Last night, a friend at a party repeated her opinion that teachers are overpaid for what they do.

I was too conflict-averse and tipsy to voice my considerable irritation about this at the time. So, in a bout of intense l’esprit d’escalier, I have researched and written this blog in response to this infuriating opinion that seems as difficult to purge as a nasty case of knotweed.
If you’re interested in the arguments as to why teachers are far from overpaid, or want to have some facts in your arsenal next time a lawyer accuses you of being lazy at a dinner party, this blog is for you.
- Teaching is among the most important work in our society.
If you are someone who values education, both for its own sake and for the opportunities it brings, you should respect and value those who provide it.
2. Teachers are not overpaid compared to other public sector professionals.
Teachers are professionals. It’s infuriating that some people assume that because they went to school, they understand the complexity of what teachers do. Teaching is based on a body of pedagogical and subject-specific knowledge, and, like any other profession, it takes considerable time to master.
Assuming that a teacher started as a qualified teacher aged 23, and had 7 years’ experience by the time they were 30, they would expect to be earning £35,971 in England.[2]
Let’s compare this with other public sector professions. In order to try and factor in differences in the amount of time it takes to qualify, I will use figures for what the average person would expect to earn at age 30, if they had progressed straight from school, through university and into their profession without pause. I’ve discounted pay for extra responsibilities in each of these professions, and I’m using figures from the pay scale for England, not London.
A qualified GP of 30 years old would receive a salary of approximately £65,000 a year in England.[1] A barrister would expect qualify at 25 and would have five years’ experience by the time they were 30. Working for the government in the Crown Prosecution Service, a qualified barrister aged 30 would expect to earn between £38,000-42,000 per year.[3] Assuming that a police constable began working at aged 23, then by the age of 30 they would be expecting to earn approximately £40,128.[4]
The pay for nurses is considerably worse. Entry level nurses with a nursing degree will receive an average salary of £24,900 from April 2020, and after five years can expect a salary of £27,400.[5] It seems obvious that we should be paying nurses more like teachers and policeman, rather than paying teachers like nurses. Teaching and nurses are indispensable, skilled professions and deserved to be remunerated as such.
3. Teachers are overworked.
The difficulty in calculating the amount of time that teachers work is that, unlike other public sector professions, teachers spend a considerable amount of time working outside of the hours that they are mandated to be in school. The teaching hours, parents evenings, report writing, school trips, marking/planning time and further training, which count as the ‘directed time’ for which teachers are paid in their contract, also spillover outside of the contracted hours. Many teachers find themselves working much longer hours than those for which they are paid as pastoral responsibilities, lesson planning and marking eat into their evenings and weekends.
Teacher workload has remained fairly stable for the last 25 years. Researchers from UCL have examined data from more than 40,000 primary and secondary teachers in England who took part in four different surveys between 1992 and 2017. Their analysis found that primary teachers work around 47-49 hours per week, and secondary teachers work around 46-49 hours per week. 40% of teachers report that they ‘usually’ work in the evening.[6] A different study concluded that teachers worked for an average of 50 hours per week during term time in 2015/16, compared to 44 for police officers and 39 for nurses.[7] The government estimates that teachers work approximately 49.5 hours per week.[8] Taking into account school holidays, teachers and police staff are paid a similar amount.[9]
You may well be thinking, so what that teachers work intensely during term time – they get 13 weeks holiday a year! On to point 3…
4. ‘Vacation’ is not vacation – it is preparation time.
As I’ve previously covered, unlike other jobs a great deal of what constitutes the work of ‘teaching’ is lesson preparation, curriculum design, report writing and marking. This work takes place in the holidays. When factoring the average work done by teachers in the weekends and holidays, it is calculated that teachers earned an hourly rate of pay of £17.70, similar to nurses, and lower than police officers’ £18.80.[10]
This holiday I am designing a computing curriculum for my school from scratch, and planning my lessons. Every teacher I know works in the ‘vacation’.
Imagine how much work you would put into a presentation for work. Now imagine giving 5 of these presentations back to back five days a week– of course you would work in the holidays and at weekends.
5. Teaching is a skilled job, and teachers must continuously update their knowledge.
The best teachers, the teachers that we want for our children, are continuously updating their subject and pedagogical content knowledge. I am not claiming that all teachers do this – many feel too overworked just keeping up with the planning and marking. But in addition to their other duties, many teachers attend education conferences (e.g. ResearchEd and Team Meets), complete further qualifications in education (see the Chartered College of Teaching, the Ambition Institute, masters degrees, and various subject association CPD courses) and read about teaching and learning to continuously improve their practice.
The narrative around teaching is one of extremes. Some believe that the average teacher is lazy, enjoying long holidays and leaving work at 3pm. The appreciative minority regard teachers as hardworking, and fundamentally good and decent people.
I personally wish the narrative around teaching focused on the skill involved in teaching, rather than the idea that we’re ‘good people’. Teaching is hard, and it takes years and years to become really good. It requires practice. It isn’t an instinct; it’s an expertise. Perhaps if teaching was recognised as profession, as well as a vocation, there wouldn’t be so much complaint about our pay.
6. We have a recruitment and retention crisis.
People don’t become teachers for the money – considering the hourly rate of teaching, factoring work done both in and outside of school, many teachers are worse off than they would be if they had chosen a different job.
We are in the midst of a recruitment and retention crisis in teaching. The number of trainees recruited to teach in secondary schools was 15% below target.[11] In 2016-17, 9.9% of teachers left the workforce.[12]
Former teachers cite student behaviour, workload, stress and pay amongst their primary reasons for leaving the profession. [13]
[1] https://www.bma.org.uk/pay-and-contracts/pay/other-doctors-pay-scales/salaried-gps-pay-ranges
[2] https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/advice/pay-pensions/pay-scales/england-pay-scales.html
[3] https://www.cps.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/publications/foi/2019/2019-foi-disclosure-24-attachment-A.pdf
[4] https://www.polfed.org/pay/constable-pay-scales/
[5] https://www.nurses.co.uk/careers-hub/nursing-pay-guide/
[6] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-49728831
[7] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/teachers-police-officers-nurses-workload-pay-national-foundation-education-research-nfer-a8264046.html
[8] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/teacher-workload-cut-by-five-hours-a-week-over-past-three-years
[9] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/teachers-police-officers-nurses-workload-pay-national-foundation-education-research-nfer-a8264046.html
[10] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/teachers-police-officers-nurses-workload-pay-national-foundation-education-research-nfer-a8264046.html
[11] https://www.nfer.ac.uk/news-events/nfer-blogs/latest-teacher-retention-statistics-paint-a-bleak-picture-for-teacher-supply-in-england/
[12] https://www.nfer.ac.uk/news-events/nfer-blogs/latest-teacher-retention-statistics-paint-a-bleak-picture-for-teacher-supply-in-england/
[13] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/teachers-police-officers-nurses-workload-pay-national-foundation-education-research-nfer-a8264046.html