To think this is an unacceptable wage?

[Youthiswastedontheyoung]

I'm a qualified teacher with 21 years' experience who has just started supply so flexibility with a poorly husband and three kids of my own.
Just did a full day supply (8.30-3.30) and came out with £112 net.
Hubby thinks decent wage, I think piss-take!
Opinions please!

That is about the same for social workers and staff nurses. I know some on that hourly rate who have more years experience and qualifications. Public services pay badly.

The OP took the job without checking the rate. She can moan all she likes, but who does that?

Teachers aren't paid for their lunch breaks, so if you had an hour's lunch, it's £18.67 an hour. Can you negotiate with your agency for better pay if you're unhappy?

@2boyzNosleep
Myself and others are just finding it hard to believe that you didn't know the agency pay rate before working.

That's one of the very few questions that hasn't been responded to!

I think (but stand to be corrected) that supply teachers are paid a daily rate, rather than an hourly one. However I agree it would be wise to find out what it was before agreeing/signing up.

If you agreed a daily rate - but then found out you were expected to work a 15 hour a day for example - it would not be unreasonable to claim that was misleading. However it seems OP worked standard school hours, so no surprises there.
I think perhaps, that the OP is disappointed at the net amount after all the deductions, and how much(or little) she takes home of the 140, and had herself, expected slightly more...rather than she was led to believe she was going to be earning more, iyswim.

Myself and several other posters have suggested the possibility of tutoring (might be more flexible, and potentially a better hourly rate, and not limited to term time)

That's a rubbish supply rate! I get £160 which is about M2 equivalent but it's so much less work and stress than actual teaching I feel that's fair.

After 12 weeks with the same academy trust or LA close together AWR kicks in which means you are paid at your rate (e,g. M6 or UPS if that's what you were on previously) but you usually have to alert your agency to that fact that you believe you're entitled to it.

Depends on her overall income & business expenses, as does the supply teacher’s income- she’s unlikely to get more than 30 weeks work pa.

M6 pay is £40,000 which is £125 a day.

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It was a comparison, not a suggestion

@cakeorwine Where are you getting these incorrect figures from?
I think I should know M6 rate.

"The M6 pay scale for teachers in England is the maximum of the main pay range (MPR) and is currently £43,607 per year. The proposed increase for 2024/25 is 5.5%. "

@IVFmumoftwo If you think a TA should earn the same as a qualified teacher you're delusional. I was a 1-1 SEN HLTA myself for 5 years. Loved the job initially when. I was actually doing what the job title suggests, but ended up being used to cover teacher absences across the school.

Sorry - that's last years

£165 a day, £132 net

But day to day supply is not going to get you M6 pay.

Do it for a term for a class and fair enough

@Differentstarts The key word here is locum if you know what that means? Who was comparing salaries between teacher and GP? * *

What a lovely positive post. I think your school is lucky to have you.

Cover a class for a day is way easier than doing long term supply in a class.

You could be just starting out or an experienced teacher. Doesn't matter on day to day as you are just there for the day. That experience helps but it's not going to get you the M6 pay rate.

Of course, you could refuse it - but then someone else will take the day at a cheaper price

Supply and demand.

OK, so please correct me if I'm wrong. Teachers get paid throughout the entire year, not term time only unless set in your contract.

I understand that teachers dont have 'set' hours, but the M6 salary does equate to £22.36 per hour/£167 a day.

On a very loose calculation, that's £133 after tax.

So, I do understand that you think your supply work should pay more, I don't see it really as being much different to your current salary......

Again, if I've missed this in your posts I apologise, I imagine that in your main job you are in school for longer than 7 hours, whereas supply if its just the 1 day you can just leave when the day is finished?

I suppose the problem is the agency pay a set rate? So if your a lower salary band then it's beneficial, but not if you're an M6 like yourself.

I didn't say that but it certainly should be more than £1600 a month (that is before tax etc).

@IVFmumoftwo TA wage is appalling and not enough unless other income coming in. When I started out 5 years ago I was on just under £1k pm coming in. An absolute disgrace and again, one reason as to why there is a support staff crisis. Are you a TA?

I don’t really understand why you are being so rude to everyone first of all. The way you are talking to people is disgusting, you are acting like you are better than everyone whose opinion is different to yours. A lot of people are qualified at things, you aren’t special.

