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FEATURE FOCUS: RECRUITMENT You’re being paid to scale, honest
Qualified Teachers Inner London: 1 Sept 2021 – 31 August 2022 Spine Point M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6
UPS 1 UPS 2 UPS 3
F
Max Salary £32,157 £33,658 £35,226 £36,866 £39,492 £42,624 £46,971 £49,279 £50,935
Figures taken from the NASUWT website
To establish a paid to scale long term daily rate for a teacher you simply take your current annual salary, based on where you sit on the teacher pay scale and divide it by the number of working days in a school year (195) – that’s it. The figures above are the daily rates you should
be receiving if an agency says you are being paid in line with your experience (for this current year in inner London). Rates for outer London and fringe areas will be lower but the same principles apply. Take note, the next time an agency tells you
are being paid to scale, refer to the table above. If you are going to take on a long term supply role at a school, where you will be expected to fulfil the duties of a permanent member of staff, then you can rightly expect to be paid in line with your experience according to the national pay scales. Also remember, the agency might have used
your experience to justify a higher charge rate to the school but may have lowballed you with the rate they quoted you in order to maximise their margins so make sure your pay is fair!
Umbrella companies - what’s the catch? Most teachers will have come into contact with umbrella companies in one way or another. While they once had their benefits, agencies now use them to reduce the on-costs of employing teachers and to protect their own margins. In short, if you are being employed via an umbrella company then the agency is making you pay your own employer’s NI contributions out of your pay. Often agencies will quote umbrella rates as higher than PAYE, without explaining that the uplift is to cover your employer’s NI, partly to make the rate seem more appealing. The examples given below are taken from real
payslips submitted to us by concerned teachers during the 2018-19 school year. They break down the fees charged by agencies/umbrella companies
Daily Rate £165 £173 £181 £190 £203 £219 £241 £253 £262
up to the point of the teacher’s gross taxable income. Take a look at your own payslip, and see if you recognise anything from the examples below. Let’s begin.
Example 1 - Supply teacher on a long-term agency contract in London Agency teacher on a long-term contract through a big, national supply agency at a primary school on the London fringe. This teacher is paid via a well-known umbrella company that is used by many other agencies nationally.
For this teacher, similarly troubling deductions
to those on the first payslip can be found. Here, the teacher is missing out on £115.98 or 20% of their agreed weekly gross rate of pay.
Remember – this is a snapshot of deductions made before income tax, Employees’ NI, student loan repayments and other statutory deductions. There are three major concerns with this payslip: • As we can see, there is a weekly charge of £9.75 levied by the umbrella company to process payroll. This is in fact at the low end — many umbrella companies charge £20 per week or more, adding up to £80 deductions a month. • The payslip clearly states that Employer’s National Insurance is deducted from the advertised rate and is wrapped into something called ‘Employer’s costs’. This is in addition to statutory deduction of Employees’ NI. Teachers should not be paying both employers and employees’ NI. • Holiday pay is ‘accrued’. Essentially this means that holiday pay is kept by the umbrella company and then must be actively claimed back by the teacher. Sadly the deadline by which it must be ‘claimed back’ sometimes passes before the teacher has done so — meaning the umbrella company will not pay out the holiday pay even though it has been earned by the teacher. • All in all, these non-statutory deductions mean that this teacher’s gross pay is a massive £104.31, or a full 14%, below their agreed weekly gross rate of pay.
Example 2 – Supply teacher on a long-term agency contract in Birmingham Agency teacher on a long-term contract through a big Birmingham-based supply agency at a
Agency Worker Rights (AWR) Finally we come to AWR. Really these only come into effect if you are employed on a long term basis at the same school for longer than 12 weeks. What this means is that after 12 weeks you are entitled to be paid in line with what a school would pay a permanent member of staff for working the same role. Meaning that if you’re not already being paid to scale then you can make an even stronger case for this.
In summary - don’t be afraid to push back! • Know what you are worth. The agency might be basing their charge rates to the school around the figures in the first table, regardless of whether that’s actually what they are paying you. • Clarify if you are going to be paid PAYE or via umbrella, ask for the agency’s Key Information Document (KID). • If you are going to be paid via umbrella ask what your gross pay is, after employer’s deductions (Employer’s NI and Pension Contributions) have been calculated. • You are within your rights to be paid PAYE. Don’t settle for less when you don’t have to. Most agencies will have some capacity to pay via PAYE and if they don’t, then just sign up with someone who will. Negotiating pay can be difficult and agencies
will rely on the fact that teachers are ill informed as to what their time is worth. While you won’t always be able to secure to-scale rates, hopefully you’ll be able to use the information in this article to work out if you’re being given a fair deal.
nearby primary school. This teacher is paid via a well-known umbrella company that is different to the one in the first example, but that is also used by many agencies nationally.
March 2022
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