Experienced teachers are poorly paid compared to other graduate professions yet have skills which are highly valued by many industries. This is a recipe for disaster, says Dr Mary Bousted

A recent research paper from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, entitled The long, long squeeze on teacher pay, gives a compelling account of how teachers’ pay has declined in real terms over the past 15 years (Cribb & Sibieta, 2021).

It shows that between 2007 and 2014 there was an eight per cent real-terms (including inflation) fall in teacher pay levels – a fall which was 1.5 per cent more than the fall in general wages over this period.

The government has responded to increasingly vocal concerns about teacher supply by targeting raises in teacher pay at newly qualified and beginning teachers.

By September 2021, there will have been a five per cent real-terms rise in starting salaries – the bulk of this due to a large rise in 2020 as part of the move towards the government’s ambition of £30,000 starting salaries for teachers.

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