Your experience of 21 years doesn’t mean much when you are doing supply teaching, you are filling in for a few days here and there so you aren’t really bringing all your experience to the table each time. You also aren’t putting in the same work as permanent teachers who have to do parent evenings, lesson plans, marking, dealing with arguments etc etc. I think you need a bit of a reality check at what people are being paid in general and realise your wage is quite generous.

OP by law your agency will have to pay you holiday pay at the equivalent rate of 12.07% for any hours worked. Teachers are not excluded from that.

OP does seem to have a bit of an apples, pears and bananas problem.

Apparently the apples are her 2.5 day salaried day job in band M6, with an FTE salary of £43,607. Apparently teachers are paid for doing 195 days a year, so this is a gross day rate of £223.63. In a permanent M6 role, there is all the PPA, training interation, report writing & parents evenings etc, so it's certainly not limited to 6.5 hours a day. Lots of teachers say they work a 50 hour week in term time, so let's assume 10 hours a day is the realistic workload to get an M6 permanent school role done for the 195 days they are working. This means the gross M6 rate would be £22.36 an hour, or thereabouts.

The pears are the supply role at £140/day for 8.30-3.30. I expect the agency considers this 6 hours paid work, but if I generously allow only half an hour unpaid for lunch (which would decrease the equivalent hourly paid rate rather than increase it). £140 for 6.5 hours supply work is £21.54 an hour gross. Turn up at 8.30, leave at 3.30, no parents evenings or reports.

Seems like it's really not that far out of the ball park from the permanent role on a like-for-like basis.

OP then threw some bananas in the mix, saying that cleaning work is available locally at £16/hour. This is the gross rate obviously. Out of this you would have to pay £3.45/week Class 2 NICs for your self-employed work, plus 20% of everything in income tax (as it's a 2nd job, just like the supply work) and usually for that rate, purchase your own materials too. If you worked 6.5 hours a week as a top-up to your main job (the same as your supply day), your take home would be £79.75 before the purchase of any actual cleaning materials. No looking so flash compared to the £112 you're grumbling about now, is it?

So for comparison on a like-for-like gross basis, the roles seem to be:

£22.36/hour M6 permanent (but this is annualised & paid in 12 equal chunks)

£21.54/hour supply with current agency

£16/hour cleaning work - own Class 2 NICs to pay, materials to buy & tax return to complete.

£11.44/ hour national minimum wage - lots of retail, much agency cleaning work, plenty of entry level receptionists etc etc

Entirely up to you OP how you choose to spend your time, but do assess on a like-for-like basis rather than grumbling about fruit salad!

You asked for opinions on whether your DH was fair in thinking this is a decent wage.

My opinion (particularly as you didn't read a contract before agreeing to the agency work - who does that? 😳) is that the hourly rate you are currently paid for no-commitment supply work is decent yes.

Don't think the streets will be paved with gold if you swap to cleaning, that's for sure!

I have a friend who worked supply for a term when returning to the country. She asked me to help her with a couple of things and to do this I needed to have her payslips. These clearly stated her hourly rate AND how much of this was “holiday pay”. She did get sick pay but could claim SSP. All employees (and most agency workers are employees) are entitled to holiday pay but this is usually just included in your hourly rate.
I work in school my hourly rate is x and I then get another amount added to that to pay for the holiday pay I’m legally entitled to. There is a complicated equation using FTE, actual days, actual hours etc but although I’m not paid for the school holidays I DO get LEGALLY SPECIFIED holiday pay.

Im surprised someone as highly qualified as the OP hasn’t checked their payslip.

OP could do tutoring at £30 an hour.

But she would have to think how many hours actual work she would get, holiday time, how many hours in a year a parent would want, cancellations, sickness, her holiday time etc, travel time to clients etc

Then she can see what her actual cashflow would be in a financial year

when you’re trying to compare the agreed hourly rate with one job or another, it’s important to know if you were paid for the “break”. My break is 20 minutes a day which I don’t get paid for and I always eat my desk, so technically still working.
Despite working through it , I would not include this as part of my hour rate calculation to get a comparable figure with another Job!

op said a cleaner gets paid £16/hour and comparing it to her hourly rate. But if she worked as a cleaner and added in her “break” as part of her calculation then it’ll be less than £16/hour

to make a throw away statement, we’d need the facts of what the paid hours were if you are comparing like for like

As such an experienced teacher, I am concerned with the OPs lack of reading comprehension and critical thinking skills 😳

And I second what some other posters have said - you might get more sympathy if you weren’t so rude to everyone!