Private school headteacher salaries - pure greed?

[Gruffalowings]

The Times reports that the Head of Eton is getting a 41.5% pay increase to £370 000.

Why?

The Head of the Civil Service only gets £200 000.

I don’t know how many private school headteachers are on more than the prime minister (£167 000), but it’s quite a few these days; at the same time as fees going up, pensions being removed and teachers experiencing below-inflation pay awards.

For all the anger around VAT on fees, I don’t see parents begrudging headteachers these extraordinary salaries.

AIBU to think that what private school headteachers are paid speaks to nothing more than pure greed in these individuals?

Are you concerned about what the teachers earn? Their pay award this year? Contracted workers? Do you automatically assume they are treated fairly in these privileged settings?

has zero to do with what the head of Eton gets.

Vote for better politicians/parties. Hold them to account. Are you in a union? You just seem to have a bee in your bonnet because this is all over the news. Think about what it is you want and start lobbying your MP

This. And it also has no comparison to the Head of the Civil Service which is paid for by taxes.

I recall that Eton are in phased withdrawal from the TPS. I’m pretty sure that Harrow is, too.

The extra money they are getting for charging parents the full 20% has got to go somewhere.

The salary info posted comes from the charity commission. So they aren't private businesses!

All of the schools named in that article in The Times are charities.

Yes. It’s only Eton that is doing that, though. And surely they can’t get away with it? Or do their parents prefer to be fleeced as part of the elite deal?

yes but I was responding to the person saying that they were all charities
Perhaps I misunderstood and they meant all the ones in the report rather than all Private schools, but it is a common misconception

It's not fleecing, it's individuals choosing to spend their money on whatever they choose.

It's just business.

Wage collusion would drive salaries down, not up. Companies aren’t generally out to pay their staff as much as possible.

Benchmarking is common to make sure that salaries are commensurate with responsibilities and comparable roles. If Eton only paid £50k, they’d struggle to fine someone. If they paid £200k, they best candidate will go and work for one of the other top 6 instead. They’re all about the same as they don’t need to go to say, £500k to attract the talent as there’s no other comparable roles paying that.

Wage inflation has been big at the top recently. In 2020 I was promoted to a role that started at £60k. A colleague just got promoted into that same role now at £75k (non education). That’s a 25% increase in the benchmarked salary for that role in 4 years. The same has happened at more senior grades too so I expect it is market driven.

The parents there have decided, for whatever reason, the place is worth what they're being asked to pay for it. That's how all financial transactions work.

DH used to work in a private school. The head at his last school was on a disgusting amount despite pleading poverty and asking (already badly paid) teachers to take a pay cut using fire and re-hire. 🤢

Why is it that when discussing Winter fueL allowance, it’s Mick Jäger and MN millionaire parents that are used as the example and when it’s VAT on private schools, it’s Eton.

Neither are representative of the VAST majority of the people in the group. Most pensioners are living on modest incomes and/or state pensions and most private school heads are on a similar wage to their state sector equivalent but usually without the TPS.

Honestly, it’s getting ridiculous now. Are you a home owner or car owner OP? Shall I assume therefore that you drive a Ferrari and live in 20 bedroom mansion because clearly that’s typical
of the group!

@Gruffalowings

Paying a high salary means you are more likely to attract great staff. The Eton head’s salary is still less than £300 per child. I’m sure that parents are more than happy that around £280 of their annual fees are being spent on recruiting someone who can produce great results and a good school.

Out of interest, what are your thoughts on (state) academy heads getting paid £485k when some state schools can’t apparently afford stationery? That salary, £100k more than Eton, is funded by the taxpayer, unlike Eton which is funded by the parents.

schoolsweek.co.uk/highest-earning-academy-chiefs-annual-pay-nears-500k/#:~:text=England's%20best%2Dpaid%20academy%20trust,a%20minimum%20of%20£485%2C000.

The prime minster's salary is held ridiculously low compared to the private sector for obvious political reasons, so probably not the best comparison.

