Teachers - how much do you earn?

[coopekid]

So it's my 5th year of teaching, not in London or fringe, and I am on £27,260 and have been since Sep 19 (no across-the-board pay increase as announced last summer for me ) This - according to the NEU advisory pay points puts me somewhere between M1 and M2. Interested to hear what other Teachers are earning?

In that case OP, it looks like a good deal for the non pay factors, but those would probably apply whichever school you worked in.

Obviously if you are already pregnant, looking for a new job now will make you ineligible for maternity pay, unless you are eligible for continued service, eg in the same employer/local authority and not having to work in the school holidays and hence use leave and/or pay for childcare in the holidays can be worth thousands, but that doesn't negate the fact that you appear to be not as far up the teaching scale as you would expect for your level of experience.

When you say you are in your fifth year of teaching are you counting the two years as a TA? If not, you are probably being paid as you should be, otherwise, I would have thought you should be a couple of points further up the scale, providing you are meeting requirements, so you should talk to your employer and your union if they don't have a satisfactory reason.

I should have chose teaching rather than nursing!

@NovemberR I have a degree and a Masters and I earn £25k in the private sector (creative field) after 7 years. I started on £15k. Most of my peers in my industry earn similar.
I have always thought that teachers are actually very well paid, in addition to being unionised to the hilt and benefiting from a public sector pension. Yes, they work hard and long hours, but so do most people.
They're constantly saying they're underpaid and would earn more in the private sector but that's not necessarily true- I think many don't realise how low salaries are in many industries and how hard it actually is to access the higher paid jobs in the private sector. For example the £27k graduate schemes mentioned are hugely competitive and only a minority get into them.
The average salary for my region is something like £23k. Teachers are on much more than that. They have it very good.

They're constantly saying they're underpaid

Where please?

It's quite frequent for parents (including a few on this thread) to say that they think we are underpaid for the work that we do.

Many people think we are paid less than we are.

However overall I agree with @MadameMinimes. IME teachers' grievances tend to be around workload and a lack of professional autonomy, not pay.

My gripe with teaching was not the money. It was the shite education ministers, toothless unions, anti-intellectualism, the ever changing goalposts and the expectation that I would spend my own money and use my own holidays for the benefit of a system that constantly tried to trip me up. And so on!
It also depends what you teach - I taught physics so walking into scientific industry pays me a hell of a lot more than if I'd gone into the arts, I guess. I must admit, a lot of the salaries stated on here are higher than I'd expected to see, but my experience is of NW England and my former colleagues who do not hold a TLR etc are still not pushing £50k.

@ThanksItHasPockets Constantly on MN and teachers I know IRL too.
There's definitely a martyr mentality with many.

A probationer gets £27,498 in Scotland so you're definitely being underpaid..

Also, in most professional jobs you have a high workload and you don't get that much autonomy either, unless you're high up management.
In reality the teachers I know don't work anywhere near the 60hrs quoted here and have a pretty good work life balance.

Dh is not underpaid.

I assume where the 'underpaid' comes from is the equation of amount of hours worked versus salary - the expectations are ridiculous for some jobs.

In school in term time DH works 14-16 hour days - about 4 hours a day is 'duties' - literally standing outside Costa because of the low level criminal behaviour that the shopkeeper complains to the school about/ making them queue at bus stops (there are 4 bus stops in a quarter mile of school - each requires a teacher after school every day) so they don't push people in the local community/making them queue at lunchtime in school and down the chicken shop

That's 20 hours a week he's doing a 'community' job so that there isn't complaints from people who live in the local area

It's no wonder he's working til 10 doing the academic part of the job or having meetings with his staff

EVERY school is different

@ChochoCrazyCat its really not unusual to be in school 8-5, do a couple hours planning each evening and spend most of Sunday doing the same thing. This ups even more when reports are due or there are exams on or its parents evening.

What pension contributions are you entitled to? That makes a huge difference to the overall remuneration package.

