A Question of Honour
The NUT's Campaign for a Pay Review
The NUT is campaigning for teachers to be paid properly and for a pay award which, at least, restores in full the value of teachers' earnings. There must be no more below-inflation pay awards for teachers.
In November 2007, the School Teachers' Review Body is due to publish its next report on teachers' pay. The NUT stands ready to call on members to take action if the STRB fails to make adequate recommendations or if the Government's response fails to restore the pay of teachers.
Teachers have already suffered pay cuts in real terms. During 2006 and 2007, inflation has been at its highest level for many years. The 2.5 per cent pay increases in September 2006 and September 2007 were below inflation. This has already cost teachers hundreds of pounds. The Government's proposed 2 per cent pay limit for 2008 to 2011 would cause further pay cuts in real terms.
Tell us how your living costs and living standards are being affected by below inflation pay rises: click here to go straight to the form. Read other teachers' comments below.
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PAY CAMPAIGN RESPONSES: (updated 1 February 2008) page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 |
| They say 2.45% pay rise is generous yet in the past week petrol has gone up 2%, they want to add 2p to the price of fuel in April which at current prices is just short of 2%, my electricity is going up 7.9%. I sold my car as I couldn't afford to run it, I've been teaching five years and each year I get my increment which I need just to survive I dread the point when I stop getting it as I will be really stuffed then, my money just doesn't go anywhere! David, Luton |
| My wife and I are both teachers. I am on M5 and my wife M2. Between us we can barely afford to pay a full repayment mortgage on a below averaged priced house. We have even had to take up second jobs between us just to pay student debts and make ends meet. Surely, having spent years at University to obtain a good quality of living that cannot be right. In addition, our standard of living is poor with no time or indeed energy to do many of the things that we want to outside of work. Our non teacher friends often joke about how we always seem to be working at home and we have our own standing joke at the start of each half term of "see you in six weeks". Don't get me wrong, I love my job and I couldn't imagine doing anything else, but I find this latest pay offer a total insult. If my standard of living continues to decrease and my pay with it I have to ask - can I afford to stay in teaching? I seriously hope the answer is yes but right know I just don't know. David, Oldham |
| I qualified 13 years ago and am now a primary Head teacher. The utter lack of respect that Whitehall officials and, in some cases, members of Local Authorities (many of whom have never been teachers, let alone Heads) have for us is patently clear. Our professionalism is undermined at every turn by the imposition of unrealistic targets, blanket strategies, ill-advised initiatives and ill-conceived interventions. Our in depth knowledge of children is ignored in favour of graphs and data. Our salaries are eaten away year on year. In my recent search for alternative employment I have been horrified to discover just how comparatively low my salary is. We are responsible for the overall health, safety and intellectual prosperity of future generations yet someone who books flights and answers the phone can earn more than a teacher. Head teachers are dropping like nine pins and teachers leaving the profession in droves. Whitehall are interestingly blind to this particular data. I really believe that strike action is going to be the only way of forcing some action on this. Yes, parents will be miffed in the short term. In the longer term it will benefit the education system as a whole if valuable professionals remain in post. Rebecca, Norfolk |
| I was in the first year of students to have to pay tuition fees to go to university. I didn't get to see the advantages of a grant (thanks Labour!). I took part time jobs through university to help make the ends meet. I qualified as a teacher six years ago and have worked hard ever since. I am still paying of my student loan despite doing a job that I think is socially important and we can't do without our degree. I am now a head of department and struggling to afford to buy my own place yet other friends I graduated with are living in relative luxury. I am taking extra work to help with the bills and feel the pinch as the cost of heating, travel to work, food etc continues to rise. I would like to see what the government would say about getting a relative pay cut. You want us to do a proper job? You want us to feel valued? Pay us a proper salary! We can't let them get away with this otherwise they will keep doing it year after year! As one of my year 8 said today (completely unprompted after them seeing the news last night about the police march) 'If I ran the country I would pay you more because you are always so busy!' Sara, Bristol |
| I have been teaching for two years and in that time prices of just about everything have rocketed. Petrol over £1 (largely Government taxation), council tax rises (and for what I don't see a difference in my area), food, mortgage and other household bills. I have a young family and every month money is a problem. 2.45% don't make me laugh Mr. Brown/Mr. Balls. Martin, Doncaster |
