Some young teachers cannot afford to have children, eat a full meal every day or buy a TV licence due to their pay, a union conference has heard.
The claims were made by young teachers speaking at the NASUWT conference this afternoon.
The union voted to consider taking strike action “to ensure that all teachers gain a substantial pay rise in 2017-18”.
NASUWT also today released the results of a survey in which 72 per cent of teachers said they would not recommend the job to a friend or relative because teachers’ salaries were not competitive with other occupations.
The debate on pay came the day after survey findings by the National Union of Teachers revealed nearly half of young teachers planned to quit the profession over their high workloads.
Kristina Ball, 30, of Wolverhampton, held back the tears as she told NASUWT delegates today that poor pay was only thing stopping her from having children since her marriage last summer.
“I can’t afford to have a child at this time,” she said. “I have wanted a child since I was 26, and money is the only thing that is stopping me. I just need a pay rise.
“Even when we do try for kids, I can’t afford to take the whole maternity leave.”
Earlier Tanya Pye, a second year teacher in South East Surrey, told the conference she was one of only two people from a 30-strong group of friends/trainees who came together to support each other as young teachers who were still teaching.
“I am not even able to afford to pay my bills and have a full nutritious meal every day,” she said. “I surprised a lot of my colleagues by saying that I do not even have a TV licence. It is a luxury I cannot afford.
“The very little spare money I have goes onto pens and pencils, basic equipment needed by myself and my students who also are not sure if they will be able to have a full meal.
“These are the times we live in, and it is sad.
“I also know I am not the only young teacher in this position. There are so many of us.”
NASUWT national executive member Robert Barratt contrasted the pay of classroom teachers with that of academy trust chief executives, to applause.
The union’s survey of 4,908 teachers found 35 per cent had cut back spending on food, 22 per cent had had to reduce spending on essential household items, and 8 per cent said they had had to take a second job.
Eighty-two per cent of teachers said their salaries were not competitive with other occupations.
Delegates overwhelmingly backed the motion, Your children’s teachers need a pay rise, which cited a warning from the School Teachers’ Review Body in 2016 that there would be “serious retention and recruitment issues” unless teachers received a significant cost of living pay rise.
