Low pay for Teaching Assistant ?

[walker05]

My official title is 'Learning Support Assistant' i'm contracted to do a 37.5 hour week and paid on a pro-rata scale. My monthly take home pay is 1193 per month and i'm on a gross annual salary of 15,870.

I'm one of the 'lead LSAs' and have the job of ensuring that students' medical information is in place, up to date and that measures are put in place.
I carry out a variety of interventions and liaise regularly with the occupational therapist, nurse, parents etc.
Last year I was just classroom-based, and for this new role I have been given a rise of 20 pounds per month.

I feel like this pay is incredibly low for what i am doing, and it works out as below min. Wage.

Do others agree ? I do enjoy the job a lot, staff and kids are lovely, but I feel like I deserve a lot better, especially since I have a Masters and a Degree.
Any other TAs ?

We are paid a salary, spread over a year. But we are paid for 1265 hours a year working, and that can only be over a max of 195 days. We then get 4 weeks extra pay. So we aren't paid for the full 52 weeks, even though its a salary. It's why many teachers take on extra work such as exam paper marking and 11+ tutoring

Do you have a link to where that is written down?
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A TA isn't a graduate role and so you cant expect a graduate salary

Exactly.

Great that you have a degree and a masters but you don’t need them for a TA role so it won’t command a graduate salary.

None of our TAs get paid anything like your salary, so they would say you’re lucky!

Sadly you will never get paid much more than that as support staff so if you want more money-you’ll need to find a different line of work.

I'm a teacher and I agree that TAs and SfLW are grossly underpaid for the invaluable contribution they make to our schools.

Why in earth would you expect to be paid for the holidays when you are off work? You are paid a monthly salary (presumably) that is spread over the calendar year so you don't go any months without pay, but obviously you will not get paid for the holidays when you are not there (apart from the holiday pay).

Of course you have a choice to get 'paid in the holidays': get a job that isn't just term time only!

I'm a TA by the way, who used to be teacher. To be honest, considering that I get in at 8:45am and leave at 3:30pm, and don't have any work to do in the evenings and weekends, and get the school holidays off, I don't think the pay is all that bad!

To be honest I don't think your pay is that bad. The TAs in my school aren't paid that much and they have huge amounts of responsibility.

I don't get paid much more than that and I've been teaching for a long time. I worked a lot over the holidays and I work 70+ hours a week. I don't get paid for holidays either, just the salary spread over 12 months.

It’s not below minimum wage, though as you get paid for approx 44 weeks (around 4 weeks paid holiday plus pro rata bank holidays) with the pay spread equally over 12 months. So 44 x 37.5 = 1650 hours a year. Your pay is £15,870 so 15870/1650 is £9.62 per hour.

You earn slightly less than me but take home slightly more! Are you not in the LG pension scheme?

I'm confused. Why would you accept a job as a TA and then moan you are overqualified/underpaid?

The decision to change TA pay to be split over 12 months could, if you were cynical, be seen as a step to take a lot of people - mostly women - out of qualifying for certain benefits during the holidays (when they are unpaid).

I hate the holidays argument. Anyone could ask their boss for 9 weeks unpaid leave as that is all it is. Unpaid leave at designated and peak times.
I'm a ta too (in a core secondary department), and a graduate in a stem subject. I get paid £9 an hour (32hrs a week, take home is £960 a month). For the responsibility we hold with young people (this year I've even been given my own class!) I think the pay is a joke. Just as well I love my job!

My school pays the TAs quite well in comparison to other LA controlled school around we get paid to pay scale and it is not just 39 weeks a year or for 6.5 hours a day. And we get paid for all the school holidays! So I thank my stars for that.

But I do think the basic basic salary if not paid for school holidays is disgusting. I think if paid term time only, you should 5 weeks paid holiday a year as you would get with most other jobs.

I used to be a supply teacher but went to a TA and the amount expected TAs to do is getting more and more (which is to be expected when teachers are under so much pressure to do 100 other things)

I'm a TA and get slightly more than you and work 32.5hours and I'm only 2 years in so not at the top of the pay scale.

Sadly you have missed your opportunity to negotiate a better salary: the time to argue for one was when you were offered the role with more responsibility.

This demonstrates how little society values important jobs such as educating and nurturing the future population vs bankers who just make money for themselves and do not generate any significant wealth for the country.

It’s disgusting.

