I earn double what I used to earn in my old job, and I'd worked there longer than I've been a teacher, so for me the money's not bad. In my old job you'd get a pay increase in line with inflation each year, so almost nothing in recent years. As a teacher for the first 6 years your pay goes up by about 6% each year, so about 40% over the first 6 years. That's on top of an increase in line with inflation, so maybe 7% a year really. Those pay rises are
almost guaranteed, but if you're performing very badly you won't get them. Then you have a further 3 increases you can get which are trickier to get, but most people will get them over time.
The problem with the pay is that it pretty much caps at that point unless you take on additional responsibility, which in some places is hard to do, in London though (or in my school at least) there seems to be plenty of additional responsibility to go around.
I don't know any teachers who've had to take on a second income.
Calbrena wrote:
Bazz wrote:
Teachers have a good pension scheme!
Tell that to my mother in law, who still has to work to support herself despite "retiring" years ago.
I don't know about her situation, but teacher pensions are generally regarded as being good. I've looked at what I'm likely to get and it seems like something I could live on happily. It does take a big hit if you don't spend nearly your entire working life as a teacher though, which I can't predict if I'd actually do...
