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!

Yes, MW’s are accountable up until baby is a teenager. Not sure of the age. My MW friend was being investigated for a shoulder injury in an 16 year old. It happens. Healthcare currently is litigious for all professionals who work in it. It’s big business for some law firms to take a nurse/ MW/ Dr/ Surgeon to court. Rightly so in some instances. I’d go for teaching if it was me.

@peanutbutt You don't think teachers are often faced with horrific and false allegations against them by the pupils they teach?

Neither do I. In fact it's a bit thick really. I know, let's take two completely disparate things, "compare" them then decide that one of them isn't fair.

OP, do lollipop people and betting shop cashiers next.

Teachers can't claim for overtime.

Contractually, we have to put in the hours until the job is done, irrespective of how many hours outside of the school day this is.

In my case, this usually means arriving at school at 7:45am, working through lunch with lunchtime clubs, supervisory duties, booster groups etc, and leaving between 17-17:30, then putting in a couple of hours of planning and marking each night Mon-Thurs, and working 4 hours on a Saturday or Sunday. That's about 9.5 hours at work per day and another 12 hours of unpaid overtime on evenings and weekends per week. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for being able to work my overtime at home (I'm very jealous of people who WFH) but it sucks that overtime is not paid.

As I wish to remain a class teacher, and not move into management, my salary plateaued around 15 years ago and I'm earning the same as much more junior colleagues -that's frustrating.

I'm primary but I hear that secondary colleagues can work longer hours.

😂

Exactly! However, you'd still get people on here who have never done either, making wildly incorrect claims about the nature of both jobs!

One error or mis-judgment in a life/death emergency as a midwife is completely different to being a teacher.

I can't comment on midwifery, but as someone who was in primary teaching for 21 years I would never recommend it. And it's only getting worse.

£45k -ish for either is pretty good. What else is she going to do that could earn her that amount?
I don’t think that salary should be sniffed at at all. It’s decent. And with a fair pension too.

@peanutbutt You don't think teachers are often faced with horrific and false allegations against them by the pupils they teach?

Of course there are risks. However I think the risk of litigation in healthcare is more common on a daily basis.

I think this thread is becoming a ‘which is the better job’ and I think the OP was looking for practical guidance. So it may be better to think more widely than MW versus teaching ? How about occupational therapy ? The role has expanded, they can specialise and no weekends ( in some OT roles). I’ve worked with lots of OT’s and they do a wonderful job, but it’s not as stressful as MW/ nursing. It’s interesting.

I think that would be very true if teachers worked 9-3:30, M-F, termtime only.

When I was a teacher my annual salary divided by my hours worked over a year was well below minimum wage.

It's such a tough decision isn't it? On the one hand teachers get loads of holidays and clock off at 3 and on the other hand midwives spend their days cuddling babies.

Maybe she could do both? I mean, teachers are barely in work so she could spend those spare hours cuddling the babies.

I think that sounds like a fair compromise.

What's the point of this?

Comparing two very different jobs and coming to the conclusion that teaching is probably easier?!

It sounds like a very thinly disguised teacher-bashing thread.

@HowDoYouSolveAProblemLikeMyRear Agreed. I'm now an EOTAS Tutor after 21 years in primary teaching and do a max of 1/2 hr a day unpaid - I am pretty much paid for the hours I work.

Don’t forget car park fees. Midwives have to pay to park if they work in a hospital.
Do teachers pay to park at work?

I am a nurse so not a midwife but obviously a similar role.

Before I went into nursing I was a primary school teacher. I left teaching to go into nursing and it was the best decision I've ever made. Teaching is a much more stressful and difficult job than nursing which is obviously also stressful and difficult.

However for me I can do 3x long days a week which is my whole working week done. I don’t take work home with me either and leave it at the door. When I was a teacher I could honestly work 24/7 at the job and it still wouldn't have been enough. Also the long holidays are deceptive as you spend a lot of those working/planning for the next term etc. You truly never switch off from the job and that can be so detrimental to your mental health.

I would advise your sister to choose midwifery over teaching.

£45k for a midwife / nhs band six is the top of band and only achieved after five years. Between year two and year five there are no increments, so it’s around ten years from starting the degree to achieving that. And then you only get the next increment if you want to be a band 7, which isn’t easy and aren’t that many posts to apply to.

I agree about OT. My husband retrained as an OT and as well as enjoying it, has more than doubled his starting salary in about 7 years. That’s probably not standard progression though.

The annual leave for midwives is not fully accurate. After 5 years 29 days plus BHs then 10 years 33 days BHs. You can become a specialist MW without leadership or management at a band 7 which top band 7 inner London is now £63K out ot London I guess £56. Not all MW jobs are shifts, lots of 9-5 roles.

I work in the NHS but as a nurse, I think it really comes down to which she would actually enjoy. I think both can be incredibly rewarding jobs, albeit mostly underpaid, if you love the work you do. I cannot imagine doing my job or that of a midwife or teacher unless I had some level of interest in the actual job. Midwives are often passionate about women’s health and teachers, well if it’s secondary, please tell me she actually likes teenagers. I could not imagine been a secondary school teacher and not liking teens but it seems that this does not occur to every teacher!

Especially with such a short working day as one poster claimed!!! Whoopee, no more parents' meetings, planning, Nativity plays or other activities, marking, meetings. Life's a dream!

It costs me £800 a month to put my 2 DC in breakfast and after school club every day so I can be at work by 8:15am and collect them after whatever briefing/cpd/after school enrichment/y11 extra lesson I have to do at the end of each day, that’s nearly half my wage!

And we have different school holidays so I have to pay for holiday club sometimes too, but yes it will be cheaper once they reach high school age and can fend for themselves for a few hours a day.

Teacher more like 10 hour shift mon to fri

My parents were a teacher and a midwife. Only one of them developed work related stress, alcoholism and had to medically retire at 54. So on that basis, midwife.

No they don’t