To think midwife’s get a rubbish deal compared to teachers?

[Midwifeacher]

Both should earn more than they do, obviously. My sister is trying to choose between midwifery and teaching. Both seem so different but she wants a guaranteed career and is trying to decide which route to take. I’ve been running comparisons with her.Whats shocked me is what a shoddy deal midwifes seem to get. Before taking into account that obviously, sadly, it carry huge emotional weight when things go wrong. Not entirely comparable in profession but why would anyone do this job?

Starting salary:
Midwife - £29,970
Teacher - £32,916

Highest salary without going into leadership
Midwife - £42,618
Teacher - £45,321

Holidays:
Teacher - 13 weeks plus term time bank holidays (though some unpaid, this is included in above salary) major holidays off, no flexibility to take term time off
Midwife - 27 days plus bank holidays, often work major holidays, can book time off when needed, though hard to get approval.

Pension (employer contribution):
Teacher - 28.6%
Midwife - 23.7%

Shifts:
Teacher - 6.5 hour shift mon-fri daytime (student facing) lots of reported overtime
Midwife - 12 hour shift inc evenings and weekends (patient facing) lots of reported overtime

AIBU to think midwives are getting a crap deal? Is it because they’re not as unionised?

also she’s obviously not basing which career she goes for on the above factors, but it has to be taken into consideration!

Teachers regularly work 12 hours a day - I did when I was a class teacher. The difference is, they are not paid for those hours. Moreover, a fair proportion of school holidays are taken up with planning, report writing, changing displays etc.. Plus the stress of managing a class and all their needs 5 days a week. Midwife is IMO a much easier ride.

Now I tutor I don't get paid for the holidays or get any pay if off ill. Would I return to classroom teaching again as the holidays are such a bonus? Never.

Tlrs for £17,000???? I need to get a job at that school!

I don’t think teachers have an easy ride at all but neither do midwives, have a look at the you tube film
’ a midwife’s most challenging night’ this doesn’t even cover the aftermath, investigations and potential court cases that go on afterwards

Wow. Thought they both complained about shit pay
You both get a massively better deal than most other graduates
Just be grateful about the high salary and massive pension and stop comparing to others, cause you only compare to better and not worse leaving yourself feeling hard done to.

Haven't read the full thread but NHS annual leave starts at 27 days plus BH and rises to 29 days at 5 years and 33 days at 10 years. When you take BH into account that works out at about 8 weeks AL a year once you get to 10 years service, and that's proper AL, teachers AL usually involves an awful lot of school . I don't know any teachers who get to switch of for all of any 'holiday' period.

I am a teacher. I enjoy it on the whole. I earn more proportionally than the figures you quoted thanks to London weightings.

I love my subject and like having the opportunity to build my knowledge. Students ask really insightful questions sometimes.

A teacher blogger calculated recently that the real salary is about £5.50 an hour if you take actual hours worked into consideration.

I could never be a midwife! I'm far too squeamish!!

You're comparing apples and oranges I think.

17 people agreed with me or thanked me so… If you’re going to post about an issue then at least spell the main words correctly!!

To answer your question…
I am an experienced teacher and my reasons for joining the profession were born out of my own personal experiences of school. I was a bright child and did well in Primary, however I ended up leaving school without a single qualification. I didn’t take my exams in Year 12 for reasons I won’t go into but needless to say, I felt worthless. I gained my qualifications after already having a career in the city. I worked in admin for an American corporation and progressed through the ranks. I was astounded how far I got without any formal qualifications! Once I had children, I volunteered at their schools and realised how much I loved being in the classroom. I worked my arse off to quality - evening college classes, mature uni student etc. I LOVE being a teacher - I cannot explain how it feels to watch your class progress from September to July and to know you are a small part of their life journey. I HATE the chronic underfunding of our state schools - it is simply life limiting for many. Teacher retention is at crisis point - in the near future class sizes will rise because there will simply not be enough of us. I am all about social mobility - I want every child to achieve their dreams and be better than they ever imagined. That is why I still get up at silly o’clock in the morning and work more hours than I should. Teaching is a vocation - 30 years ago I was earning 40k without my bonus. I don’t earn much more than that now!

