TOO MUCH WORK, TOO LITTLE PAY

This is the text version of the first Classroom Teacher. To download and print out click here.

( Martin Powell-Davies, Lewisham NUT )

YOUNG TEACHERS ARE EARNING UNDER £10 AN HOUR!

"The more you learn, the more you earn?"

A poster in the corridors of a Lewisham

secondary school tells pupils to work

hard, get better qualified ­ and earn

more. It explains that the potential

earnings of a school leaver with GCSE's is £9 per hour, with A levels £10 per hour, while staff with graduate degrees can expect to earn £15 per hour. But do they know how little teachers earn?

According to official Government statistics, teachers are working well over 50 hours a week ­ at least 220 hours a month in term time. Our starting salaries are ­ even at Inner London rates also well below average graduate earnings.

Look how little that means teachers earn per hour

Spine Annual Salary Monthly Salary Hourly rate of pay

Point A (A/12) (A/12/220)

M1 Eng. £ 20,133 £ 1677.75 £ 7.62

& Wales

M1 Inner £ 24,168 £ 2014.00 £ 9.15

London - no more than a school leaver with GCSEs !

M6 Eng. £ 29,427 £ 2452.25 £ 11.14

& Wales

M6 Inner £ 33,936 £ 2828.00 £ 12.85

London

- and all these figures are before tax !

U3 Eng. £ 34,281 £ 2856.75 £ 12.98

& Wales

U3 Inner £ 41,004 £ 3417.00 £ 15.53 ­ still only just what a

London graduate could expect !

VOTE YES FOR NATIONAL ACTION ON PAY!

Classroom Teacher is a campaigning newsletter written for, and by, classroom teachers. If you want help organising a union in your school, if you want to take action to defend teachers and education, if you want to give us your views about the pressures teachers face:

Write to: classroom.teacher@yahoo.co.uk