Practice makes perfect

asking for what you need, want and are worth

Who reading this article has asked for a pay rise this year? My guess is not everybody, early childhood consultant Lisa Bryant writes.

I want to share some statistics with you.

Stat 1. The wage disparity between teachers has risen

When I first started talking to early childhood teachers about pay disparity for early childhood teachers (ECTs) I calculated that the difference between an ECT and a primary school teacher was around 20%.

I’m not exactly sure how many years I have been talking about it (way too long) but I was a bit shocked to discover that the gap has now widened. For those teachers being paid award wages the gap is now 31% for long day care teachers and 34% for preschool teachers.

Stat 2. A lot of you earn less than the average Australian

A starting three year trained long day care teacher on the award gets $23.96 an hour. After 10 years they go up to $31.34.

A starting three year trained preschool teacher gets $23.04 – after a decade they get $30.14. Now keep that figure in the back of your mind.

What do you think the average Australian earns an hour? $39.89

Some of you reading this would earn more. A three year trained teacher in one of our largest providers earns the average wage when they have been with the organisation for 10 years. Mind you they only start off at $28.10. The last workforce census told us that 83% of staff had worked in their current long daycare service for less than six years, so I think it is fair to say that most teachers at this provider earn less than the average Australian. At another large provider in NSW a teacher would only take seven years to get to the average wage if you are in a long daycare or nine if you are in a preschool. In fairness I should point out that if you are a director at either place you will be above the average wage.

OK, have I depressed you yet?

What if I was to tell you that some teachers do earn a lot more. I have found one preschool teacher who earns almost $50 an hour before you factor in her director’s allowance.

Stat 3. There are (technical term coming) ‘heaps’ of ECTs in NSW.

There are over 6000 ECTs in NSW. We know that because that is how many teachers have been accredited as proficient by BOSTES.

The proportion that are in the Union is a lot less – around 20%.

Stat 4. There are very few services with enterprise agreements.

There are around 3350 preschools and long daycare centres that employ teachers in NSW. Only around 19% have enterprise agreements in place – and it is no surprise to me that all of these are community based.

So it is possible that up to 80% of early childhood teachers are being paid award wages (you know the very tiny figures I started off with) in NSW. Of course some of these may have above award wages, not formalised in an agreement.

So if you look at all of those statistics together we have a real issue. We know that there is range of reasons why early childhood teachers are underpaid in NSW. Reasons such as underfunding, reasons such as the already high fees parents pay at our services and also because they are just not valued enough.

Some of these are valid reasons. Some are structural. Some of these each of us as individuals have little chance of rectifying. Somehow, despite the best efforts of advocates in NSW we have not yet managed to get the NSW Government to fund early education in line with other states.

We have not yet even managed to get the NSW Government to spend all the budget they themselves allocate for early education, on early education.

And we certainly haven’t managed to get the Minister for Early Childhood Education in NSW, Leslie Williams, to be accountable for that underspend.

We also haven’t managed to make the Federal Government big fans of early childhood education. We have recently discovered that the Department of Education and Training has rechristened what we do ‘early childhood and child care’ – no longer is it early education and care. And if it’s not early education, do you really need teachers?

But we have managed to get the NSW ALP to promise to make preschool education affordable and provide accessible preschool education for every four year old in NSW. And just a reminder that when the leader of the ALP, Luke Foley, announced this, he described it as his most important policy announcement since he became leader.

But it is clear we have some structural problems that explain why teachers are not being paid what you are worth.

So it is really important that no one reading this article ever thinks of it as a personal failing if they aren’t getting the big bucks. It is not a personal failing that you have not been able to persuade your committee or service owner to increase your wages. It is not because you are too timid or not good enough at asking. There are whole systems that are in the way of that happening.

We need to fight those systems

But while we are waiting for the world to change can we look at how as individuals we can ask for what you need, want and are worth? Many of us are not great at the asking. We are not great at believing that our need for a living wage and good conditions are just as important as the need for families to pay affordable fees.

Has anyone ever talked to someone that is depressed? They seem to answer every question with a but – a reason that whatever you are suggesting to help improve their situation won’t work. Say you are trying to suggest to them they will feel better if they exercise. But it looks like it might rain. So take an umbrella. But I lost my umbrella. Here take mine. But I’ll forget to give it back to you. You can keep my umbrella. But I don’t deserve a present. But I want you to have it. I’d only lose it like I lost mine. You can’t win!

Sometimes listening to teachers saying why they can’t advocate for better wages at their centre is a bit like talking to someone who is clinically depressed.

So what do you need to do? In the next few weeks you need to make a start.

Getting paid what you deserve begins with you. And practice makes perfect. Think about the extra money. Think about your value. Think about what you have learnt from other people who have actually asked for higher wages. Think about getting the Union to help.

It is important you focus on what you really need and want and then work out a path to get there. The fact that some people reading this article now have pay parity means it’s possible.

But it starts with you. Not anyone else. Not the government. Not the Union.

Unless we all get off our butts and make a start we will never get there.