| Yes, the pay settlement is disgraceful. But it is no surprise given the utter ineffectiveness of the NUT over many years which has presided over cut after cut, measure after measure. The union appears to exist only to inform us of the impending terribleness of whatever measure the government plans to impose. It never actually does anything to fight and prevent these things actually proceeding: performance management; disgraceful but we have it; s**t pay, disgraceful but we've had it for years and will have it for more to come. Pull your bloody finger out NUT and start ACTING on our behalf or I for one will cease to be a member and use my subs to bolster my s****y pay increase! S, Trafford |
| I have already told my story in the past on these pages. In brief, I am a secondary teacher nine years in still struggling to make ends meet, trying to keep a roof over my family’s head. I am annoyed as my wife and I work extremely hard to pay for everything including childcare, yet I earn too much money to get any help from the government, unlike those parents who go to the same childcare, where they can get all the handouts they need. I am sure to get anywhere in life you must become dishonest. GREAT EXAMPLE TO THE YOUNGER GENERATION! I also find it amazing that you as a Union have the front to complain about the cost of living for teachers. You seem to want to waste money on a political fund and every year you as a union are jumping on the band wagon along with companies putting up the cost of living by putting up your yearly subscription. Yours truly a frustrated NUT member. Alex, Cornwall |
| I'm struggling to get by on my salary. I don't have much in the way of outgoings but yet I still can't afford a mortgage. If my salary was based on inflation, I would have been able to buy a property and be on the ladder. As it is I'm stuck renting throwing money down the drain. I get the "teachers are part timers" and the "14 weeks holiday" gags all the time but when I break down my average day my friends are a little more understanding. They even think I'm a bit obsessed as when on holiday I'll be taking pictures and finding stuff for school or the classroom. Teachers never turn off!! Sam, Worcestershire |
| It is an awful situation I am in my final year of university. I can barely make ends meet as it is and have gone further into debt as a result thinking I will be ok when I start teaching. I am doing a 4 year ITT course so don’t get the £6,000 a year PCGE students get. I have worked out it is going to take me at least three years of having hardly any money to save enough to buy a one bed flat in Hertfordshire. The fringe allowance doesn't come out far enough in my opinion. The government are taking the mick in my opinion I bet you Ed Balls would moan if he only got a 2.45% pay rise Anon, Hertfordshire |
| Petrol prices continues to rise, food prices are at their highest levels for years and gas and electricity bills are also on the up. That 2% pay rise has suddenly disappeared. All this when more and more is being expected of us. Teaching and living in many parts of the country (especially London and fringe) is now totally unaffordable. What really gets me is the disparity between public and private sector professionals. If I had stayed in my old "dead end job" I would be earning nearly twice what I am on as a second year teacher. Time to emigrate! Tim, Surrey |
| I have been teaching for five years in a very difficult school in central London. My husband and I managed to buy a flat (with money borrowed from my parents) and now struggle every month to meet enormous mortgage repayments. Money is always a problem! We can never afford to go out and definitely can't afford to have a holiday in school holiday season. I am no better off than when I was a student and am left wondering why I bother when all of my friends earn £10,000 to £15,000 more than I do, with shorter working hours. London weighting is no reflection of the huge housing and travel costs we are forced to pay. Teachers are constantly treated with contempt by Government, blamed for all the ills of society and treated horrendously by parents who have little respect for us anymore. The pay issue is the icing on the cake - if we continue to slowly earn less and less in comparison to other professionals in the private sector, good teachers will walk out of jobs in search of a good standard of living. It’s very sad. I love my job but wish I was rewarded for all the hard work and dedication. Helen, Worcestershire |
| 2.45%! My mortgage has increased by over £200, bills are up by 7+%, food and petrol are also increasing. This continues to show that the government holds teachers in contempt. We need to do more than complain. Kat, Islington |
| I’m now in my third year of teaching. Naively I thought my work load would slowly die down to a manageable level. The reality is far from it. I work in all the holidays (argued by non-teachers as a great perk) Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and pick either a Saturday or Sunday to do further work. I also help the school out in Football and Skiing (for no extra money). The thing is I want to be the best I possibly can at my job and so far have done well with results, value added scores and have all observations marked as a 1. The thing is everything I’ve set up and have got in place is changing with the new curriculum changes and changes to A-levels and GCSE’s. But the thing that really annoys me and is starting to lower my morale is that (even though I can’t possibly do anything more than what I am doing) I’m financially in trouble. I come from the era of taking out student loans (that’s gone up in line with BASELINE INFLATION). For four months in a row I have given the bank £140 in bank charges. My mortgage is very high, petrol is crippling me (had to get lifts at end of month because I couldn’t afford it). Bills are going up along with food. My best friend I grew up with joined the police force the same time as I entered teaching. He’s not flush but financially more stable. I work my backside off kidding myself that I work in a valued profession. But lately who really values us. To be offered another pay cut is demoralising!!! Perhaps I should look for a more valued job, or a job in the private sector!!! Gary |
