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The staffroom

Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

Isn't it nuts that when we reach the top of the pay scale, our pay stagnates?

26 replies

CeciliaMars · 27/09/2025 10:12

I was talking to a fellow teacher yesterday in her 50s. She is working 50-60 hours a week and is exhausted (she's head of English in a primary school). She has been at the top of the pay scale for years, so the only increase she sees is the % increase that is occasionally bestowed on us. She said her cost of living has doubled in the last 10 years, yet her pay is virtually identical. Isn't this ridiculous? I am in the same boat too; unless I go into management, I will earn virtually no more for the last 20 years of my career. I was at a friend's house the other day and he was going for a job interview for the next step up (still not management) that would DOUBLE his salary! It's so depressing...

OP posts:
BG2015 · 27/09/2025 11:39

It's true. No one goes into teaching for the money.

BoleynMemories13 · 27/09/2025 11:53

Yes, this has been my life since 2016. With cost of living increases, I'm barely getting by (single wage household).

Friends and family out of education seem to all assume teachers are well paid. They're always shocked to realise they earn more than me (often in a two wage household, too).

"But you're a teacher!" 😲
"Yes, it's nowhere near as well paid as people assume".

I use to be fairly comfortable on my teacher wage, back in the day, but definitely not for the last 4 years or so.

It's also frustrating to see the massive pay increase now in MPS1, compared to when I was there. I don't begrudge ECTs their wages, but I do feel all MPS wages should have increased in proportion to reflect this. There really isn't much difference anymore between all the MPS pay grades. Experience definitely isn't rewarded in this career.

CeciliaMars · 27/09/2025 12:06

That is true, but shouldn’t it be that you can earn more after 30 years than after 10?!

OP posts:
CeciliaMars · 27/09/2025 12:08

YES an ECT now starts on £32k outside of London! That means you can never earn more than £20k more than what you started on, even after 40 years in the job, unless you’re prepared to leave the classroom and enter the realms of SLT. It’s crazy.

OP posts:
Alternativetolove · 27/09/2025 15:01

You should try being a support staff member top of their grade with cost of living awards way lower than they are for teaching.

CeciliaMars · 27/09/2025 15:21

I agree support staff are abominably paid and would wholeheartedly pay them more if I could wave a magic wand. I’m thinking more about comparative jobs that need post-graduate qualifications.

OP posts:
BoleynMemories13 · 27/09/2025 16:14

Alternativetolove · 27/09/2025 15:01

You should try being a support staff member top of their grade with cost of living awards way lower than they are for teaching.

You all deserve a massive pay rise, you're paid nowhere near enough for what you do. Personally I don't know how anyone can afford to be a TA these days without being subsidised with either another wage (evening/weekend job), or supported by a higher earning partner. It's such a shame that it has become such an unappealing role, pay wise. No wonder so many schools are understaffed and struggling to recruit. Something really needs to change.

That doesn't mean a teacher can't bemoan their own wages though. For the qualifications required, the hours put in and the responsibility involved, it's really not great pay these days (and yet so many away from education assume it is).

Moaning about our own pay doesn't mean we don't appreciate how poorly TAs and other support staff are paid for the amazing job they do. They are different roles though, so the two aren't comparable in that sense (except for the fact I believe your pay rises should be in line with that of a teacher's, in terms of percentage). Both roles are underpaid for what we actually do, and we're all equally entitled to feel aggrieved by that.

It's a good job none of us are in it for the pay, right?

I don't think anyone should be guilt tripped for admitting they feel the pinch, even if they know they have colleagues who are paid much less. Everyone's personal financial situation is unique. For example, I have some TA colleagues who I know are better off financially than me, because they have a husband who earns well and an adult child living at home who contributes to the bills (for example). I would never point that out to them though if I hear them bemoaning their poor pay, because they are totally entitled to! Moaning about being underpaid and struggling to pay your bills doesn't mean you don't appreciate other people are struggling to, or that you don't feel other people should be paid more too for what they do. It's all relative.

AtomicBlondeRose · 27/09/2025 18:13

I’ve been teaching 20 years and am on the top of the pay scale. It’s not bad really but when I started it was worth a lot more - 20-year teachers were routinely driving new cars, buying holiday houses, planning to retire at 55. I’m sure it wasn’t everyone and admittedly this was in a part of the country where houses were still cheap so a lot of them had paid off their mortgages, but I used to sit in the staff room and think, oh, ok, that all seems fair after teaching for ages. And now, I’m so far from that lifestyle it’s a bit sad to think about it, I’m not broke but really not on that level by a long, long chalk. An extremely long chalk.

Fifthtimelucky · 27/09/2025 23:52

CeciliaMars · 27/09/2025 12:08

YES an ECT now starts on £32k outside of London! That means you can never earn more than £20k more than what you started on, even after 40 years in the job, unless you’re prepared to leave the classroom and enter the realms of SLT. It’s crazy.

But surely in many professional environments you only really start to earn more when you take on more responsibilities and move into management positions.

