On International Women’s Day, Friday 8th March, school
leaders are urging the government to finally tackle the gender
pay gap in education.
NAHT, the school leaders union’s, annual analysis of the gender
pay gap, conducted with fellow education organisations the
Association of Schools and College Leaders, National Governance
Association and WomenEd, most recently showed
that:
- Last year, the average gender pay gap of across all
state-funded schools was over £8,181 in favour of male
headteachers
- The pay gap between female and male secondary head teachers
is the largest in 12 years, with women earning £3,908 less on
average than their male counterparts
- The gap for primary heads has continued to narrow but still
stands at £2,181 less for women, on average
- The gender pay gap worsens as considerably as careers
progress – the difference by age 60 and over for heads now stands
at an enormous £15,961
Despite damning evidence of a persistent, and in parts of the
workforce, growing, gender pay gap, the government’s evidence to
the pay review body for teachers and school leaders (the STRB),
published last week failed to even reference pay
inequity. The NAHT has long called for the review body to
prioritise publishing detailed equality and inclusion data
annually.
Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson, a Birmingham primary school head
teacher who sits on NAHT’s national executive committee,
said;
“Fifty years after women first won the equal pay act, in
education, we are still being asked to do more whilst being paid
less. For myself, and other female leaders, it is painful. The
pay gap casts a long shadow over entire working lives, and later
years – it’s the cost of a holiday, how much we can support our
children, and it even impacts our pensions.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union
NAHT, said:
“For years, the DfE has put its head in the sand. The gender pay
gap plagues every part of the education sector, and in some areas
of leadership, it has now grown so wide that it is a chasm.
“Once again, the government has failed to even engage with, let
alone provide any meaningful analysis of pay equality for gender
and other protected characteristics, or to show any evidence of a
commitment to making teaching an inclusive profession in its work
on pay, or its broader recruitment and retention strategy.
“The gender pay gap matters. Over the course of a decades-long
career a small disparity can amount to a large difference in
overall earnings, with major implications not only for an
individual’s salary, but also their pension rights and
entitlements. We have seen a major erosion of school leaders’ pay
over the last decade, but for women this shows there is an unfair
‘double hit’ that must be tackled.
“NAHT believes that there is an urgent and incontestable need for
the government to act without delay to conduct a detailed pay
equality analysis for gender, and all protected characteristics.”
Ends
Notes to editor
For 2022/23 the average gender pay gap of across all state-funded
schools was:
-
-
- £8,181 in favour of male headteachers.
- £3,684 in favour of male ‘other’ leaders.
- £1,023 in favour of male classroom teachers.
Education organisations NAHT, ASCL, NGA and WomenEd have made a
series of recommendations to the government to help tackle the
gender pay gap in education:
- To review the equality implications of the current pay system
- To renew or replace the EDI Hub funding, discontinued by the
government in 2020.
- To provide greater support to help mitigate the systemic
barriers to flexible working for all roles, including encouraging
better sharing of caring responsibilities, e.g. paternal leave.
- And to improve their data monitoring to allow monitoring of
other pay gaps, for example ethnicity or disability.
