By Gavin Mackintosh-
The gender pay gap for secondary school leaders grew by over 30 % in the last year, according to a new statistic.
School Workforce data from the Department of Education shows the average difference between male and female earnings stood at £3,698 in the 2021/22 academic year.
In 2020/21, male secondary headteachers earnt £2,702 more on average a year than females.
The revelation, published on Equal Pay Day, is part of research from leaders’ unions NAHT and the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), the National Governance Association (NGA) and WomenED. Equal Pay Day is a national campaign led by the Fawcett Society in the UK.
It marks the day in the year where women effectively, on average, stop earning relative to men because of the gender pay gap.
The average gender pay gap for headteachers aged 60 and over has also increased. In the last academic year, men earned an average £18,296 more than women – a 5 per cent rise from £17,334 last year.
Vivienne Porritt, global strategic leader for WomenEd, said the increasing gap signalled to women that “teaching is not an equitable progression”.
She called on the government and the whole schools sector to take the issue seriously, adding that “our young people can’t afford to lose more teachers”.
Emma Knights, NGA’s chief executive, said: “Employers need to ensure that all staff are treated fairly, equitably, and lawfully and NGA is committed to ensuring all boards have the information to do this well without a gender penalty”
The Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading membership charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights at work, at home and in public life, can confirm that Equal Pay Day 2022 will fall on Sunday 20th November.
The union said it had since continued its “extensive consultation” of members, where it “heard the strength of our members’ feelings about the continued underfunding of education” and the consequences for leaders and children.
Underfunding of schools, they said, is “exacerbating the already alarming teacher and leader recruitment and retention crisis” and “compromising the ability of our schools and colleges to provide the education and care to which our children and young people are entitled”.
“As an organisation which speaks on behalf of members and acts on behalf of children and young people, we cannot sit back and let this continue.”
Underfunding of schools, they said, is “exacerbating the already alarming teacher and leader recruitment and retention crisis” and “compromising the ability of our schools and colleges to provide the education and care to which our children and young people are entitled”.
“As an organisation which speaks on behalf of members and acts on behalf of children and young people, we cannot sit back and let this continue.”
Inequitable pay between men and women is a disgrace not only to the education sector, but to the Uk government altogether and stamped out.