I appreciate that in primary schools there are fewer opportunities for promotion, but there must be many secondary teachers who are not part of the SLT but who have opportunities to earn more by taking on additional responsibilities.

As an example, my daughter has TLRs worth £10k. If she was at the top of the pay scale, which she isn’t, she’d be on over £63k (fringe area).

noblegiraffe · 27/09/2025 23:59

AtomicBlondeRose · 27/09/2025 18:13

I’ve been teaching 20 years and am on the top of the pay scale. It’s not bad really but when I started it was worth a lot more - 20-year teachers were routinely driving new cars, buying holiday houses, planning to retire at 55. I’m sure it wasn’t everyone and admittedly this was in a part of the country where houses were still cheap so a lot of them had paid off their mortgages, but I used to sit in the staff room and think, oh, ok, that all seems fair after teaching for ages. And now, I’m so far from that lifestyle it’s a bit sad to think about it, I’m not broke but really not on that level by a long, long chalk. An extremely long chalk.

Yes. Imagine retiring at 55. They all stepped down from their responsibilities a couple of years before retiring too because it didn't affect their pension.

We're all facing working till we're 67 for a shitter pension, if we haven't collapsed by then.

AtomicBlondeRose · 28/09/2025 07:22

TLRs have all but vanished in my setting. I teach two subjects, one with two teachers, another with just me. When I started teaching the two-person subject would have had one person on a TLR to lead it, and possibly even the smaller one. Now we’re just part of a huge faculty where only the head of faculty has any extra money, and that’s for overseeing about 15 exam courses.

Of course, all the head of subject work is still there and the HoF can’t do it all, so we do exactly the same stuff a head of subject used to get paid for, but now we do it for free. It’s essential, not busywork, so it has to be done to run the courses.

CeciliaMars · 28/09/2025 07:33

TLRs barely exist in primary schools any more. And even if they do, they’re only worth £2-3k extra for a huge amount of extra work. And for those people thinking, we’ll go into management then, remember there are only 2-3 SLTs per primary school compared to around 8-20 teachers. The vast majority of senior teachers spend the second half of their career earning exactly the same amount, give or take a few pounds, as life around them gets more and more expensive.

OP posts:
doglover90 · 28/09/2025 09:51

Fifthtimelucky · 27/09/2025 23:52

But surely in many professional environments you only really start to earn more when you take on more responsibilities and move into management positions.

I appreciate that in primary schools there are fewer opportunities for promotion, but there must be many secondary teachers who are not part of the SLT but who have opportunities to earn more by taking on additional responsibilities.

As an example, my daughter has TLRs worth £10k. If she was at the top of the pay scale, which she isn’t, she’d be on over £63k (fringe area).

The issues are:

A) Years of real terms pay cuts mean that teachers at the top of the pay scale are actually earning LESS each year, relative to cost of living
B) Management jobs are also pretty limited in secondary, most TLRs don't pay much and in a bigger department, there's only going to be one HoD and numerous classroom teachers
C) Teaching in itself shouldn't be seen as an entry level job, experienced teachers bring huge value and shouldn't be encouraged to move out of the classroom just so they can keep up with the cost of living

doglover90 · 28/09/2025 09:51

Fifthtimelucky · 27/09/2025 23:52

But surely in many professional environments you only really start to earn more when you take on more responsibilities and move into management positions.

I appreciate that in primary schools there are fewer opportunities for promotion, but there must be many secondary teachers who are not part of the SLT but who have opportunities to earn more by taking on additional responsibilities.

As an example, my daughter has TLRs worth £10k. If she was at the top of the pay scale, which she isn’t, she’d be on over £63k (fringe area).

The issues are:

A) Years of real terms pay cuts mean that teachers at the top of the pay scale are actually earning LESS each year, relative to cost of living
B) Management jobs are also pretty limited in secondary, most TLRs don't pay much and in a bigger department, there's only going to be one HoD and numerous classroom teachers
C) Teaching in itself shouldn't be seen as an entry level job, experienced teachers bring huge value and shouldn't be encouraged to move out of the classroom just so they can keep up with the cost of living

Fifthtimelucky · 28/09/2025 11:39

I agree with A and this absolutely needs tackling. But teachers are certainly not alone in having had real terms pay cuts. Most of the public sector is the same. Before I retired I was a civil servant and my salary hardly increased at all in my final 10 years.

On B, I guess it depends on the school. My daughter has 2 TLRs - a fairly big one as head of year and a fairly small one for some curriculum responsibilities. Perhaps she is just lucky.

On C, I absolutely agree that experience should be rewarded, and it is for the first few years. But where should that stop?

Is a teacher with 20 years of experience necessarily better than someone with 10 years of experience? And is one with 30 years of experience necessarily better than one with 20 years?

Tearsofthemushroom · 28/09/2025 14:19

I work in school support and there is no pay progression at all for my role, no matter that I have built up ten years of experience, I have only ever had the standard cost of living rise. Teachers are lucky to get automatic pay increments no matter whether they are good at their job or not.