@Undertherainbow00 How long have you been teaching?

Teachers work WAY more than you’ve quoted

Midwives could do 3 x 12 hour shifts and be done for the week

I am neither and could do neither but just pointing our there is way more to your comparison

IMO both are a vocation. So if she has neither absolute passion then I wouldn’t be considering. Both are hard

Midwives get paid for the hours they work though and can be more flexible. I'd happily do 3*12 hour shifts as a midwife and then pick up overtime as and when. As a teacher you would be working 8-5.30 each day at least and over the weekend at busier periods. But you don't get paid for overtime as you just do what you have to do.

My daughter is expected to be in school for 8. Students will one and see her, especially the year 11s. She is also runs a GCSE top up club, an Art club and a Textiles club. So that’s 9 hours of student face time. I have worked in the NHS as a nurse, then in a school. It was far easier in the NHS, so my advice would be midwifery.

I know. I left in 2021 but got about 4k for SENCO/deputy head in a 2 form primary work h a full class teaching responsibility!!

Please, go and train to be a teacher or a midwife then! Both really easy jobs that are very well paid, right? And luckily for you we’ve a massive shortage of both in the uk! 😊

I know. I left in 2021 but got about 4k for SENCO/deputy head in a 2 form primary work h a full class teaching responsibility!!

Our senco doesn't even get a TLR!

I stay in tracing because I do enjoy it and on 4 days a week I still earn almost 50k a year (upper pay scale teacher with TLR). Not many other jobs I could do that in without taking a massive initial pay cut that we can’t afford, so dropping a day a week at work was the better solution.

Sometimes teachers, especially primary teachers, do need to stand up for themselves a bit more. Not a chance would I do SENCO without the allowance. I have the qualification, no other teachers in the school do do, it's not a popular role - clearly I have the upper hand there as the school needs someone to do it. I've asked for a pay rise in the past before too and got it but don't know any other teachers who have. I've always worked in bog standard, underfunded schools. I work very hard but I'm clear it's a career to pay the mortgage, not something I do just out of the good of my heart.

I would say similar, I work part time and enjoy it and probably earn the same as working full time in the sort of jobs I could get without completing retraining (which would be expensive in itself) I did used to work more days and didn’t enjoy it so much then and I do find the full timers seem to be much more prone with suffering burnout. A few I know recently in exactly the same role as me have just had enough and left completely. Financially it does have a significant impact on us and we have to live more like someone on the minimum wage but it’s a worthwhile compromise

We definitely don’t live like people on minimum wage with me earning nearly 50k working 4 days a week. But knowing that I could work 2 days a week and take home more than TAs/shop workers working full time means I am very grateful for my pay packet, rather than seeing myself as hard done by.

Presumably as a midwife you go to work and do your shift and that’s it? Teachers are working constantly during term time even on days off and many of the holidays are spent preparing for classes.
It’s not helpful to compare jobs like this - join a union and campaign for better pay and conditions.

I agree it is not useful to compare. Midwives deal with life and death every shift. Obviously after dealing with a stillborn baby and a woman losing pints of blood, or dealing with a family finding out their much awaited newborn has a condition which means they will walk or talk is not something that be just switched off after the shift.

Exactly, the two jobs are so different that makes it hard to compare.

It also then seems odd that those are the only two jobs in the world that the OP's sister (who hasn't come on the thread herself to speak to any of the teachers or midwives to ask about possibly the biggest career decision of her life) is considering. I'd say there was a huge pool of help here!

I'd say most teachers wouldn't want to be a midwife and probably vice versa. It's a completely different skill set with very different pulls and draws to them. Having the holidays might be massively important to one person, yet the medical pull might be huge to another.

Unless the decision between only those two jobs has come from a, 'awww babies are cute, but ohhh, so are 5 year olds playing in the sand' line of thought.

I really hope it's not true that midwives deal with death every shift - it isn't as common as that surely?
Certainly there'll be life and death decisions being made every shift, but I hope there isn't a mother or baby dying as often as that.

Midwives entry band 6.

nurses band 5 lower than midwives
not to mention junior doctors salary which roughly starts on average £14 an a
hour.