TEACHERS, SHOULD THEY STRIKE?

**Should teacher’s go on strike for more pay?**

How much does a teacher get paid? Based on current data, the top salary for a teacher in the United Kingdom is, on average, £43,000 per annum. The overall average pay for a UK teacher is £31,000 per annum. Let’s put that information into perspective for European Countries. Luxembourg is the country with top-earning teachers with an average annual pay of £95,000. At the other end of the scale, the Slovak Republic, Hungary and Greece’s top earning average yearly salaries are between £16,000 and £18,000 per year. Teachers in France and Italy make half what they do in Germany. That puts UK teachers’ pay roughly in the middle.

Suppose we put those figures into the perspective of their countries economies. GDP is a measure of the size and health of a country’s economy over a period of time. In my Layman’s terms for this article, GDP is the amount of money teachers have left to spend on their day-to-day lives within their countries economies. According to a study by Teaching Abroad Direct, 93 % of teachers’ salaries are below their country’s average price of goods and services. Let’s look at some countries’ stats comparing the average teacher’s salary and its’ comparison to the GDP per capita.

France is £33,000 that is 12% lower than the GDP per capita.
Germany is £44,000 that is 1% higher than the GDP per capita.

The UK average teacher’s salary is £31,000, which is a massive 18% lower than the GDP per capita. Although our pay is only £2,000 less than’s France’s average teacher salary, our GDP is a shocking 4% higher.

Looking at the UK’s teacher’s pay, there is absolute justification for trying to achieve a raise by whatever legal means they deem appropriate. I agree with their strike, but I don’t think it will succeed, because at the end of the day, too many other sectors in the UK are striking for a pay increase. A pay increase in teaching would set a precedent for other striking unions to achieve an increase in their salaries. This action is economically unsustainable and would spiral inflation.

My guidance to the teachers is to leave the country and work abroad, where the teacher’s pay is higher than the measure of the size and health of their country’s economy. Do not head to Venezuela, where the average annual teacher’s salary is £159 annually, but do head to Cote D’Ivoire. Cote D’Ivoire is at the top of the world’s leaderboard and has a massive 62 % salary percentage higher than its measure of the size and health of a country’s economy. Cote D’Ivoire is on the West Coast of Africa, consistently above 23 degrees; known to have beautiful beaches and welcoming locals. In Layman’s terms, if teachers want a better life, stop the strikes and book your flights to Cote D’Ivoire today!