Recruitment crisis made worse by the growing pay gap, research shows

The recruitment and retention crisis could become worse as a result of the widening pay gap between teaching and other professions, research shows.

According to the union NASUWT, the shortage of teachers is impacting the entitlement of a high-quality education for children.

A report by Incomes Date Research (IDR), which was commissioned by the union, reveals that teacher salaries in the UK have not significantly increased since before the recession.

It also shows that pay increases for teachers across England have mostly trailed those received by other occupational groups since 2011.

The average starting salary for comparable graduate professions is shown to be at least fifteen per cent higher than the national M1 starting point for a qualified teacher.

Across the whole of the teaching profession, the report concludes that in 2015 average gross earnings for all “comparator professions” were 20.2 per cent above those of secondary school teachers, and 32.4 per cent ahead of average earnings for primary school teachers.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “Since 2010, there have been relentless attacks on teachers. Year on year cuts to teachers’ pay, workload spiralling out of control, deprofessionalisation, demoralisation and denigration.

“There is already a recruitment and retention crisis in the Education Service. The stark differences in graduate pay highlighted in our research will unfortunately mean this crisis will worsen.

Keates continued: “Resignations are up, applications to teach are down. Children and young people are being short changed by this government as they cannot receive their entitlement to high quality education when talented teachers are leaving and potential recruits can find jobs in other graduate occupations which recognise and better reward their talents.”

Ken Mulkearn, director of Income Data Research, added: “Our analysis of official earnings data shows that earnings for teachers in England compares unfavourably with those for a range of other graduate occupations.

“This is likely to be a major contributory factor to recruitment and retention problems in schools.”