Head teachers should be paid the market rate, and for Eton that would be typically higher.
Market rate is £100-£140k.
Teachers are paid market rate at private schools broadly in line with the government schools, but the senior levels, deputy and head teachers seem to have money thrown at them in private schools. There should be justification for such disparities.

If you want a reputation as the best in the business, you have to pay what it takes to attract the best staff.

I am trying to work out the logic in the existence of this thread.

Supply and demand in a capitalist society means that if someone is paid in line with what people are willing to pay.

In the case of the most prestigious school in the UK (and one of the most prestigious in the world), the going rate for the person running it is x amount. Meanwhile for a job paid for by taxpayers it's less because taxpayers are not willing to spend as much.

Greed has nothing to do with either.

If there was money in being a postman, then postmen would be paid more.

I don't get what you don't grasp about any of this and why you see it as being about greed rather than supply and demand.

I work across the independent sector and the maintained sector, and I see that teachers in the private sector are watching their pay stagnate, facing ‘fire and rehire’ and being withdrawn from the TPS, and this is before anyone gets on to how poorly treated support staff and contracted workers are in independent schools.

And the bit I really don’t understand is that, in this context, the heads’ salaries are going up.

And then I hear parents in despair about rising fees and VAT, but not really caring about any of the detail of how schools are spending the money that they pay in fees.

And the final piece of the jigsaw is that MATS are now starting to bring in alternative pensions. And state school teachers don’t realise that this is exactly how teachers in the independent sector lost their TPS. But often—as is said a bit on here— state teachers don’t think the independent sector has anything to do with them. The rest of the world think private schools are a business—like a Hilton, or something, and parents ( who are my only hope for calling this stuff out), seem to absolutely agree with what private school Heads are being paid.

So AIBU?

And was it one of the schools on that list? Because there’s no interest or concern, as far as I can see, in what you are describing and yet what you say is typical of what I am seeing.

Do fee payers just not care?

Same, struggle to work out the logic of this thread. Thing is, this is the dominant mindset in growing poorer by the minute Britain.

You don’t hear these conversations much outside of this country. Oh the outrage “man makes money in capitalist economy!”

I am trying to work out the logic in the existence of this thread.

Redtoothbrush as I’m sure you know - as I think I’m right in saying you have been a mn regular for sometime now - nothing mn enjoys more than having a go at Eton. See Pyroleus’s spiteful little comment above - there will be quite a few more like that.
Have we had ‘Boris went to Eton. It’s obviously a useless school’ yet?

I completely agree with you OP. Salaries of that kind are immoral in my opinion, it is ridiculous that the leader of a school should earn double the leader of the whole country.

The fact that private companies have amassed the sort of wealth that makes these sort of salaries possible is a problem with capitalism I think, I don’t pretend to be an expert or have the answer unfortunately, but while people are shameless enough to accept 10x the average salary of their fellows, the issue continues.

I don’t care how many mumsnetters jump on me now to say that people have “worked hard” and “deserve” their wealth. If you believe the money and power of the super-rich is fully deserved and reflects their value to society, then you also believe that abject poverty also reflects the value of many and that their situation is also fully deserved. They are the two sides of the same coin, and I refuse to accept it.

And the bit I really don’t understand is that, in this context, the heads’ salaries are going up.

You have picked one school, which has one of the highest profiles in the world. Many of the public schools are increasingly looking at, or already have, an international presence. Of course they need to attract the best people to run their schools. They are not, however, typical of the private sector as a whole. Not all heads are receiving large pay rises.

I’m a teacher (public sector) and I actually love that heads salaries can reach such dizzy heights! It’s a thankless job which really isn’t rewarded financially at all by the state, so it’s good to see we can earn well somewhere!

What I will say though is there are many many private schools and most won’t pay anywhere near this. A lot of teachers at these schools will be paid less than those in the public sector.

I love that people can earn seemingly endless amounts - I find it aspirational!