Teacher pay

[Maddie05]

Seeing a lot online at the moment about teacher pay increases being unreasonable. I think teachers do a lot in society and a lot of what is expected of teachers appears to be out with their paid hours.

Am I being unreasonable to think they deserve a pay rise in like with inflation?
(FULL DISCLOSURE - I am not a teacher but I have children in a school and I volunteer on a PTA)

You beat me to it! Was just coming here to say this x

Also, agree with all the other posters mentioning behaviour, safeguarding impossibilities, lack of external agency spaces for referrals… it’s a completely broken system as it stands and is diving into a deeper hole!

Depends on various factors - length of service, responsibility, school, how long in post etc. You may be on 45k in one school and then move to another who cannot afford to pay you that but they have better working conditions so you drop to 40k say. Or you could be on 45k and have subjects to lead but on no extra pay because they cannot afford it while someone in another school could get paid extra for leading the same subject you are doing for no pay.

There are many types of schools so there needs to be many types of teachers. One primary school is not the same as another. One school may share planning and have no extra responsibility while another may plan for 4 year groups at once and have to carry many other hats as part of their role.

For the south east and london, teaching pay is so poor. Most of the teachers i know (home counties) are either struggling financially or are married to a much higher earner who's carrying them.

It isn’t always the pay. Conditions and dreadful SLT make teachers leave more.

teachers, Drs lots of essential well qualified hard public sector roles are utterly ridiculous. We should have proper tax rises and pay these people much better wages.

OMG please resign from your job NOW!!!

How dare you get paid from school money and can stand there saying teachers are paid enough! WTAF?!?! Let me guess - part of some chain of academies that suck up money that was meant for pupils?!?!

If they were paid enough, then there wouldn't be such a shortage.

For secondary school, for every day you work it is about 10 to 12 hours work. I work 4 days a week and do 40 to 45 hours work a week. Sometimes more. I couldn't work full time as I need to spend some time with my children.

We may get 13 weeks holiday a year, but it does mean the other 39 weeks we have to work ridiculously long hours. Most the full time teachers I know either have no kids, or have a very supportive partner who works part time!

Teaching is a really tough job. I love my job but it's hard work. Teaching is just one bit of it. We spend a lot of time parenting and dealing with behaviour!

Honestly, if it was deemed a well paid "easy" job, then people would be queuing up to teach.

We are generally a low wage economy, on the new pay scales you can reach the average UK salary within 3 years which doesn't seem too bad, especially considering that a portion of the year is technically unpaid. Again id happily welcome a payrise, I don't personally find wages a huge factor or think theyre wildly low but others will disagree.

Personally I think if work life balance, the environment etc were better thatd have a much bigger influence on retention than pay. Sure some leave because they find stuff very similarly paid that for them is less stress and less hours which is a pull factor; but the push factors are numerous and most colleagues I know who leave wouldn't stay even for double the money because the negatives (which could be addressed with adequate funding) are just too great.

Well yes of course. We DO want better working conditions. The sector is crying out for it. If you have the magic bullet on how we can make that happen, please do share...

I know in Sctland, pay is the only thing you can strike over, not conditions etc.

Not sure if it's the same elsewhere

feelingbleh also misses the point that teachers do not have much time for fighting after working excessive illegal hours!

I taught a non core specialist subject
14 lessons on a carousel, easy by your thoughts.
Each lesson has to be broken down so that all pupils can understand it and make "expected" progress.
That means that although the core of the subject remains the same the strategies in place for teaching change each time that it is taught.

You may think "simple, always teach the same thing, slot in the strategies as required."

Not so simple as you have to change the lessons to meet the curriculum, which changes every 5 or so years (being generous), also I would get bored teaching the same products every year, forever.

Agree with everything that has already been said regarding hours worked but would add the behaviour of pupils and aggression from parents and even grandparents towards school staff is something else in the last few years. I don't get paid enough to have someone try and find out where I live, find information on my children or scream and swear in my face. I dread opening my email on a Monday to find the latest accusation of misconduct or incompetence. Before anyone adds - yes my SLT are great and no police aren't helpful when you are being harassed while working at a school!

To be honest everyone deserves a pay rise that at least matches inflation, otherwise it’s a pay cut. Teachers and Junior doctors however constantly seem to get higher pay awards than the rest of the public sector

I think a lot of jobs do a lot for society and they aren’t getting massive pay rises in-line with inflation. So why should they?

Improving conditions is a lot more expensive than (unfunded) pay rises. Plus it gets the public all nice and frothy about the “greedy, lazy” teachers.

Many teachers won't get the pay rises because the schools budget won't stretch that far.

Does that make you happier?

Surely the question should be why aren’t the other jobs getting a pay rise in line with inflation.

lets not forget that a pay increase in line with inflation is actually pay stability. A less than inflation rise is actually a cut.

I'm in my 6th year as a teacher. Fought to get to the top of the pay scales and I also run a tutoring business on the side. Sole breadwinner for a family of 4.

Without the tutoring business we would be f**cked. Thankfully my subject is in demand, not all of my colleagues are that fortunate.

Teaching makes all other jobs possible..maybe that is why.

Also it is illegal to work for less than MW so maybe that is also another factor.

But certainly not that matches inflation! Working for less than MW is not acceptable is it? Why should it be?

Exactly this. We're spewing teachers left right and centre. Roles cannot be filled
Any other ideas to attract more teachers to the profession?

Why would people stay teaching in FE and not move to secondary education when there is such a big difference in pay?

I'm a secondary teacher and I think there are bigger issues than pay as people have already said. Although I do think that everyone should have pay rises in linecwith inflation whatever their job. I'm in Scotland though where we get more than in England.

Schools and councils have no money, that's the real problem. I think if the wider public knew how bad things are in schools they would be horrified but there seems to be a general resentment towards teachers and our 'cushty' holidays or a smug attitude of "oh I wouldn't want to do your job"