Teachers and Police pay cuts – self employment has its bonuses

Teachers are to be denied automatic pay rises and instead head teachers will have virtual carte blanche to award salaries based on performance. This will end the annual pay rises which teachers have enjoyed for years.

According to Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, “These changes will give schools greater freedom to develop pay policies that are tailored to their needs and circumstances and to reward their teachers in line with their performance“.

I’ve been to school, as has practically everyone else in the country and I know some teachers – It’s very obvious to me that school playground politics isn’t always limited to students – there often appears to be a hierarchy of the popular and unpopular teachers amongst staff as well.

Whilst changes in teacher pay might be intended to reward teachers who perform well, it’ll certainly be a disincentive to those that don’t and possible leave schools with disgruntled teachers doing as little as possible rather than the best for pupils. Not only that but if you’re the teacher that doesn’t get a pay rise then animosity to those that do is almost inevitable.

The chances are that this isn’t about rewarding great teachers and punishing underperformers, it’s almost certainly about saving money. I suspect the total pot a head teacher receives to dole out to their favourites will be less than the equivalent if automatic pay rises remained for all teachers.

The Police are also to see salaries slashed, the starting pay rate for constables is to fall £4,000 to £19,000 as Home Secretary Theresa May is to accept recommendations on reform made by the Police Arbitration Tribunal. However a salary well below the national average isn’t likely to attract the creme de la creme to the Force.

I’m mindful that the country is in recession but, when Whitehall mandarins start to cut salaries and pay rises at the same time that MPs are demanding a 32% (£20,000) pay rise, something doesn’t seem quite right.

Whilst we self employed often work just as hard if not harder than our salaried friends and family, at least we are the ultimate determiners of our own pay cheques. No government suit can decide that the self employed should have a pay cut… all they can do is tax us more.