Senior teachers in England have in effect had their pay cut by £6,600 since 2010, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that comes as strike action over pay is likely to close schools.
The independent economics research institute calculated that long-serving and senior teachers – accounting for nearly a third of those working in England – would have earned the equivalent of £50,300 in 2010. But below-inflation wage increases over the past 12 years has meant their pay in 2022 was just £43,700.
Experienced teachers have experienced similar real-terms cuts across the national pay scale, meaning that half of the teaching workforce has had the value of their annual earnings fall by thousands of pounds compared with what they would have earned in 2010, when the Conservative party came into government.
Luke Sibieta, an IFS research fellow, said the erosion in pay for long-serving staff was one reason why teachers were leaving the profession.
“With inflation running at 10%, most teachers will see a 5% real-terms fall in their salary this year,” Sibieta said. “Combined with past real-terms cuts dating back to 2010, more experienced teachers will have seen a 13% real-terms drop in salaries between 2010 and 2022.
“Given this, it is perhaps unsurprising that applications to teacher training have continued to disappoint and that schools report increasing problems recruiting and retaining staff.”
In contrast, average earnings across the whole economy are thought to have increased by about 2% in real terms during the same period.
The figures help explain why traditionally moderate teaching unions such as the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) are considering strike action.
Geoff Barton, the ASCL general secretary, said dwindling pay was one of the main reasons for the government missing recruitment targets, and why it faced shortages in specialist subjects such as physics, which were forcing schools to rely on non-specialists to plug gaps in classrooms.
“Nearly a third of teachers then leave the profession within five years of qualifying,” Barton said. “This desperate situation is a direct result of the way in which the government has eroded the pay and conditions of teachers and devalued the profession.
“This report should serve as a much-needed wake-up call for the government to provide teachers with the meaningful and fully funded pay award they deserve.”
Results of ballots on industrial action are expected this week from NASUWT and the National Association of Head Teachers, while the National Education Union (NEU) is expected to announce that its members voted to strike when it reveals the results of its ballot on Monday.
Teaching unions in Scotland, including the NASUWT, are holding strikes, including two days of school closures this week.
This week Gillian Keegan, the education secretary for England, held talks with the leaders of the four unions in an effort to avoid strikes.
A spokesperson for the Department for Education (DfE) said the talks were “constructive” and that Keegan had “expressed the importance of working together to avoid strike action especially given the significant disruption due to the pandemic over recent years”, while offering to hold further talks.
“These discussions build on previous meetings and correspondence, including where unions called for an extra £2bn uplift for schools [in England] next year and the year after, which the government delivered in the autumn statement,” the DfE said.
Kevin Courtney, the NEU’s joint general secretary, said: “We don’t want to go on strike, but we may have to. We want the government to make a correction on teacher pay, to protect the profession and to protect the education of the young people in our schools.”