| I am 29, have been a teacher for around four years and have just bought my own home. Admittedly, I live alone, but I have had to borrow £40,000 from my parents so that I can afford a mid-terraced house. I now really struggle to pay all of the bills and my mortgage and really fear that if petrol, gas and electricity prices increase any more, I may not be able to afford to live. I have written to my local MP to voice my concerns and he basically told me that I should be grateful that the government has increased money in schools (in comparison to the previous government - when! will they stop harping on about that!). I replied asking him why he, as a MP, gets paid £60,000 per annum and he told me that it is useless comparing jobs (I guess that means he has no reason!). When I started this job, I laughed at how teachers were always complaining about their pay, but now fully understand. I am amazed at how much responsibility my job entails and how important the work I do matters (just think, if I made a mess of 30 children's education, they would suffer for years). A rise in-line with inflation seems little to ask in return for that! Phil, Warrington |
| Presumably the government will be leaving the interest charged on student loans at 4%, despite its claims that inflation is 2% to justify today's pay announcement (so which is it Mr Brown?) When I took out my loan for my first degree, fully intending to become a teacher after graduating, the interest rate was around 2% which seemed reasonable. However, since I graduated it has risen to 4% but my pay has not matched this. I am losing money in my pay packet AND being charged more for actually bothering to train to teach! I had the opportunity to go into retail management instead of university. I would have been on similar money to my current M3 by now, but without the associated student debt. I am now considering leaving teaching, partly for financial reasons but also due to work/life balance. Poor pay would be acceptable if it was countered by good quality of life, but at the moment it isn't. Far too many hours working for 'free' just to get the job done, and then to be insulted with another three year pay cut. My mortgage has increased by £130 a month this year, even my bus ticket to work is £2 a week more, although that doesn't sound like much, it has increased 25% over the past two years. 2.45% an inflation-beating rise? Don't make me laugh. Hayley |
| Here we go again. The government offers teachers a derisory three-year-deal on pay and some teachers' unions are 'satisfied' with the award and one union has already accepted it! Teachers, like some other public sector workers, are their own worst enemy. This deal is a slap in the face for ALL teachers. The CPI may be 2.1% but the RPI, which includes all your mortgage/rent, Council Tax and utility bills, is 4.0%; this is the real cost-of-living measure. Utility bills have recently soared and food bills, fuel costs, etc. are all increasing rapidly but the overwhelming majority of teachers will meekly accept this pay deal. Why? Because the teaching profession is bitterly divided among its members and in the unions there is no solidarity or unanimity. The government knows this too. Yes, you will sit in your armchairs and moan about the long hours you work and the low pay you receive but how many of you (teachers) out there will actually get off your backsides and DO something about it? You reap what you sow, sounds familiar?! Craig, Bradford |
| I worked for 12 years in industry before switching careers to teach. A job I thought would be challenging and well rewarded. Challenging it is, but the rewards leave a lot to be desired. I've now been teaching for five years and am on MPS6 with an additional retention allowance - my pay this year has just reached the level I was on ten years ago in industry! That's the pay I was five years before I decided to switch careers. Not only that but I work about ten times harder now than I did then. Teachers’ salaries are a joke! The sooner the Government pay us the salary that the job deserves the sooner people will regard this career as a long term option. Martin, Worcestershire |
| Motion passed unanimously: Woodbridge High School NUT group notes with dismay the report of the STRB on teachers’ pay for the next three years. We understand that it is effectively a pay cut. We urge the NUT executive to ballot for strike action, as part of an ongoing and serious campaign to achieve fair pay for the profession. Simon |
| Since becoming a member of NUT I have been enlightened as to the plights we face as teachers in our home country. That is why I intend to leave as soon as I am qualified. Ideally I would love to stay but realistically I cannot. This is a salient thought among many student teachers and NQT's alike. When will the government realise that we are one of the most valuable assets this country has? I will tell you when... 10 years down the line when the economy begins to collapse as a result of a severe BRAIN DRAIN. Jamie, Plymouth |