As much as a Lsa can be rewarding it is always low pay, if you have a degree and masters why don't yoy look for something else in education that pays more.

Yeh. I’m an SEN / Behaviour specialist TA. I work bloody hard. I work 8-4 every day but only get paid 8.30-3.30 (with an unpaid lunch break). I plan, teach, train, manage behaviour, make resources, run 1:1 sessions and groups, as well as the paper type duties - photocopying, putting stickers in books etc. And my monthly take home is less than my mortgage payment 😂
Thankfully I love my job and I don’t do it for the money (and DH pays the mortgage!) I make a difference and I’m good at what I do...

Teachers are paid for 195 days per year. Then within contracts it states you have to be avalible to complete work above and beyond these hours but by how much or what is specified. How TAs are paid depends on the LA or academy body, my last school put them all onto longer contracts so that they had to stay for staff meetings and complete paperwork after school.
The fact that you have a degree and masters is totally irrelevant. Lots of ta's are ex teachers or have degrees or master. You chose the job if you feel you are over qualified then get a different job.

As much as a Lsa can be rewarding it is always low pay, if you have a degree and masters why don't yoy look for something else in education that pays more.

This.

Why would you take a job that is well known for being poorly paid and then complain that the pay is low?

I am an LSA ( with a teaching diploma) I work 28 h/w, work 38 weeks a year, and get paid for 43. My pay works out at £9.44 p/h which is £944 per month before stoppages. You are definitely not on or below NMW as you would not be paid for 52 weeks a year. More likely paid for 46 weeks a year.

Yes but teachers don't have three months of the year where they have no income is what I think people are saying. It's annoying when teachers say they don't get paid for holidays. They have a monthly salary which is the same regardless of whether they're teaching or on their six weeks holiday.

@duckling84 everyone could ask their boss for 9 weeks unpaid holiday, every year so we don’t have to pay childcare in the school holiday, and the vast majority of us would be told a big fat no.

The pay for a ta is crap, totally agree, and I know they do a huge amount to help children in schools, particularly those who need extra time that a teacher wouldn’t be able to give without another adult in the classroom. But it’s a popular job because if you do have children you don’t have to pay any childcare and get to spend holidays with your kids - I earn £25k working 28 hours, BUT for my 2 school age children I pay £40 a week for breakfast club, £100 a week for after school club, and approximately £210 a week in school holidays for 3 days worth of holiday club.

Market forces. TAs are not well paid but the jobs are like gold dust with many good, suitable applicants as they want the hours. Round us you'd be unlikely to get a TA role as they go to teachers who don't want the responsibility and graduates who want a job they can just do when kids are at school.

TAs are never going to get paid more as the hours and school hols off (even if unpaid) make it worth it.

So I wouldn't agree with paying TAs more even though I'm sure their contribution is valuable. Tax payer's money is better spent paying people more where they really struggle to get good staff eg support workers / care workers for elderly / disabled people.

I’ve got several friends who work as TAs and other school support staff and they do all complain about the low pay. They don’t seem to understand that because they work less hours over the year, that means they get less pay. If you only work 9 months of the year, you should only expect to be paid for 9 months of the year (plus any holiday pay owed). They all tell me how stressful their jobs are, but lots of people have stressful jobs and could benefit from longer holidays, but the majority of these people can not afford to take that much holiday, so stick with doing a full year at work. I have suggested that they take on extra seasonal/holiday work but none of them want to for various reasons (they need a break/they don’t want to pay for childcare/why should they work in their holidays) but none of the reasons give me a great deal of sympathy for them tbh. We can’t have low hours and lots of money unfortunately.
How have you calculated that you are on less than minimum wage, as when I worked it out from the figures you gave, it seems to come out above what I thought MW is.

I also forgot to say, if you have a masters degree, maybe a teaching role would be better for you and then you would be paid more for your (different) role.

It's annoying when teachers say they don't get paid for holidays. They have a monthly salary which is the same regardless of whether they're teaching or on their six weeks holiday.

So do TAs what’s the difference?

Ugh again the uk pay system for TA’s and teachers is utter shite!! I don’t know why they don’t strike more. I’m in Ireland and a part time teacher (5 days out of every 10) and I get paid 880 every two weeks!! That’s 35 euros an hour!!

We don’t have TA’s we have SNA’s (special needs assistants) they start at 24k and work up to nearly 40k!

Cost of living is pretty much the same here as it is in the uk imo.