Opinion & Commentary
Teachers: Scale their pay to meet demand
It is regularly argued that teacher pay in Australia is too low, and that this is a disincentive to enter the profession. Yet by international standards, Australian teacher salaries are relatively high. Starting teacher salaries in Australia are in the top third of the OECD and compare favourably with starting salaries in other professions in Australia.
Teacher salaries are, however, quite compressed. It takes on average only 9 years for public school teachers to reach the top salary level and the top salary for classroom teachers is only 43% higher than the starting salary. To earn more, teachers have only three options: leave the classroom, leave the sector or leave the profession. On this aspect of teacher’s compensation, Australia’s position is less favourable internationally, among the lowest third of countries for salary progression for senior teachers.
On this basis, it can be argued that the teacher salary scale needs to be extended. The Business Council of Australia’s proposal to significantly increase the top teacher salary to $130,000 is an audacious one.
Unfortunately, there is no obvious or simple relationship between teacher salaries, teacher quality and student performance. High performing countries such as Finland and Sweden have starting teacher salaries similar to Australia’s (close to average GDP per capita) and both have top salaries lower than Australia’s. Obviously there is something other than pay at play in these countries.
There is some Australian research showing that increased salaries would attract higher ability people into teaching, but this evidence is related to starting salary. Other international evidence on starting and average salary is mixed, and suggests that working conditions are more important.
One of the interesting aspects of the BCA’s proposal is that teachers achieve the top salary by merit. It is not automatic with years of service. The BCA’s criteria for merit does not include evidence of student learning, such as test scores. Teachers would become eligible for the top salary by undertaking professional learning such as Masters degrees. This is interesting because it is hard to imagine successful business leaders running an organisation in this way, paying people who do courses more than those who make profits.
Again, there is scant evidence to support this approach. Research on teacher effectiveness has found that there is little relationship between student achievement and masters degrees in education. The strongest factor is the teachers’ verbal literacy and depth of subject content knowledge.
There is no doubt that salary is an important factor in attracting and retaining teachers. Most teachers do their job for love rather than money, but this principle can only go so far. Teachers have families and mortgages just like everyone else. All students should have good teachers and good teachers should be properly remunerated, and it is necessary to look beyond the status quo to find ways to do this.
Merit-based pay schemes have a chequered history. The reasons are numerous, but one is their failure look beyond the public sector mentality of lock-step salary ladders. Adding another rung to the ladder does not significantly change the incentives for teachers and simply puts enormous strain on education budgets.
With regard to salary, flexibility is key. In Sweden, the salary schedule indicates only the base rate of pay. Higher rates are individually negotiated between teachers and employers. This is also how it works in the private school system in Australia, and indeed in the whole private sector, which is where the BCA should be seeking inspiration.
In the private sector salary is based on demand. We need to seriously consider this approach to address teacher shortages. For example, we need more qualified physics teachers so perhaps we need to start offering to pay them more to compete with the salaries and conditions available in other industries.
Higher salaries would come with higher expectations. Using physics as an example again, where there is a shortage of highly qualified physics teachers, they should be used in the most effective way.
Current staffing models put a highly qualified physics teacher in one lucky school, and an underqualified physics teacher in another. Options should be explored to maximise the use of excellent teachers, through innovative time-tabling, technology and more use of allied staff. It may be that a high calibre physics teacher earns top dollar, but they should not be confined to one school.
While there remains debate about the preferable format for salary increases – by performance, by qualifications, or by skills demand – there is a growing consensus that salary differentiation is necessary. The difficulty with the BCA’s proposal is that it simply adds another layer to a stale cake.
Jennifer Buckingham is a research fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.
