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!

I see the MN obsession with teaching continues unabated. Good-o.

☝🏻THIS

Not sure your figures are right? I’m a community midwife, work 9-5pm, not in management and my basic FTE pay is 46.5k (outside of London) I get 8.2 weeks a year holiday (including bank holidays) I also get unsocial hours pay +30% for nights and Saturdays and +60% for Sundays
i absolutely love where I work but there are a lot of midwives who are very unhappy with their jobs because of the working conditions, a lot to think about really. I have friends who are teachers and not an easy job to go into either

Agree, I work part time as a midwife and enjoy it but many of the full timers are burned out

Both have an element of being vocational careers. You are cut out to be a midwife or a teacher. It's not really a big choice at the end of the day.

I used to be a midwife. Regular shift pattern was 0730 to 2030 (but usually I was there til 2130 unpaid) x3 a week plus a four day week once a month. Did days, nights and weekends. It was very stressful, constantly understaffed and I knew I wasn’t delivering the standard of care I wanted to give. I was always worried something would go wrong. It’s very difficult to have a family life unless you have childcare overnight, early mornings and evenings.

I think teacher training colleges would expect this.

When I was teaching, I certainly had prospective student teachers shadowing for 2 - 3 days.

My mum used to teach. When I was a junior doctor in the bad old days of the 90s, working insane hours, my mum still worked longer hours than me when you counted all the time for planning, prep, paperwork, and marking. Teachers work a lot more hours than it looks like on paper.

This is true but with nursing, one of those shifts is likely to be a night shift, so that effectively the next day is also written off as you need to sleep.
Shift work can havoc with a person's own health.

midwife's what? Why can nobody punctuate correctly?

What prep, marking and planning do midwives take home every night and every weekend?

If you’re a community midwife you might have paperwork outstanding which you do in the evening. But certainly nothing like what teachers have to do.

The good thing about being a hospital midwife is that once your shift is finished then you have handed over all your work.

In England a degree, a years teacher training (various types) then two years as an ECT.

Op it’s the most random comparison- I know it’s because they are the two that need to be chosen between, but of course a teacher has certain hours and certain holidays, and of course a midwife can’t do predictable hours and predictable holidays!!!

I couldn’t be either, see both as vocations and invaluable assets to society.

I’m a teacher and work 10-12 hour days, 5 days a week. Those extra hours added up basically negate all the holidays. I also work in the holidays preparing for the new term. Both professions are woefully underpaid compared to most graduate professions.

Most teachers don’t go home at 3.30 & do hours & hours of work at home. Evenings, weekends, holidays.

I doubt she could shadow but she could try and volunteer a couple of hours every week helping out with reading. There are charities that organise that too.

Probably best if she speaks to as many people from both professions as possible. Both seem tough in the current climate.

Blame teachers?!🤣

There is no such thing as overtime in teaching.

No they dont

i have been trying to encourage dd to go into OT - for years
her school friend went into it - so someone listened to me!

This is basic salary though, midwives get enhanced hours for nights and weekends which depending on their pattern, if they work shifts they can easily earn much more than this. There are often also incentives for bank rates avaliable if there is flexibility for extra hours. Theres a lot more potential to add to a midwives wage.
Both receive good pension contributions and more holiday than most private sector jobs.

I work as a different lower band role in the NHS and Im really happy with my pay and benefits. I think we are quite fortunate compared to many in private sector roles. Maternity and sick pay are good.

There are many people who work hard in difficult roles and are very underpaid and have terrible conditions and poor pensions, like community carers for example.

Id love teachers and midwives to have better pay too, but first for those in poverty to be uplifted.

They are completely different jobs. It’s a valueless comparison. But even then, your basics are wrong. Teachers don’t have 6.5 hour ‘shifts’. Even in a school with 6.5 hours between the start of the first lesson and end of the last lesson teachers are in school early preparing their resources, photocopying and marking work. They have got time before lessons and detentions and meetings after lessons. They take vast amounts of work home too and are in charge of classes of 32 children all day.

Do not let her become a teacher (unless she likes working all the hours God sends for not a lot of money.)

Why does your sister want to become a midwife at all?

If she’s attracted to medicine but doesn’t have the grades to be a doctor then why would she choose a job that requires shift work - working at night, public holidays and weekends?

Your sister could choose to study radiology and then specialise in cardiac radiology and choose to work in private practice during the week days.

It could also be a way to meet men with higher earning potential - either at university or in the workplace.

If your sister works in midwifery she is going to be surrounded by other women. If she’s attracted works in teaching she will be surrounded by other poorly paid teachers.

Your sister should choose a career where she can work in private practice and take time off when she wants.