@ChochoCrazyCat

Also, in most professional jobs you have a high workload and you don't get that much autonomy either, unless you're high up management. In reality the teachers I know don't work anywhere near the 60hrs quoted here and have a pretty good work life balance.

You clearly have your opinions.

I will merely point out that no teacher on this thread has claimed to be underpaid. The only posters who have expressed this opinion have said that they are not teachers. Many teachers on this thread have said that they feel fairly remunerated.

I also wonder if any lack of autonomy that you have experienced in your professional life extends to a general public perception that there is not very much to your job and that almost anyone could do it if they wished.

Doesn't sound right to me. In Hampshire they've split the scale into 12, with point 12 for exceptional performance, the expectation is that you go up 2 points if you meet PM objectives, 1 is only partially.

I'm many years in (about 16), I'm on UPS 1 + SEN allowance, but only work .6.

Its curious. Only on MN have never seen the opinion that teaching is an easy job

You should have access to a pay policy detailing how you move up pay spine, I'm really surprised an LEA school doesn't do this. I would definitely ask again and then speak to your union if it's not forthcoming.

£26k, full-time teacher in FE, 10 years teaching. Moved from another college where I was paid £18.5k full-time. Further Ed get paid way less than school teachers.

@ThanksItHasPockets No, not on this thread specifically but on many others. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying teachers shouldn't be paid what they are. It's just grating when I hear them complain, and I'm on less than they are.

Yes people think exactly this about my job. It's perceived as not "real work" by many, and in recent years has been flooded with amateurs who think having an internet connection and buying the equipment makes them a professional.

@BarbaraofSeville

In that case OP, it looks like a good deal for the non pay factors, but those would probably apply whichever school you worked in.

Obviously if you are already pregnant, looking for a new job now will make you ineligible for maternity pay, unless you are eligible for continued service, eg in the same employer/local authority and not having to work in the school holidays and hence use leave and/or pay for childcare in the holidays can be worth thousands, but that doesn't negate the fact that you appear to be not as far up the teaching scale as you would expect for your level of experience.

When you say you are in your fifth year of teaching are you counting the two years as a TA? If not, you are probably being paid as you should be, otherwise, I would have thought you should be a couple of points further up the scale, providing you are meeting requirements, so you should talk to your employer and your union if they don't have a satisfactory reason.

2 years as a TA, 1 year PGCE and 5 years as a classroom teacher.

Dh is on 54ish HoD, fringe. Could have been on more as moved from Inner to Fringe for a better school

I do not feel I'm underpaid at all. Thankfully my conditions are good as we have a very supportive SLT.
However, some colleagues are treated appallingly and made to redo tasks, teach to a certain formula, where a blazer, take the blame for bad behaviour, put up with verbal and physical assaults etc... that's when people decide other careers are 'better paid'. There is a national shortage of teachers which should indicate something. The TV ads have also started up again with the slogan 'even in challenging times'. If you're having to advertise, there is a problem. I'd argue pay isn't one of them.

Also, we are not paid in the holidays! If we were, we'd be working in them by now, believe me!

wear a blazer!
I also mean colleagues nationally, not within my school community

I'm not a teacher, and I think they are definitely underpaid (particularly in secondary school)

Actually secondary school teachers earn more , on average, than primary because there are more opportunities for promoted posts, so Heads of department, heads of subject, assistant heads etc, in secondary than in primary.

I’m a head of department at an international school in Asia and am on about £50,000

@MadameMinimes

Do teachers claim that they aren’t well paid? In my 11 years of teaching my experience is that teacher grievances almost always relate to conditions rather than pay. Since I’ve been teaching that’s been things like cover, ofsted, paperwork, excessively onerous policies on things like marking, unnecessarily restrictive diktats about how teachers should teach, constant scrutiny and low-trust management. I can’t remember the last time I heard a complaint from a teacher about pay unless they were in a school that was not sticking to the pay scales and was instead holding people back from pay progression on spurious grounds. Pay is not the issue in teaching.

Exactly this. I know lots of state school teachers and they all say the same. Trust them, let them get on with the job, don't give them loads of pointless paperwork.