To be absolutely gutted at getting the lowest payrise in the organisation?

[MassageGun]

I am the only person, out of 130 staff to be getting less than 5%.

I have a senior support staff role on a school, the most senior. It's a tough job juggling conflicting priorities and basically any problem that isn't directly related to teaching and learning lands on my desk. I do a good job and always get excellent reviews. Pay is comparable to an upper scale teacher without allowances.

This year teachers are getting a minimum of 5% with some of the lower paid getting more. Good.

Support staff points are all getting the same amount in pounds. For some staff this is up to 10%, also good for the lowest paid, but doing it that way means that people higher up the scale get a lower %.

I'm happy that ridiculously low paid staff will be getting a decent rise for a change, but to be getting significantly less than anyone else in the organisation, including some paid a lot more than me is really hard to take.

It's no one at the school's fault (LA school tied to national payscales) but to say I'm feeling unvauled and unmotivated would be putting it mildly.

AIBU and how do I get over it?

maybe we need to really think about whether you can place a value on whether someone deserves to be paid more for an hours work than someone else.

Communism has never worked....

If you think that the OP, with her massive remit and line management responsibilities should be paid the same as someone who sweeps floors, then I think you'll find the OP sweeping floors.

Yes, Everyone, you said 5% seems like a lot.

It is, however, a pay cut coming after a decade of pay cuts in a crumbling sector that is desperately underfunded by the government and propped up by the huge efforts of the people working in it. So from that perspective it's just more of a piss take.

I get it OP. We're doing a flat award so that those earning least get the most difference. But because of tax they also take home more.

So everyone gets £2500, which means our most junior staff are taking home £2000 after tax which is 8% bump.

The most senior are taking home £1500 post tax which is 2%.

I'm conflicted as I know it's good for those on a low wage. But equally the most senior work more hours and take on a lot more stress and responsibility. Feels like they get hit twice this way.

In somewhere in the middle before I get yelled at.

It does seem like a lot to me as I get an awful lot less than that. I’m not sure how I could feel differently about it 🤷‍♀️

It does seem like a lot to me as I get an awful lot less than that. I’m not sure how I could feel differently about it

Like I said, come and work in the public sector! Enjoy the benefits! There are loads of jobs going.

"Paul Gosling, president of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "The government haven't funded the pay rises that have come in. We've had to fund it out of resources we have already got, which we can't possibly do. School leaders are in a real bind.
"We do need better pay for everyone working in our schools, including teaching assistants, who we can't recruit at the moment in a lot of schools because we don't pay well enough.
"We are losing people to supermarkets. Our teachers' pay has been degraded by about a fifth since 2010.
"We are losing good people and we're not able to retain them. If you want to run a good education system you need good people in it."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-63429171

Just pointing out that it’s not all roses in the private sector, that’s all. Which is true, some companies in the private sector pay bonuses, bankers are rich etc etc, I’m just pointing out that a huge amount of private sector employees earn very little and have very few benefits.

But are teachers getting that pay rise? As it is unfounded by Government and schools don’t have that extra money? If so, you have done well.

Unfunded

I’m just pointing out that a huge amount of private sector employees earn very little and have very few benefits.

Is it a race to the bottom? Why are those employees not moving to the public sector if it's so much better? Why are TAs leaving schools to work in supermarkets?

YABU because a £2k pay rise isn’t bad. And you’d have to be getting a decent enough pay for it to be less than 5 %.

i work in the most senior support role (private sector), and our company gave fixed amounts of £2k each to all support roles and 7% to those who are qualified in the profession. I think it’s fair, even though I’m in the same position as op as a result of the model.

I don’t get the race to the bottom argument that always gets used. Debate is about pointing out other perspectives and experiences, nothing wrong with that.

I don’t get the race to the bottom argument that always gets used. Debate is about pointing out other perspectives and experiences, nothing wrong with that.

Because there is always someone worse off than you, that doesn't mean that you should be content with being treated badly or unfairly.

It doesn't bring perspective, it's just a trite argument to try to make people stop making valid complaints while pitting people against each other about who has it the worst.

"I'm not happy about my working conditions"

"Yeah? Well think about those people who go into sewers and break up fatbergs before you start complaining"

You say you are getting the lowest % pay rise in your organisation but presumably that is because you are the only member of staff in your school with your particular role. However as it is a nationally agreed pay rise, there will people with your role in state schools up and down the country getting exactly the same pay rise as you! So you are not as hard done by as you seem to believe.

🤷‍♀️And your argument just shouts down those who have worse experiences than the op.
Plenty of people on this thread have said that they think the pay rise is fair and that they would get a lot less. Plenty have said the opposite. All entitled to their opinions and to express them.

Plenty of people on this thread have said that they think the pay rise is fair and that they would get a lot less.

No one has managed to explain why it is fair that the OP gets a bigger pay cut than her colleagues.

Other people getting a lot less in other organisations is irrelevant.

Actually i think a lot of people have said that they do think the flat amount across the board is fair and helps out those who have earned much less in percentage pay rises historically than higher earners, redressing the balance. Just because you disagree doesn’t mean that people haven’t explained why they think it’s fair

Because there is always someone worse off than you, that doesn't mean that you should be content with being treated badly or unfairly.

It doesn't bring perspective, it's just a trite argument to try to make people stop making valid complaints while pitting people against each other about who has it the worst.

But the whole point of these lump sum pay rises (agreed by the unions) is to help the lower paid. Which of course means the better paid get a lower percentage increase. I don’t think they are really too hard done by.

YABU.

This is a nationally set pay increase of a fixed amount. It's not like the school have decided you weren't worthy of a better pay rise.

My point re private versus public sector

is the entitlement of so many in the public sector to pay rises, irrespective of whether there’s actually any money in the coffers

Or indeed their performance warrants one

But the whole point of these lump sum pay rises (agreed by the unions) is to help the lower paid. Which of course means the better paid get a lower percentage increase.

It looks like at least a third of union members voted against accepting it. One wonders where the ones who voted to accept it fit on the pay scale.

Ha ha. Data Manager here. Also the highest paid member of support staff in the school, full time and all year round. I'm very happy to be getting £1925 pa and really, really happy that some of the hardest working people in the place (reception, TAs etc) will be getting exactly the same, although prorata. I am worried about how the school will fund it though.

is the entitlement of so many in the public sector to pay rises, irrespective of whether there’s actually any money in the coffers

There haven't been above inflation pay rises for 12 years, since the 'austerity' of Cameron and Osborne. Laughable to suggest that people think that they are entitled to pay rises when public sector pay has fallen in real terms by a huge amount over the term of this government.

There's never any money for schools. It has been found for other government ventures, but not schools. That's a government political decision.

Similar happened at our place. We all got a payrise and it is very appreciated but they told us that the lower paid staff got more (which I'm also pleased about).

I am on a good salary that I'm happy with and I enjoy my job but I'd have preferred to have just been told how much my rise was and not that others got more. It kind of took the shine off my own rise.