CeciliaMars · 28/09/2025 15:02

Fifthtimelucky · 28/09/2025 11:39

I agree with A and this absolutely needs tackling. But teachers are certainly not alone in having had real terms pay cuts. Most of the public sector is the same. Before I retired I was a civil servant and my salary hardly increased at all in my final 10 years.

On B, I guess it depends on the school. My daughter has 2 TLRs - a fairly big one as head of year and a fairly small one for some curriculum responsibilities. Perhaps she is just lucky.

On C, I absolutely agree that experience should be rewarded, and it is for the first few years. But where should that stop?

Is a teacher with 20 years of experience necessarily better than someone with 10 years of experience? And is one with 30 years of experience necessarily better than one with 20 years?

The answer to your last question is yes. Teaching is a learning curve every single day. I am an immeasurably better teacher after 20 years than I was after 10. Do we deserve to get poorer and poorer for the last half of our career, even as we get better and better at our jobs? Why would anyone go into teaching now, with post graduate qualifications, knowing they’ll probably never earn more than £20k over their starting salary?

OP posts:
BoleynMemories13 · 29/09/2025 06:46

Tearsofthemushroom · 28/09/2025 14:19

I work in school support and there is no pay progression at all for my role, no matter that I have built up ten years of experience, I have only ever had the standard cost of living rise. Teachers are lucky to get automatic pay increments no matter whether they are good at their job or not.

It's not automatic anymore and only lasts throughout each payscale (6 steps on the main payscale, 3 on the upper). You can easily be stuck on the same payscale for 25 years+. That's what this post is about.

Again, people are allowed to moan about their pay and the current cost of living crisis without being guilt tripped by other people saying "but you have it better than us". Of course teachers are aware their situation is better than that of support staff. That doesn't mean it's a 'good' situation, in the current climate. Teaching use to be considered a fairly well paid job (whereas sadly, teaching assistants have never been paid well). That's what this post is about. How many teachers are now struggling to make ends meet because the pay system is so rubbish. It's not about comparing teacher ways to that of TAs.

As I said, everyone's financial situation is unique. This should be a safe space where teachers can moan about these things with each other as we get enough of those sort of comments on other social media platforms.

"Be thankful you're not a nurse."
"How dare you moan when there are so many having to get by on zero hour contracts these days."
"Stop moaning about pay, you guys get paid for 13 weeks holiday each year!" (Not true)

We hear it all. This should be one place we can talk about it without someone judging or trying to put us in our place, and still people feel the need to tell us we're lucky because their pay system is worse.

Why does everything in life need to be a competition about who has it worse? 🙄

Tearsofthemushroom · 29/09/2025 14:12

It’s not a competition. My DH is a teacher so I see it from both sides but teachers are genuinely lucky that they get guaranteed pay increases for many years. This just isn’t the case in the private sector and it is good to realise that it is actually one of the benefits of being a teacher.

noblegiraffe · 29/09/2025 14:53

Teachers do not, and have not had it good compared to other professions.

Recent pay rises have started to address the very real issue with our pay.

Isn't it nuts that when we reach the top of the pay scale, our pay stagnates?
Isn't it nuts that when we reach the top of the pay scale, our pay stagnates?
BeeMe · 29/09/2025 16:28

Boleyn, I agree with this- 'Why does everything in life need to be a competition about who has it worse? '🙄
It makes me think of the Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen sketch.
Although clearly they all made some good money!

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Peridoteage · 04/10/2025 00:00

Teaching should be better paid but its quite common in a lot of jobs to reach your peak around early 40s and not really progress any further? Dh is 40 and in a "senior manager" level role in a corporate, there are three rungs above him but its a bit like deputy & head roles, not everyone will get there or want to. So he just gets inflation rises but actually 10 years of 3% compounding is going to make the mortgage feel much cheaper

CeciliaMars · 04/10/2025 18:58

Peridoteage · 04/10/2025 00:00

Teaching should be better paid but its quite common in a lot of jobs to reach your peak around early 40s and not really progress any further? Dh is 40 and in a "senior manager" level role in a corporate, there are three rungs above him but its a bit like deputy & head roles, not everyone will get there or want to. So he just gets inflation rises but actually 10 years of 3% compounding is going to make the mortgage feel much cheaper

i would imagine your husband earns more than £20k than when he first started his career though. And we haven’t had ten years of 3% pay rises - there have been many years of no pay rise!

OP posts:
phlebasconsidered · 06/10/2025 18:50

Noble, can you please tag where you got those graphs from?I would love them for our next union meeting.

noblegiraffe · 06/10/2025 19:39

Both from the NFER

More up to date one of the experienced teachers one on page 22 of here https://www.nfer.ac.uk/media/zofbcsol/tlm-2025_embargo.pdf

The other one was page 14 of this report, slightly out of date now but I couldn't find a more up to date one https://www.nfer.ac.uk/media/uash4sbq/teacher_labour_market_in_england_annual_report_2023.pdf#page=14

https://www.nfer.ac.uk/media/zofbcsol/tlm-2025_embargo.pdf