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!

Can you contact a school to ask to shadow a teacher before you’re on a course? Is that allowed? I haven’t seen that option anywhere I’ve looked.

p.s I didn’t say teachers only work 6.5 hours a day? I said that was their student facing time. With lots of reported overtime.

I know teachers and they may not be in school for 13 weeks of the year but many of them are working, particularly infant and junior school staff. May half term is spent report writing and marking. Most teachers are in school for at the very least the last week of the summer holidays. A lot of it is very subject dependent. A friend who is a food tech teacher says that its the cushiest job she's ever had but those below secondary level appear to have it much harder.

To teach at year 6 and under you can do a B.Ed which is three years. To teach at secondary and above you need a PGCE and a relevant degree. Why anyone with a maths degree would enter teaching I have no idea. One of the hardest degrees to get that can command high salaries but you teach. Kudos to them but it's definitely not what I'd do with a maths degree! Teaching is fucking hard work, there's no overtime for "extra shifts". I'm sure midwifery is no easy life but I think you actually get paid for most of the hours you do.

They are very different jobs. The midwife does seem.badly paid in comparison

Im convinced the police pay better than both for degree level entry.

I cant really get the disparity between police and midwives as they both have the antisocial hours, leave cancelling element.

You'd have to be off your trolley to want to become a teacher in the UK.

My sister is a nurse and earns well over her wages with bank work. Teachers don’t have that option and technically work for free in the holidays as I used to do my planning then as no time in term time. I don’t teach now and wouldn’t recommend it to anyone and also wouldn’t want to work for the nhs either sorry I think neither are great options although pensions are both much better than private sector. NHS also offers salary sacrifice for cars which is also a good perk

And I think they should - much rather be a midwife than a police officer. I know I’ll prob get shot for this but I think the fire service have the easiest time of the services……off the point too I know.

I've worked in the NHS (12 hour shifts but not midwife) and as a teacher.

I'd go back to the NHS, I wouldn't go back to teaching.

They are both extremely pressurised careers that are underpaid, understaffed and under resourced. A passion for the role is what gets you through so this is the most important thing. And a whole lot of resilience!

Maternity notes have to be kept for 25 years so clearly issues affecting the mother or child can be the subject of litigation for this length of time.

I'm a midwife.
Most midwives start on band 5 but will become band 6 once completing their preceptorship (usually 1-2 years). The pay scales are freely available online (Agenda for Change).
Plus we get extra money for antisocial hours so our actual pay is usually above the quoted scales unless we end up working in 9-5 Monday to Friday roles - which most of us don't, even community midwives will do weekend work if not on-calls. We can also earn extra money through bank shifts.
I feel like we could be paid better for the responsibility but it's also not AS terrible as it's sometimes made out to be. We should be accurate in this.

I think teaching and midwifery are very different roles, both underpaid. I have no interest in pitting my role against teachers. I would like the people teaching my children to be well paid, to have the resources they need, to be happy and well supported with the right degree of autonomy - these people are then best placed to help my children. Just like I would like for midwives to have these things as well, so they can then better support the women they care for.

You can in Scotland. In fact we often get undergrads asking to come in to do a day's work experience for a few weeks.

😂
Did you see the other thread where posters were claiming that school trips are a "holiday" and a "jolly" for teachers? 😁

No. We don't have the time to do this.
We used to facilitate it, but just got a lot of time wasters.

17k TLR 😂😂 find me all the job adverts with that wage!!

Excellent post 👌

In theory possibly, in reality though?

Agree. I’m not either of these but do work in a school.

Depends if your sister would enjoy working nights and weekends. Shift patterns can be all over days to nights. Personally I would should the teaching role. Its also longer shifts which may take its toll in 15 years time.

It’s tricky to compare really. I think if your sister has children then I think I’d go for teaching. You’d get the majority of holidays off with them. Conversely, being medically trained myself, but not a MW, I think having children when you’re a MW would bring lots of stresses - both emotionally and navigating the shift work alongside childcare. That said, if there are no kids, then I’d choose MW and go and see the world whilst working.

I’ve worked as a nurse for years now, and perhaps if I had my choice again, I’d plump for teaching. Holidays are one thing, but the emotional baggage clinicians hold when they have finished work is huge. I’m not saying teaching doesn’t have it’s emotional stresses, but there are no life and death situations and no phone calls in the middle of the night asking you to come in as there’s been an incident on the ward.

Midwifery/ nursing/ medicine is possibly more interesting - no two days are the same and there’s loads of scope in healthcare and wages are good. My director of nursing is on in excess of 100k. However, I still think for quality of life, it should be teaching. Correct me if I’m wrong, teachers don’t have to pay professional fees annually ? That’s another thing to think about; all health care professionals in whatever discipline can never not do any CPD. It’s mandatory, particularly the more senior you become. Teaching ( I’m guessing) is a formula, with lesson plans which can be used year after year with slight tweaks. Although please don’t think I’m thinking teaching is easy - it’s not at all, but I come from a family of teachers, I’m the only black sheep who went down the nursing route, but I can see from both sides of the coin.

On average teachers work 50 hours a week in most studies done.

this is 38.5 hours a week if you spread it over 52 weeks of the year.

midwives work a 37.5 hour week and of course get the holidays. So in reality work less than this if averaged over 52 weeks of the year.

but honestly, teachers get paid more because there are not enough people who want to be teachers. There will be plenty of times a midwife’s job is stressful and plenty that are sitting around resting or having a nice easy appointment. There are rarely any such moments in teaching and plenty of staff across the country report abuse, so personally I reckon being a midwife is easier on average, but as you said it’s also much higher stakes.

Im positive my friend who was a midwife told me that

I am a midwife and my twin sister is a teacher. We are both mid 40s and earn almost identical salaries. It really sticks in my craw that she gets 13 weeks of holiday a year plus some bank holidays and I get 7 including bank holiday allowance. She has nearly three weeks off just over Christmas which is half of my holiday allowance. Yes, she works hard but I do too. I don’t think it is fair. I have long thought teachers should have to provide two weeks of holiday clubs each during the hols but obviously that would get shouted down. Once you add in the extra childcare midwives have to pay (I could often only get 1 week off in the summer holidays due to the intense competition for annual leave), it seems even more unfair. My sister barely paid for childcare while I had to fork out £80 per day for summer camps (two children). If I had my time over again, I would become a teacher. I know teachers think they work hard but trying to stem a haemorrhage and stitch a vagina at 3am on four hours sleep is really something else. Rant over.

I can imagine it’s the sort of thing that is true but in reality, I can’t see how it could be enforced or proved. I’m not explaining very well, sorry.

Well they’re not storing the records for nothing, are they?

Seriously?! Teachers have to do CPD - it's very time consuming!
They cannot just re-use lesson plans with "tweaks"?! Oh dear me. Where to start 😂!