| As a mature student I worked in several different jobs before being able to afford my teacher training. Throughout my first year of teaching there were certain issues regarding pay and workload that I noticed but I hung fast; this was my dream career after all and I knew that there would be certain expectations over and above some of the other jobs I'd had previous. Three years on and nothing has changed, if anything, it has got worse!! Pay is not even in keeping with inflation, 'teacher bashing' regularly occurs on television and the government continue to put even more pressure on teachers as a result of ridiculous targets not being met due to the incredible workload we have?! When will they realise, that yes good, dedicated, hardworking teachers get into the job because they want to help children learn but we also need respect for the job we do and this is clearly not reflected in our pay. Having taught for nearly three years I am now considering changing my job. It upsets me to think that a job I've wanted to do since I myself was a child is now so focused on target setting and league tables that respect has gone out of the window. Anon, Kent |
| I'm a single parent who went into teaching because I wanted to help children, particularly those in deprived areas who maybe couldn't have access to the kind of benefits I did in my education. But I have become increasingly bitter about my career and my position in society as a teacher. Instead of being seen as someone worthwhile, I feel I belong to a profession that is increasingly discredited and downgraded. With the insulting pay increase, the question is quickly becoming one of survival. I have people ask me if I'm so clever, why was I stupid enough to become a teacher? I used to have a good answer... Patti, Newham |
| Everyone is feeling the pinch from higher taxes and energy bills etc. but why do teachers think they are different to any other sector? It seems to me that the salary teachers get may need to be slightly increased, but then when you look at the 14 weeks a year holiday it looks to put this into perspective. If teachers agreed to move Inset days to any of these weeks off instead of causing huge inconvenience I’m sure that they would get a better response from the public about pay. That’s what non teachers see - over 1/4 of the year off for a wage. Steve |
| At my age, I don't know if I would be able to find employment in any other job that pays the same money as I currently earn. What I do know is that after all the years of studying and teaching and getting amazing results for extremely difficult pupils, as well as jumping through all the hoops from Threshold to TLRs, I now find myself in the ridiculous position of having to look for a second job. With inflation and the cost of living rising everyday I am facing financial ruin. Everyday its something else that has gone up - mortgage/banking interest, petrol, food and today a 15% rise in Gas bills. It’s either a second job or take my family and emigrate to a country where teachers are sensibly rewarded and have some respect and status in society. If we don't go on strike to fight this deeply insulting pay 'offer', the N.U.T. might as well call it a day. At least I'll have £180 year to contribute towards my next Gas bill. Anthony, Liverpool |
| My partner and I are both teachers and are in our second and third year respectively. In the last three months we have both had to sell our cars and downgrade to sub £500 run abouts in order to get to work. Rising living expenses (housing, petrol, electricity, gas, insurance, council tax, student loans) are ridiculous. If you had said 15 years ago that two teachers a couple of years into their profession would be selling cars in order to afford to live and travel to work, scarcely many would believe I fear. Times need to change. Make our profession comparable to others and reward teachers for their ridiculous working hours and everything else that goes with it. On a lighter note, we have just got engaged, is it possible to have a wedding for less than £1000!? You have to see the funny side, apparently. M, Staffordshire |
Most teachers I know work between 7 and 14 hours unpaid overtime a week, an 8 hour day at school with a rushed 20 minutes "lunch break" followed by several hours planning in the evenings and/or at weekends. The existing system of education in key stage one could not function without the extra time they put in. They work many days of the "long" holidays which then equate with most companies' paid leave. They are put under considerable stress from their head teachers and from parents and when they succumb to this by becoming stressed are made to feel that they are poor achievers. Teaching assistants and caretakers leave work when they have completed their hours and teachers are expected to complete the work support staff could not manage in their time. They use their own resources when working at home, but do not get tax relief. Now their pay is going down in real terms. It's time to take action to make the government listen, and change the system so that happy and properly supported teachers can bring creativity back into tired classrooms. Young children need only to discover the joy of learning, not how to perform so that boxes can be ticked. Teachers are professionals whose tough training proved their commitment to do this. They should be properly paid and respected. Ann, Surrey |
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