The TaxPayers’ Alliance today releases an analysis of teachers’
pay increases that counter unions’ calls for higher salaries.
The analysis shows:
-
Teachers’ average salaries are £38,400 a year,
considerably higher than the UK average of £28,600.
- Top teachers can earn more than
£67,300 a year.
- Education has seen a huge increase in funding, with spending
per pupil in second schools rising over 80 per cent
between 1997 and 2015.
- Teachers’ gross pay increased by
1.6% in 2016-17.
- When the progression effect is taken into
account, teachers’ gross pay increased by 4.6% in
2016-17 in England.
There is also a great deal of
unnecessary spending by schools in England. For example:
-
Schools in England spent an average of £298,599 on
teaching assistants last year.
- This is more than four times the amount spent on
learning resources for children and almost 15 times
the amount spent on ICT learning resources.
-
There is no evidence that
they increase educational outcomes of the vast
majority of children, other than for children with learning
difficulties.
Commenting on the analysis, John O’Connell, chief
executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said:
“Whilst we are constantly hearing trade unions calling for
more spending, this has largely gone on salary increases. This is
completely unfair at a time when public sector workers are
already better off, on average, than those in the private
sector.
“Teachers in particular have seen generous salary increases
when moving up through pay bands, and this comes off the back of
those taxpayers in the private sector. Schools should deliver
value in their budgets before teachers see higher pay, rather
than demanding that the government increase spending.”
Context
The National Union of Teachers has called for a five per
cent pay increase for school staff. So adamant are the
unions, that they have threatened industrial
action if their demands are not met.
There have even been reports of head teachers asking for
donations from parents in order to buy equipment.
What should be done?
In 2017 the Department for Education concluded that more than a
quarter of England’s state schools were spending more than they
needed to across a range of areas and suggested:
- Schools collectively cutting their budgets for teacher pay by
more than £500 million
- A £400 million cut from the education support staff bill
- A further £750 million saving from supply staff, premises
staff, back office staff, catering staff, staff training, and
staff-related insurance
- £1.3 billion in non-staff savings such as premises, back
office, energy, and consultancy costs
Although we are not calling for teacher pay to be cut, our
analysis in this paper shows that teachers have been enjoying a
pay rise and so there is no need to increase their salary further
at this point in time.
