The study from Incomes Data Research has been commissioned by the National Education Union as it continues to lobby government for an improved teacher pay offer this September.
The research compares the basic weekly earnings of both primary and secondary teachers with 11 other professional groups, including accountants, surveyors, engineers, IT professionals, and management consultants.
The report finds: “Our analysis shows that teachers’ earnings consistently rank lower than those for most of the other professional groups. This is true for the latest year for which data is available (2024) and the previous year (2023) as well.”
The league table compiled in the report shows that, currently, when it comes to gross median weekly earnings, secondary school teachers are ranked 9/13 with £895 a week while primary teachers fare even worse and are ranked 12/13 with £829 a week.
When it comes to average gross weekly earnings, the picture is broadly similar – secondary teachers are 11th (£918) and primary teachers 13th (£850).
The analysis comes as education unions are pushing for a better pay settlement this coming September. The Department for Education (DfE) sparked anger in December when it proposed a 2.8% pay increase in its evidence to the School Teachers’ Review Body.
As a result, the NEU launched a preliminary ballot of members asking if they are prepared to strike over pay and funding. This ballot is due to close on Friday, April 11 and general secretary Daniel Kebede has already said that he is in no doubt that the result will be "a very clear condemnation” of the DfE’s 2.8% proposal.
The dispute has become even more tense after the Office for Budget Responsibility increased its forecast of average earnings growth for 2025/26 from 3% to 3.7% following the Spring Statement last month.
This led the National Foundation for Educational Research to call upon the STRB to consider a pay rise of at least 3.7%.
The STRB is currently working on its independent report to government, which is expected to be published during the summer term.
The report this week also found that increases in teachers’ earnings are “generally smaller than for most other professional groups” and that while recent pay awards have improved, teaching has been falling behind for most of the past 17 years.
The report states: “Earnings for the two teacher groups increased by less than those for most of the other professional groups. This was especially so for primary teachers, for whom the increases were mostly lower than those in their secondary counterparts’ earnings. This is despite improved pay increases for teachers in 2023 and 2024.”
The report also argued that the low relative pay could be driving the current recruitment crisis: “Because earnings potential can influence career choices, it is possible or even probable that the recruitment problems that affect the teaching profession are connected to the sorts of earnings comparisons made in our report.”
It adds: “It has probably been common knowledge for some time that teachers earn less than doctors and lawyers, but we can now add IT professionals to this list as well. In other words, the ‘new economy’ is joining the ‘old’ as a locus of alternative employment for graduates and may be further affecting the recruitment and retention landscape for teaching.
“Our analysis shows that the efforts in respect of starting pay have had some impact, but not universally. They appear to have had a greater effect on the earnings of secondary teachers than those of their primary counterparts. And this is only in that area of the earnings distribution at which they are aimed, that is, the lower end.
"The comparisons higher up, between more experienced teachers – regardless of whether they work in primary or secondary schools – and similarly more experienced professionals elsewhere remain more or less as unfavourable as they were. This could be the main factor in the retention issues that continue to afflict the teaching profession in England.”
Commenting on the findings this week, Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “This research is damning. It underlines the damage to the competitiveness of teacher pay and to recruitment and retention, following years of pay cuts against inflation. It explains why so few teachers feel their pay reflects their growing expertise or the additional responsibilities they undertake.
“We need a major pay correction with teacher pay significantly improved against inflation and other professions – but the government’s planned unfunded 2.8% increase from September will be below inflation and way behind earnings growth in the wider economy.
“We urge the government to pay attention to the facts and change course now on teacher pay.”
- IDR: How does teachers' pay compare with that for other professions? March 2025: https://neu.org.uk/latest/library/how-does-teachers-pay-compare-other-professions