any actual qualifications to be a TA, our ht was a teacher for years, then a deputy for 6 years- she is highly qualified and experienced. She is also very visible in school, certainly not just doing administration all day.

Do you think that you could do a head teacher's job?

YABU

The head is responsible for everyone in the school, both staff and pupils.

TAs do a fantastic job and deserve higher pay of course. But they don’t have the same responsibility as a head and to say they do the “real work” is over simplistic.

I work in a junior role in the private sector, the directors probably get 10x my salary as a very conservative guess. I do what you would call the real work of dealing with our customers, the directors just go to lots of meetings. Except I don’t have to take work home or take decisions that impact more than the customer I’m dealing with or a handful of colleagues. The directors are responsible for all our millions of customers, thousands of staff and to all our shareholders.

Are you only just learning about capitalism?

I see. In my experience headteachers could hide in my school. She used to sneak out on friday afternoons for meetings...and not come back. Arrive at school 8, which is normal. As teaching assistants we were told to put up with children with behavioural issues because it would look bad on the school if we couldn't handle them.

Well why not become a HT then?? Seriously!!!

Could you manage the budget for the entire school

I understand in a business role. Don't insult my intelligence , I do understand capitalism. But in the public sector. They don't get sacked because there's no profit. I. E. Noone cares as long as they tick the right boxes.

I definitely think TAs should be paid more but the HT is a very demanding role too - there are more ins and outs than might meet the eye and also the salary is partly calculated on the weight of the decisions/strategy too - because they have huge impact on students, budgets etc

Because i couldnt live with myself for spending all my time ticking boxes instead of doing real work.

Well, become a head teacher then? More responsibility equals more money.

I can't get het up about this as an example of inequality. For a lot of schools I think £50k is too little for a head's job.

Completely agree.

Out of curiosity how do you know what HTs do day to day is just thumb twiddling? Do you sit with them all day and attend all of their meetings, see all their emails?

Presumably once you’ve finished school you’ll be looking for one of these highly paid ‘easy’ jobs then.

Who do you go and see when there's a safeguarding issue?
Who do you think manage the school, the budget, the funding, the parents, implement best procedures, recruit..

Seriously, if you think a HT are hiding in their office all day, you are nowhere near the level of becoming one yourself.

When there are threads asking why some people have higher roles than others, this OP is the answer. That attitude of "them" privileged over "us" poor exploited.

There are shit and lazy HT, they are human, but the role itself is demanding enough to justify the salary.

Is that for a primary headteacher? Secondary school head teachers are very well paid up to £94,000 near where I am.
I was really surprised when I found that out the other day.

Because i couldnt live with myself for spending all my time ticking boxes instead of doing real work.

Righto. 😂 Lucky that someone is prepared to run the school then isn't it!

I agree with your title, but the example you give is utter rubbish. Strikes me that this is less about inequality and more to do with a personal grudge.

You haven't chosen the best example. Your headteacher is getting 4 times as much as the lowest paid staff, twice the median worker's wage. That's not unreasonable, given the level of qualifications and experience required.

You'd be better referring to FTSE executive pay, which is now 133 times median wage (a huge growth since I started working, when they were paid about 25 times median wage).

Yabvu.

The Labour market is about many things including supply and demand. Far more people have the ability to be a teaching assistant than a head teacher. Typically a three form entry school will need a minimum of 21 TAs whereas they only need one head teacher.

Yes I agree the gap between rich and poor is too big but what an odd example to try to illustrate that fact.

I am a PA to a headteacher and she is incredibly busy, has a lot of responsibility and accountability, has years of ‘real work’ experience and deals with a hell of a lot of shit from parents. Yes my pay is crap as is the TA’s pay, but I don’t want the HT job.

I agree with you that the wage gap between the bottom and the top in almost all sectors is too big and the working poor are often unable to live without government top-ups.

However, management positions are never just admin and paperwork. It's right that a higher role requiring more experience, more education, more responsibility and more often than not more work deserves a higher pay. Instead of looking to pull management down let's focus on pulling the bottom up a bit.

They are two very different roles. Subsequently requiring a very different skill set and entry qualifications - e.g. vocational versus academic and experiential.

A person who is very good in the certain skill sets required is going to be unlikely to be naturally very good at the other.

The HT will be ultimately accountable for OFSTED ratings. A poor and/or declining results will result in their resigning or being dismissed. This will not be good for their career records when it comes to finding another job.

Overall isn't this largely the same/comparable as Doctors and Nurses and their salaries and level of practical care versus consultative work and surgery? Or that of Managers in Nursing homes and being accountable to the CQC versus care staff who actually look after the homes residents day to day, etc, etc?